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Plane crashes into stands at Reno Air Race

OLD TIGER

my father used to say the same thing. Before he passed away, at 94, he remarked to me that the older he gets the more religious he became.
The ironic part of this whole incident is a lead on a air race site that stated the "Galloping Ghost" was going to haunt the Reno Air Races.
I am really sick and disgusted reading the responses over at CNN regarding this loss of life. We really have denegrated the youth of this country to a mindless status. The respondents should go back to their mothers cellars, crawl under their beds, and continue to play with the only ones who will play with them. Themselves!!!!!!!!!!
 
oakfloor said:
I fear your right, consider this. There have been up until now, 19 fatalties at the reno air races over a 40+ years, and that not real bad compaired to other motosports.
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Just read tonight there is strong talk of ending the event permanently. Placing those words into proper context from a few balanced sources in the know, it means that yes the FAA who already places some of the most stringent regulation in all of aviation on the national air races and it's participants are going to make the rules even tougher and widely expand safety margins for the spectator lines more so than they are now. It all means there going to look at many factors and in the end, the exact words that came out of the FAA and the NAR staff was that if measures cannot be carried out to ensure that spectator safety can be reasonably guaranteed, then we may have seen the last races at Reno. The NAR staff said that the future of the races are in a very fragile state right now. Personally, I think they will reach an agreement on new standards to better ensure safety. I feel confident enough has already been done to ensure the skill and medical competency of the pilots. I think we all agree that the biggest worry to the sport's future and overall safety is the extreme stress levels exerted upon these aging and highly modified machines and the consequences when they fail at such an extreme level of performance.
 
One last comment from me on age, and I'll let this pass. If folks were really serious about age in consideration of licensing....no male below the age of 25 would be allowed to drive in the U.S. The death rate amongst this category of folks is tremendous when compared with all others. Ask any auto insurance company in the U.S. I know there are seniors who should not be operating vehicles, or should do so with restrictions but frankly, there are very few deaths resulting from auto accidents from this group. Young adolescent males on the other hand......

I've no numbers of aircraft accidents and I doubt any line of comparison could be drawn between two, the activities and licensing being so different, but it does illustrate the fallacy of attempting to impose a generic restriction based upon very flaky data and a host of invalid assumptions. In the U.S. for any type certificate, A 74 year old pilot has to pass the same medical as a 24 year old.
 
All the crew from KILG that were out for the Jet Races were there watching this unfold but area all safe and sound. Pipsqueak was not there to fly this year because of some controvery. All the L-29 Vipers were not allowed to fly any Jet Class races for this year due to controversy too.

Also read this lastnight but didn't lave the link....which I should have. The Galloping Ghost was heavily modified for this years Unlimited Race. The wings were shortened by 5 feet and ailerons shortened to 32 inches... and the engine was more than likely modified again this year.

They didn't know if the modifications would work or not. Now tell me that they tested this 'bird' before the race. I read nothing that they did, all that was said was they were 'unsure'.
 
GT182 said:
Also read this lastnight but didn't lave the link....which I should have. The Galloping Ghost was heavily modified for this years Unlimited Race. The wings were shortened by 5 feet and ailerons shortened to 32 inches... and the engine was more than likely modified again this year.

They didn't know if the modifications would work or not. Now tell me that they tested this 'bird' before the race. I read nothing that they did, all that was said was they were 'unsure'.
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They shortened it even more than it was already? According to that article in Aeroplane I mentioned, they had decided that the ailerons were already as short as they could be to remain effective; making them even shorter does not sound like a wise move.
 
A very sad happening. It leaves me feeling very heavy hearted.

One thing to note, I think it hasn't been mentioned yet. This will all take a new flavour when the victims, and families of the victims begin to level lawsuits at any interest they can. It's America, that will surely happen. At that point, it probably won't be an aviation sanctioning body that will hold the fate of the races. It'll be the insurance companies.

It's been a good run. Bury the fallen and observe what comes of it all. My sad condolences.
 
airclassics or one of those mags did an extensive story on the ghost a few months ago...it told of all the mods..i have it somewhere in my piles of mags but cant find it...
 
An investigation has been launched after a vintage aeroplane crashed near a grandstand at an air race near Reno, Nevada on Friday.
Nine people were killed, police said on Saturday, including the pilot. Seven died at the scene and two others in hospital. Dozens were also injured.
Organisers said a mechanical fault was probably to blame but were awaiting the results of an official investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board is carrying out the inquiry.
The vintage World War II-era P-51 Mustang crashed at about 16:30 local time (23:30 GMT) on Friday at the National Championship Air Races.
"Nothing will be off the table when this investigation begins," Mark Rosenker, the former chairman of the transport safety board, told CBS News.
"Clearly, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered," he is quoted by AFP new agency as telling the US news network.
He added that video footage and communications between the pilot and the control tower would be examined.

The Mustang had not been flying too close to the ground prior to the crash, according to Mike Houghton, head of the Reno Air Racing Association and CEO of the event.
He said that there appeared to be a "problem with the aircraft that caused it to go out of control".
Seven people, including the pilot, died on the tarmac at the race site while two people died later of their injuries in hospital, Reno Deputy Police Chief Dave Evans said.
At least six people remained in hospital in a critical condition on Saturday, medical officials said.
"This is a very large incident, probably one of the largest this community has seen in decades," Stephanie Kruse, a spokeswoman for the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority, told the Associated Press.
The Mustang, named The Galloping Ghost, was flown by well-known racing pilot Jimmy Leeward, 74.
Mr Houghton said that Mr Leeward, from Ocala, Florida, was a property developer who had been racing planes since the mid-1970s.
He said that Mr Leeward's medical records had been "in tip-top condition".
He added that most of Mr Leeward's family had been at Friday's event.
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval arrived at the scene and praised the emergency services for their "flawless reaction to what happened"

The National Championship Air Races are held every year in September in Reno.
There have been safety concerns in the past, with four pilots killed in 2007 and 2008.
However, organisers and aviation authorities say they spend months in preparation for the event.

:kilroy:
 
My crew and I were having a rough work day on Friday. When I stepped out to lunch I learned of what happened in Reno. My stomach dropped and all the sudden the rough day I was having turned into a dust spec compared to the suffering that was going on in Reno. So sad to hear and my heart goes out to all the families involved. I do hope the air show will continues depite the danger involved.

Jim
 
Galloping Ghost was flown at last year's Reno Air Racing event, throughout the entire event, not experiencing any issues what-so-ever. They were hoping to have flown the aircraft at the 2009 Reno event, but the work being done on the aircraft could not be finished in time and still be able to have enough hours flying the aircraft before taking it to Reno - this is just one sign of how safety minded Jimmy Leeward and the team he built up around him, made up of experts from all over the country, have always been. The aircraft flew shortly after the end of the 2009 Reno event.

All of the modifications you would have been able to see on the aircraft last week, were already in-place way back in '09 when the aircraft first flew again after years of rebuild. The aircraft had been under design and rebuild, for the single purpose of racing it at Reno, since around 2005, with all of these design modifications incorporated. It had raced at Reno throughout the 70's and 80's, under different names, and different configurations, but with a string of engine failures and poor results, Leeward put the aircraft in longterm storage in the late 80's, until it was decided a number of years ago, to focus on rebuilding the aircraft into what might become a very, very successful Reno participant.

At the 2010 Reno Air Races, Jimmy Flew Galloping Ghost very conservatively (as he was known for), and never pushed it to the edge, as one might (want to) expect. He took his time, and on every race it performed in, he took it a bit faster. He qualified for the Silver race, and easily won it by a land-slide - just beginning to show how fast the aircraft really could go, without even yet coming close.

Galloping Ghost was not an 'everyday' flyer. Its only purpose was to race at Reno, just like a number of other participants. Work is sometimes done year-round, to prepare for the next race, but often times only really builds up as the races get closer. This period of time is filled with preparing a race engine for the aircraft, as well as usually a spare engine, just in case, making sure every last possible part of the aircraft is woking flawlessly, and numerous test flights are accomplished to ensure everything is working properly and the engine is running in top-form.

Galloping Ghost was of great interest to many within both the air racing and warbird communities over the last several years, and numerous aviation and warbird magazines covered its journey. I am a subscriber to 4-different warbird and aviation related magazines, and of those, I could find reports on Galloping Ghost in three of them last night, form various years over the last 6-7.

Of those killed on the ground, the only thing I have heard so far is that one of them was one of the "Tora, Tora, Tora" routine pilots, Col. Craig Salerno.
 
Just read there were on board cameras in the plane/cockpit and that data cards were recovered intact. Perhaps if they can recover any video hopefully they can get a better understanding of what happened from that perspective. Of course if video is recovered it's never likely to be made public. I like many others probably wouldn't want to see it anyway.

Just hope they can find out what happened, take steps to hopefully prevent such things from happening again and move on beyond this tragedy.
 
This was one of the must scariest thing I have witnesses in my life. Our box was in front of the home pylon, the plane crash about 120 feet to the left of our box. We had debry that flew through our box. Every one in our box was unhurt. It was a miracle that the fuel did not catch on fire. They put some kind of foam in the tanks just in case the airplane does crash to lessen the chance of a fuel fire. According to the NTSB this aircraft did have a telemetry system on board which sent the information to the race trailer and saved the information on memory cards. They found some memory cards, but they sent them off to Washington D.C. to get analyzed.


My condolences to the family of Jimmy Leeward and all those that were effective by this.
 
airtj said:
This was one of the must scariest thing I have witnesses in my life. Our box was in front of the home pylon, the plane crash about 120 feet to the left of our box. We had debry that flew through our box. Every one in our box was unhurt. It was a miracle that the fuel did not catch on fire. They put some kind of foam in the tanks just in case the airplane does crash to lessen the chance of a fuel fire. According to the NTSB this aircraft did have a telemetry system on board which sent the information to the race trailer and saved the information on memory cards. They found some memory cards, but they sent them off to Washington D.C. to get analyzed.


My condolences to the family of Jimmy Leeward and all those that were effective by this.
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glad you are safe,,,i dont want to sound silly..but if you dream of this exsessively or have constant thoughts of it...get help/counciling,,,,you dont need PTSD from this
 
since we know the elevator trim tab is off,Tim O'Brian's pics clearly show it,,,,,can any one tell me how that piece is connected to the plane?id like details since i know this group can do it...has it been modeled that much detail on a fsx bird?
 
Daveroo said:
since we know the elevator trim tab is off,Tim O'Brian's pics clearly show it,,,,,can any one tell me how that piece is connected to the plane?id like details since i know this group can do it...has it been modeled that much detail on a fsx bird?
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It's usually connected to the elevator by a hinge or pivot of some sort and has control cables/rods going to it to allow for in-flight adjustment. Many FSX aircraft have them modelled (but not necessarily animated).
 
Box Seats

I live just west of Reno. I was at the races several years ago as guest of ERA Aviation. I don't recall those box seats being in front of the grandstands. A setup for disaster?
 
Dave, before getting into talking about the stock elevator trimtab setup on the P-51, there was some talk about the elevator trimtab system on Galloping Ghost being modified into an electrically-powered system, similar to many modern aircraft, however there is no confirmation of this yet, so I will wait to talk about that any further detail until it is either confirmed or denied for certain.

Here's more about Jimmy Leeward the pilot:
http://www.av8rdan.com/2011/09/before-assuming-age-was-the-cause-of.html
 
It was on the news this afternoon that they have found the video and flight recorders that were install in Galloping Ghost. Whether they're any good for info is yet to be heard.

As a side note... There was a 22 year old young man that had MS since birth at a the show seated in, of all places, the crash site. Sadly he was on of the 10 reported fatalities. He graduated high school with top honors, and if I remember correctly, graduated college Suma Cum Lada (I appologise if it's not spelt correctly). He also had his own successful web hosting buisness.
 
Tako_Kichi said:
It's usually connected to the elevator by a hinge or pivot of some sort and has control cables/rods going to it to allow for in-flight adjustment. Many FSX aircraft have them modelled (but not necessarily animated).
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The tabs on most aircraft are attached with a 'piano hinge'-MS20253 series is typical if you're interested- a usually stainless pin in a alumunium continuous hinge riveted or screwed to the tab, actuated by a cable drum through a push rod, at its simplest form- hand cranked through a setting wheel- it can be motor driven, which is a bit more complex-not much- but will often have an override switch in case the drive motor 'runs away' The piano hinges have a habit of the stainless pin chewing through the hinge. The servo tab is the same set up except that it is not controlled directly by the pilot, but is fixed by a control rod to the surface to move in opposition to the control surface to provide aerodynamic 'power steering' and /or 'feel' Because of the apparent simplicity of the system, many owners and maintainers ignore 'em untill they're rattling so bad from worn hinges that you can hear 'em comming downwind in the hanger over the banging of rivet guns... a bit of exageration- but one does see rather a lot of worn out hinges(GA)
 
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