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Crash at the Reno Air Races


Utah Bob #35998

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In the same article it says that "memory chips" are part of the wreckage being looked at, so it seems that a lot of electronic add-ons were being used on this airplane. It would be hard to even claim it was a P-51 at all after reading all the modifications done to it. Sounds like a lot of bad ideas went south.

 

Bodine

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Yup I thought that might be the case but one article I read said the tail controls were also much modified and that perhaps electric trim or hydraulic trim was a component of the modifications with all the areo mods a runaway to full pitch up might have exceeded the strength of the pilot to overcome it (I know on normal cert aircraft that can not happen but these race planes are classed as experimental

 

But I am happy to bow to your experience; in my 6500 hrs of flying the only ex military craft I have more than a few min of stick time(and none were high-performance fighters) on are the AT6, the Cessna T-50 bobcat I learned multi in, and the PT 17 Stearman I learned primary aerobatics in the later... and all 3 were a very long time ago in the 60s

Very cool. Always wanted to fly in a Stearman. Honestly, all of those radial engine planes are cool.

 

I've no idea what mods were made to this plane other than clipping the wings. I'd be surprised if electric trim is used in these birds for racing because things are moving so fast that constant trimming would be impractical. I'm no expert though, and could be as wrong as anyone else.

 

If you have a link to the article that mentions the tail mods, could you post it?

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In the same article it says that "memory chips" are part of the wreckage being looked at, so it seems that a lot of electronic add-ons were being used on this airplane. It would be hard to even claim it was a P-51 at all after reading all the modifications done to it. Sounds like a lot of bad ideas went south.

 

Bodine

Could be engine controls similar to those on modern cars and/or part of the avionics panel.

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Those articles were on my Yahoo e-mail page and they change those stories out so often it's hard to find them again, but I'll see what I can do.

 

**EDITED**

 

My mistake. I blended the information when reading the article. They were discussing the wing modifications and then told how it was a tail piece that apparently came off. Sorry about that.

 

Bodine

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Just home from Reno, I was there and fortunately un harmed, I guess I'm not used to folks worrying about my well being. I can't tell you all how much I appreciate your concern, just goes to show how what wonderful people you all are.

 

For now please keep Jimmy and his family in your prayers and especially the victims and families of this horrible tragedy

 

God Bless you all

 

Dusty

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Just home from Reno, I was there and fortunately un harmed, I guess I'm not used to folks worrying about my well being. I can't tell you all how much I appreciate your concern, just goes to show how what wonderful people you all are.

 

For now please keep Jimmy and his family in your prayers and especially the victims and families of this horrible tragedy

 

God Bless you all

 

Dusty

 

Glad to hear from ya pard! - and we will definately keep those affected by this horrible tragedy in our prayers!!

 

 

 

GG ~ :FlagAm:

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Dusty, just glad you're able to report in.

 

And, oh, BTW, we're family - caring and worrying about each other is what we do.

 

Prayers up for the dead and injured as well as their families.

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