Bobby Graham says..
Good News for the future of air racing.


Our new crew member, Matt Jackson, is not only a race pilot,
aircraft business owner and aircraft owner (he also takes care of
Tom Cruise's P-51) but he is also the VP of the Unlimited Racing
Class and head of the Safety Committee.

We had a long talk about the Reno crash on the way to Mojave today.

Matt believes the cause of the crash was due to The Galloping
Ghost having a CG too close to the aft limit which resulted in
pitch instability. There are instructions on the P-51 regarding
no combat missions with the aft fuel tank full resulting in an
aft CG problem. Instructions specify to empty the aft fuel tank
first in flight.

During qualifying Matt watched Galloping Ghost from inside the
cockpit of Furias and could not believe how much trouble Leeward
was having in keeping the Ghost in a stable pattern around the
course.

Since Leeward lives in Florida and the Galloping Ghost was
modified for racing in Calif., when Leeward picked up the Ghost
for the Reno races at the last minute, a complete flight test
program had not been done based on available information.

There is a video of the entire last lap of the Ghost before the
crash which Matt showed me. As Leeward was coming around pylon #8
at about 480 mph after passing Rare Bear, he hit turbulence which
pitched his left wing down, Leeward corrected with hard right
rudder and aileron. Just as the aircraft was straightening out,
he hit a second mountain of turbulence which caused the tail to
'dig in' resulting in a 10+ G climb rendering Leeward unconscious
instantly and resulted in the tail wheel falling out. (broken
tail wheel support structure was found on the course). As the
Ghost shot upward the LH aileron trim tab broke loose. This can
be heard on the tape, so the trim tab did not cause the accident.

Since the Ghost was racing at 480 mph with full right rudder and
the stick full right, this is where everything stayed when
Leeward blacked out. Cockpit camera film that was salvaged from
the wreck shows Leeward slumped over to the right in the cockpit.
As a result, the Ghost climbed up and to the right, rolled over
on her back and then headed for the box seats. Most in the box
seats never saw it coming because it came in from behind them.

Matt has had long conversations with the NTSB who call the
accident a 'fluke'. They _are not_ going to recommend canceling
future races. He has also talked to the insurance companies
covering the races for Reno and they also say they _are not_
going to cancel their coverage of future races. Now we wait for
the FAA to make a decision.

Ironically, Matt bought box seats tickets for his good friends
who stayed with him for a few days before the races. They were
the husband and wife who were killed.