RIP Jimy Leeward.
My guess is too many Gs pulled and resulting black out.
He was 80 years old.
Somehow that seems like a bad plan.
More likely a mechanichal failure. This was a race. These pilots push these planes to the absolute limit.
Candor7 wrote:
RIP Jimy Leeward.
My guess is too many Gs pulled and resulting black out.
Looking at the comments on YouTube right now, it looks like there's a comment from someone who was their and who knew one of the pilots following this guy. The report from the other pilot is that part of the elevator broke off the plane and it became uncontrollable.
Racing, whether it's cars, boats or airplanes, often pushes machinery to the limit and beyond (into failures). With airplane racing, the speeds are higher, and you have gravity and that third dimension to deal with. Failures result in crashes.
I'm not sure how many of the spectators thought through the risks they were taking. The pilots know. Somehow they believe they won't hurt anyone but themselves if something goes wrong.
I'm not sure what the future of events like this will be.
Left side tail stabilizer broke off in the air.