ANN coverage of the P-51 landing accident at OSH...

Health is hanging in there John; the back is a mess and I'm adjusting to
cataract surgery changes but aside from that I'm still able to put one
foot in front of the other :-)
You're right; my bird was lighter. I had no fuselage tank in the
airplane and tried as well to have the fuel in the mains balanced out at
about 50 gals maximum for demonstration work. If I was heavy I had to
compensate for that naturally.
I agree. We've beaten the 51 issue to death on what data is available.
I've looked at another angle of the crash and I totally agree with you
that the A slanted in and hit the D with the prop through the corner of
the stabilizer and sliced it nearly in half behind the cockpit.
The violent snap of the A at impact had to be a combination of control
input reflex and some extremely strong physical forces caused by the
prop impacting the D.
Anyway, as you say, even old hands like us are just guessing. The final
report will include the radio transmissions and that should fill in a
lot of blanks.
Take care. I'm glad you're hanging in health wise. Remember, to stay
young, "Climb High" "Fly Fast" :-)
Dudley

Big John wrote:
Dudley

OK show off )

We used between 300-350 mph as that was a good increase from our
cruise speed of 230-240. The Merlin at METO was certainly a sweet
sound )

Starting off the deck we probably got back up to 500-600 feet max in
pattern.

Of course we were not trying to put on an airshow. Lots of things you
could do in bird to impress the 'great unwashed masses' )

The thing I missed most was the "plop, plop, plop" of the Merlin at
idle in pattern before they stopped the full idle because it was
sucking cold air in and warping the valves.

Looking at the clip many more times you can see #2 angling in toward
#1 well prior to contact. Only way I can see that happening is that #2
lost sight of #1.

Transmissions will help NTSB sort that out.

I'm going to quit making surmises based on part of the data. The more
I look at clip the more I see that could be the root cause.

Think we have pretty well covered the basic P-51 flying. Am sure yours
was light and the ones I flew were heavier, always with ammo, full
fuel, etc. If I were doing an airshow I'd not put any fuel in fuselage
tank to keep the CG within proper limits and not have to burn tank
down. Could do more with a light bird vs a heavy one.

Hope your health is progressing in good shape. I started Omega 3, on
my own, for my heart and I got so dizzy I could hardly walk. Stopped
yesterday and feel much better today.

The very best.

Big John
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On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:45:21 -0400, Dudley Henriques
wrote:

Hi John;

That approach is what we called a 360 Tactical overhead approach. I used
a variation of it as a finishing touch on my demonstration in the 51 and
also on arrival at a show site weather and ATC permitting :-)
I used 300 at 46 and 27 and pitched off the deck into a straight 45
climb line roll set. Neutralizing, I immediately initiated a 270 degree
roll to the opposite side of the downwind leg (pattern left/roll right)
I stopped the roll at 270 by stomping on the top rudder and holding in
firm forward stick. This stopped the airplane at the second knife edge
solidly. At that point I blended in back pressure using top rudder to
hold nose position through the transition from climbing knife edge into
the turn to downwind at 1500 feet AGL. The rest was your standard
circling close in turning approach in the 51 keeping the power up so as
not to foul the plugs.
If this approach was done just right, it was beautiful to watch from the
ground and was extremely good for maintaining visual cues in the cockpit
for me. Once I had things slowed down to 160 and had 20 degrees of flap
and the gear lights on the bird, the rest was just keeping it in close
and turning milking in the flaps until full down on final.
Over the fence at 120 or a bit less and tail low on the mains.
The main thing crowds liked with this approach aside from the roll was
the sound you always got with the 51 low, fast, and at METO.
Dudley Henriques


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