[cynwoody]

Now comes the chicken and egg argument. We know the plane lost a trim tab. So did the lost of the trim tab break the seat loose, or did flailing with the controls when the seat broke loose rip off the trim tab.

It seems likely the loss of the trim tab was first. That caused the plane to pitch up violently. The resulting G forces caused the tail wheel to deploy and broke the seat and / or caused Leeward to black out. In either case, he would have been unable to fly the plane.

There was an incident in 1998 in which the P51 Voodoo lost an elevator trim tab:

Button describes what happened to his airplane in Saturday's heat race. Apparently, the left elevator trim tab came off the airplane at speed, causing the bird to abruptly pitch up, subjecting driver Hannah to over 10 G's of deceleration forces, and causing him to lose conciousness! When he came to, the raceplane had climbed to over 9,000 feet of altitude. A shaken Hannah regained control and brought Voodoo in for a safe landing. Suspected structural damage kept the sleek raceplane out of Sunday's championship competition.

[Finny]

Yep -- you got it, according to my resident aviation expert. The trim tab busted and shoved the plane up, the G forces made the pilot weigh about the equivalent of a ton, and the seat busted. My guy even mentioend pretty much word-for-word your story of the Voodoo and what happened to that pilot. Galloping Ghost stalled, where as Voodoo kept climbing.

Sad day for aviation. I hope the air races continue, though.