Telemetry downloaded from Galloping Ghost revealed an 11g pull up,
fuel flow

interrupted on the way up, and then the engine restarted when fuel flow

resumed at the top of the arc. The aircraft was making 105 inches of
MP(Manifold Pressure) on the way down.

Colleen Keller

Sport Class Race 8 Crew

Ted Carter



Dave,

Do you think Jimmy could have survived the 11g pull up?

rog

That 11g pull-up would have instantaneously killed anyboby,especially
a 74 year old man,not wearing a pressure suit..
That high G-force also probably ripped the pilot's seat right off
its anchoring bolts
.Recall that clear close-up picture of the GG,nose-down,just before
impact,posted in the media of the canopy with no occupant visible.
The shock of the force,pushed Jimmy back and down in the
cockpit,killing him,instantaneously.There just was no way he could
have recovered... .

Dave Young


Hey Guys;
People survive high-G car accidents (vertical to semi reclined) every
day. Racing is even worse.
Most, non-dive, light aircraft scenarios are survivable with proper design.
Look up the HANS "Head and Neck Support" device for racing.

Search for "Safety Cockpit". e.g.
http://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/sicherheitscockpit-e.html
http://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/crashtest-e.html

Search for design articles on Formula 1 car crash cockpits which have
been made public. Very informative. (sorry, couldn't refind a link/paper)
There are other helicopter and plane seat design patents/papers to limit
g-load spikes to 25-30?G to reduce/avoid spinal compression crash damage
in survivable accidents. Note that individual spinal-G tolerance drops
with age.

Unfortunately, none of this would have helped in this horrific accident.
~Cary


Do we know if they upgraded the seats in these aircraft?  I'm betting
the original
[if that is-infact what was in there] seat was not rated for much more
than 10-12G's.

It is all well and good to compair a F16 pilot wearing a pair of speed
jeans to a
P51 seat but keep in mind that a F16 pilot is reclined a good deal and is
better equiped to handle G's.   Lots of airshow types pull 10-11 g's
in their Extra 300s
or what not, but these are alot more 'instant on and off' Gs vs a
sustained pull up and over
as was experianced here.  The G's may not have killed him, but they
most certainly would
have incapacitated him. If the seat failed as well, then I fear there
was not much hope from
the word go.  I think the first thing a person would have done in a
situation like this
,had they been able, would be to reduce power. It would seem safe to
say that if he was
producing 105" on the down line that this had not happened, ergo he was
no longer
in control of the aircraft.

One of the Wright brothers once remarked that if people wanted perfect
safety they would be doing good to sit on a fence.Â
Everyone in the airshow and racing world knows the risks when they get
into these events.
The likely hood of a repeat event happening is like winning the lottery
twice [I don't mean loss of
control, but loss of control w/ the aircraft departing into the crowd].
None-the-less
it does not lessen the tragedy or help those who are today coping w/
the loss of precious
loved ones. I just hope that in the same token it doesn't kill the
airshow world or impact the
races in the years to come.

Fwiw

Jarrett Johnson