Jumbo Tanker Accident

On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:13:58 -0500, Big John
wrote in :


This describes a classic torque roll with high power, low airspeed and
not leading with enought right rudder to counter the torque

I saw several of these first hand dring my years flying the P-51. We
ended up teaching new checkouts to only use 30 or so inches on go
around (at least until they got some airspeed back up and had enough
rudder to hold the torque).

A bloody shame to lose both the pilot and aircraft.

Thanks for the firsthand information.

So it would appear that either the throttle malfunctioned, the PIC
failed to follow his training, or his instructor failed to adequately
train his student. Have you any idea if the 30" MP limit officially
became part of the check-out syllabus (presuming one exists)?

Has the name of the CFI been disclosed yet? It's a damn tragic shame
regardless of the cause. At least the aircraft can probably be
rebuilt.

Updated story with photo he
http://venturacountystar.com/news/20...o-plane-crash/

http://www.theacorn.com/news/2007/07..._page/004.html
McKittrick was senior vice president of capital markets for
Countrywide Home Loans and for the past two years had been an
assistant football coach for freshmen and sophomores at Oaks
Christian High School.

Hethcock said Michele McKittrick, a personal trainer, runs a
physical education program for middle school students and is also
the conditioning coach for a number of the high school's athletic
teams.

The McKittrick Fitness Center, the school's weight and exercise
room, is named after the family.


http://venturacountystar.com/news/20...is-identified/
McKittrick's wife, Michele, teaches physical fitness at the
school. He also has a son and a daughter who are students there.

Posted by fishnpilot on July 17, 2007 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest
removal)

you are speaking out of turn here, ecarson, with out knowing all
the facts. this pilot had the best instructor a p51 pilot could
have, it takes a special person to be able to even give
instruction in these difficult to fly and sensitive warbirds. he
has at least 30 yrs experience with p51's. he was being thoughtful
and considerate of the public (on the ground) as you mentioned as
well. Camarillo is relatively sparse and has lots of room for
training. furthermore, he (Mckittrick) was given orders to stay in
the pattern and do one circuit to a full stop. no leaving the
pattern. the student had over 37 hrs dual instruction (in this
plane!) at this point and had not shown any bad tendancies. the
problem is, you cannot always predict what a students response
with be to any mistake he may make. you can only hope they use
good common sense as well as their acquired skills to correct it.
sometimes it leads to an unfortunate event such as this, and
unless you know exactly what happened you should not be so quick
to criticise. i have had similar experiences with students in
specilized aircraft and thousands of dual given with a tally of
more 10,000hrs in odd types or non-conventional planes. this
instructor was actually being very cautious in this instance and
knows the plane and pilot well.

Apparently Howie Keefe is based in Camarillo:
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.co..._Air_Racer.htm


Pilot photo he http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005116115
McKittrick, 42, a bond trader, an experienced pilot in other
single- and twin-engine aircraft, had purchased the Mustang five
months ago with the intention of entering next year's Reno Air
Races in the high-speed, unlimited aircraft class, according to a
close Ketchum friend of 14 years and fellow P-51 owner-pilot, Bill
Rheinschild.

Rheinschild told the Mountain Express that based on accounts of
witnesses at Camarillo Airport north of Los Angeles, McKittrick
was flying the Mustang¾nicknamed "Lou IV"¾solo for the first time
since taking some 50 hours of dual instruction in the modified,
two-seat former Air Force fighter.

His unidentified instructor had cleared McKittrick for takeoffs
and landings and flying in the airport pattern.

"On landing," Rheinschild said, McKittrick "made a perfect
approach but ballooned (bounced) when his tail wheel touched down
too early."

He said McKittrick "added too much power" on the 1,850-horsepower
Rolls Royce Merlin engine to neutralize the porpoising, which
caused the aircraft to "torque roll." The high-speed aircraft
whipped over into an inverted attitude and immediately crashed,
killing McKittrick instantly. There was no fire.

"Whenever you get into a situation like that," Rheinschild
explained, "it's every aviator's reaction to give it power. But
you can't do it in this kind of airplane."

Rheinschild said McKittrick has owned a single-engine Beech
Bonanza, a twin-engine Beech KingAir C-90 and a World War II T-6
trainer, and had contracted for construction of a Hawker Sea Fury
with complete parts he'd bought.

McKittrick, whose fulltime residence is in Thousand Oaks, Calif.,
had about 1,500 hours of flying experience, Rheinschild said.
Rheinschild is president of a southern California home-building
corporation, but lives in the valley.

The P-51 (later the F-51) was the first U.S. fighter capable of
accompanying World War II heavy bomber raids deep into Europe to
ward off German fighters. The Mustang also was a superb ground
attack aircraft in support of ground troops. McKittrick's Mustang
had the telltale black-and-white wing stripes painted on aircraft
involved in the D-Day Normandy invasion.

He is survived by his wife, Michele, and two children.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Calvary
Christian Church, Westlake, Calif., with a reception following at
Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no
way represent the views of Express Publishing Inc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Laura Wells – Reno, Nevada 07/20/07 - 18:22Hi Bill. this is Laura
(formerly Buehn, now Wells, who had the Grumman Albatrosses in
Carson). I am so sorry about the loss of your friend John. I
helped on the ramp at Pylon Racing School this year, and spoke to
him several times. What a nice, polite man he was. He was so
thankful for any help at PRS. He spoke about how excited he was
about the prospect of racing next year. My thoughts are with all
his family and friends. Sincerely, Laura Wells


Pre-mishap photo and discussion he
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/avi...tml#post263019

Discussion:
http://ipilot.com/forum/message.aspx?pid=187405
This gentlemen was already a pilot, and had recently purchased this
plane. He had roughly 30 hrs of flight time in the P-51 aircraft with
an instructor, and the instructor was at the airport and witnessed the
accident...

http://ipilot.com/forum/message.aspx?pid=187452
Doing a search of the FAA database, there are only 5 registerd TF-51s
(two seat variants)and this one wasn't one of them. A check of the N
number of this plane revealed it registered as at F-51D, perhaps just
a registration inaccuracy.

John is correct. This accident has all the markings of a classic torque
out on the go-around. It should be noted that although it looks that
way, the official investigation report is inconclusive at this early
point in time and the accident has not yet been assigned a probable cause.
As for the 30 inches on go-around; no, this is not standard procedure
for the 51. Standard procedure for this airplane is to set the propeller
for 2700RPM on final. This allows up to 46" (METO)of MP for the
go-around if necessary.
This by no means should be misconstrued to indicate that what John said
was incorrect. If you have enough runway you could use 30 inches as was
the directive in John's outfit but this would have had to be by tech
order at Squadron, Group, or Wing level as it was not Dash-1 for the
Mustang.
Dudley Henriques


Larry Dighera wrote:
On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 21:13:58 -0500, Big John
wrote in :

This describes a classic torque roll with high power, low airspeed and
not leading with enought right rudder to counter the torque

I saw several of these first hand dring my years flying the P-51. We
ended up teaching new checkouts to only use 30 or so inches on go
around (at least until they got some airspeed back up and had enough
rudder to hold the torque).

A bloody shame to lose both the pilot and aircraft.

Thanks for the firsthand information.

So it would appear that either the throttle malfunctioned, the PIC
failed to follow his training, or his instructor failed to adequately
train his student. Have you any idea if the 30" MP limit officially
became part of the check-out syllabus (presuming one exists)?

Has the name of the CFI been disclosed yet? It's a damn tragic shame
regardless of the cause. At least the aircraft can probably be
rebuilt.

Updated story with photo he
http://venturacountystar.com/news/20...o-plane-crash/

http://www.theacorn.com/news/2007/07..._page/004.html
McKittrick was senior vice president of capital markets for
Countrywide Home Loans and for the past two years had been an
assistant football coach for freshmen and sophomores at Oaks
Christian High School.

Hethcock said Michele McKittrick, a personal trainer, runs a
physical education program for middle school students and is also
the conditioning coach for a number of the high school's athletic
teams.

The McKittrick Fitness Center, the school's weight and exercise
room, is named after the family.


http://venturacountystar.com/news/20...is-identified/
McKittrick's wife, Michele, teaches physical fitness at the
school. He also has a son and a daughter who are students there.

Posted by fishnpilot on July 17, 2007 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest
removal)

you are speaking out of turn here, ecarson, with out knowing all
the facts. this pilot had the best instructor a p51 pilot could
have, it takes a special person to be able to even give
instruction in these difficult to fly and sensitive warbirds. he
has at least 30 yrs experience with p51's. he was being thoughtful
and considerate of the public (on the ground) as you mentioned as
well. Camarillo is relatively sparse and has lots of room for
training. furthermore, he (Mckittrick) was given orders to stay in
the pattern and do one circuit to a full stop. no leaving the
pattern. the student had over 37 hrs dual instruction (in this
plane!) at this point and had not shown any bad tendancies. the
problem is, you cannot always predict what a students response
with be to any mistake he may make. you can only hope they use
good common sense as well as their acquired skills to correct it.
sometimes it leads to an unfortunate event such as this, and
unless you know exactly what happened you should not be so quick
to criticise. i have had similar experiences with students in
specilized aircraft and thousands of dual given with a tally of
more 10,000hrs in odd types or non-conventional planes. this
instructor was actually being very cautious in this instance and
knows the plane and pilot well.

Apparently Howie Keefe is based in Camarillo:
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.co..._Air_Racer.htm


Pilot photo he http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005116115
McKittrick, 42, a bond trader, an experienced pilot in other
single- and twin-engine aircraft, had purchased the Mustang five
months ago with the intention of entering next year's Reno Air
Races in the high-speed, unlimited aircraft class, according to a
close Ketchum friend of 14 years and fellow P-51 owner-pilot, Bill
Rheinschild.

Rheinschild told the Mountain Express that based on accounts of
witnesses at Camarillo Airport north of Los Angeles, McKittrick
was flying the Mustang¾nicknamed "Lou IV"¾solo for the first time
since taking some 50 hours of dual instruction in the modified,
two-seat former Air Force fighter.

His unidentified instructor had cleared McKittrick for takeoffs
and landings and flying in the airport pattern.

"On landing," Rheinschild said, McKittrick "made a perfect
approach but ballooned (bounced) when his tail wheel touched down
too early."

He said McKittrick "added too much power" on the 1,850-horsepower
Rolls Royce Merlin engine to neutralize the porpoising, which
caused the aircraft to "torque roll." The high-speed aircraft
whipped over into an inverted attitude and immediately crashed,
killing McKittrick instantly. There was no fire.

"Whenever you get into a situation like that," Rheinschild
explained, "it's every aviator's reaction to give it power. But
you can't do it in this kind of airplane."

Rheinschild said McKittrick has owned a single-engine Beech
Bonanza, a twin-engine Beech KingAir C-90 and a World War II T-6
trainer, and had contracted for construction of a Hawker Sea Fury
with complete parts he'd bought.

McKittrick, whose fulltime residence is in Thousand Oaks, Calif.,
had about 1,500 hours of flying experience, Rheinschild said.
Rheinschild is president of a southern California home-building
corporation, but lives in the valley.

The P-51 (later the F-51) was the first U.S. fighter capable of
accompanying World War II heavy bomber raids deep into Europe to
ward off German fighters. The Mustang also was a superb ground
attack aircraft in support of ground troops. McKittrick's Mustang
had the telltale black-and-white wing stripes painted on aircraft
involved in the D-Day Normandy invasion.

He is survived by his wife, Michele, and two children.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Calvary
Christian Church, Westlake, Calif., with a reception following at
Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no
way represent the views of Express Publishing Inc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Laura Wells – Reno, Nevada 07/20/07 - 18:22Hi Bill. this is Laura
(formerly Buehn, now Wells, who had the Grumman Albatrosses in
Carson). I am so sorry about the loss of your friend John. I
helped on the ramp at Pylon Racing School this year, and spoke to
him several times. What a nice, polite man he was. He was so
thankful for any help at PRS. He spoke about how excited he was
about the prospect of racing next year. My thoughts are with all
his family and friends. Sincerely, Laura Wells


Pre-mishap photo and discussion he
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/avi...tml#post263019

Discussion:
http://ipilot.com/forum/message.aspx?pid=187405
This gentlemen was already a pilot, and had recently purchased this
plane. He had roughly 30 hrs of flight time in the P-51 aircraft with
an instructor, and the instructor was at the airport and witnessed the
accident...

http://ipilot.com/forum/message.aspx?pid=187452
Doing a search of the FAA database, there are only 5 registerd TF-51s
(two seat variants)and this one wasn't one of them. A check of the N
number of this plane revealed it registered as at F-51D, perhaps just
a registration inaccuracy.

Gatt wrote:
"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
DOI: 6/18/2005
Certificate: PRIVATE PILOT

That's pushing it for a Mustang, isn't it? Licensed in 2005?

Did the original P-51 pilots get two years of experience before flying
them? G

I would imagine the 2005 may be the last rating added.