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

 That is counter to what I've read..  Aircraft seats are often designed to a
 26G standard because the
 human body can survive that kind of impact. So to say that 11g is instantly
 fatal doesn't quite add
 up for me.


 Matt-


 The human body can survive up to around 40 g, properly restrained, in a
 collision, not in a sustained maneuver.  Without  g-suit, most people start
 to black out at 4g.  I you do the "grunt" exercise, you can get that to 6g,
 maybe more.  With a g-suit, you can do maybe 9g and that can go to 11 with
 the "grunt" routine.  They now put F-16 pilots in a centrifuge to
 demonstrate they can maintain consciousness at 11g.  Jimmy Leeward didn't
 have any of that.  He was in a standard seat configuration and had a
sudden,
 SUSTAINED exposure to 11g.  If the seat had broken, which is suggested by
 some of the photos, he was in even deeper guano.

 Steve Brazil


 Keep in mind that modern day seats may be rated at 26g's however a
mid 40's seat is most likely not going to be rated as such.
Do we know if they updated the seat in the GG?

Jarrett


I don't know anything about GG's seat (being a heavily modified race
plane), but the Mustang was a front line fighter designed for
battlefield use and abuse to include hard landings (and crashes) and
hard aerobatics associated with Air to Air combat, and ground attack
missions.  I wouldn't be surprised if a stock Mustang seat could
handle significantly more than 15-20G's.  Additionally, my
recollection is that a stock Mustang seat had steel armor plate to
protect the pilot, which certainly would have been removed, reducing
loads on the seat mount..

I have read accounts of WWII pilots pulling so hard at the bottom of a
strafing run that they ended up fracturing a hip, but the airplane was
able to fly home without a problem.

It's apparently common for race pilots to fly with their shoulder
harness inertial reel unlocked so that they can lean forward and left
in the seat so as to be able to see around the aircraft's nose more
completely.  In this position, with uncommanded full pitch up, it's
likely the pilot's upper body and head were pushed and pinned down
with the G-load.  And hence, not visible from a side view.

I had initially guessed at a seat failure, but I don't think that's
necessarily what happened based on all that I've seen.

Regards,

Matt-

One other consideration, what did the stick do when the elevator snapped to full up?

Chris Cosman