Police Say Nine Killed in Deadly Crash at Reno Air Show, as Probe Focuses on Wayward Part

Foxnews ^ | 9/17/2011 | AP

[Ron C.]

RENO, Nev. – The death toll in the crash of a World War II-era plane during a Reno air race rose to nine people Saturday as investigators combed through wreckage and scoured amateur video clips to determine why the aircraft suddenly spiraled out of control and plummeted to the ground near hundreds of spectators.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/17/federal-investigators-looking-into-what-caused-deadly-crash-at-air-show/#ixzz1YGNn9wu6

[GBA]

That makes sense, especially with no suit and the P-51's very upright seating position. His age might have contributed as well.

I suppose you might get tired of hearing it, but thank you for your service; thanks for flying for us!

[USNBandit]

The point of my original post is that a high G event doesn't have to end in GLOC. Anybody (you, me,......Chas Bono) has 7-9 seconds of useful consciousness under G. A combination of onset rate and G tolerance decide what happens after that. Most people experience greying out/blacking out up to about 7.5 G's prior to full GLOC. The problem is that if you snap on more than that and sustain it you can go straight from conscious to unconscious in a fraction of a second with no greying out.

While I expect the beginning of the pitch up was probably in excess of 8 G's I don't think it was prolonged. I think there is a a higher chance that if anything the surprise onset of the G affected his positioning in the cockpit and the stick forces were more than he could overcome with the trim tab gone.

[DuncanWaring]

Brian Shul, former SR-71 pilot, wrote a book about his experiences titled Sled Driver.

I'd say that if "driver" is good enough for him, it's good enough for most anyone.