Broken elevator trim tab possible cause of Reno air race crash

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A faulty elevator trim tab may be behind the crash at Friday's Reno air race that killed 10 people. Photographs taken before the modified P-51 Mustang crashed show the trim tab hanging loose on one side and dragging behind. The malfunction would make the plane uncontrollable and possibly cause the pilot to black out due to G-force induced Loss of Consciousness, which occurs when excessive g-forces drain blood from the brain. Source: LA Times, Americanflyers.net

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• P-51 Mustang
• Reno
• Air races
• crash
• trim tab
• elevator
• Jimmy Leeward
• plane
• deadly
• G-force
• G-LOC

[childsca]

@EasternMerchant

That's true. I have to wonder with the plane going 450+ mph and it being right at the critical AOA how many g-forces that must have been. I am looking forward to the NTSB's full report.

[EasternMerchant]

@childsca hehe one thing is for sure! the P-51 is pretty sturdy! I mean if a civilian aircraft experienced such G-forces, it would've probably ripped both wings off!

[EasternMerchant]

@childsca ahh that's right I forgot, that's right! there's an angle of incidence in the wing so as the plane increases speed more forward pressure is needed on the yoke unless it's constantly trimmed until the plane is no longer pitching upwards, with the sudden failure of the trim tab this causes dramatic increase in G-forces as the plane goes upwards like you say. DOH! I didn't think of that one. hehe Ya got me!

[childsca]

@EasternMerchant

That is not the case with these planes. The way they are balanced a significant amount of tail up force is required to maintain a proper attitude at race speeds. The trim tab is used to maintain the elevator in a position where that tail lift is adequate. When the trim tab broke the elevator went back to "neutral", and at race speeds that causes a dramatic nose up moment. What you said is usually correct, but these planes are balanced very tail heavy to try and minimize drag.

[EasternMerchant]

The pilot stalled probably by maneuvering the plane past the angle of attack (a point where airflow is disrupted over the wings). One way to accomplish this is by pulling completely back on the Yoke to make the plane go up, but instead, stalls. Since he was getting near the ground he panicked and didn't release back pressure on the yoke causing the plane to constantly tip stall to the left and to the right. He probably tried to play catch up, but the plane oscillated from one stall to another.

[EasternMerchant]

OH MY GAWD this is so horrificly wrong! a trim tab only stabilizes the elevator to where the pilots wants it. For example, if you go up in a plane, you don't want to have to hold the Yoke back the whole duration, you would get tired, so you would trim the elevator up enough so that you don't have to apply backward pressure to the Yoke. Without the Trim tab, if the plane cg is balance, it would just continue back to level flight if you released the yoke.

[7249xxl]

its the truth behind the crash

[sparbolt63]

Pretty lame , show an A6M Zero to represent a P-51, good facts, poor presentation

[illustriouschin]

So sad, he just wanted to help put on a show for people but he ended up hurting them instead.