Ok... here's the skinny on the accident.... A P-51 normally has two trim tabs.. one on each elevator... this one had one and other one was fixed in place.. He was warned about the forces being put on that one tab. It failed.. He had at least a 10G load when the plane pitched up from the loss of the trim tab and he went "nighty night" and probably never woke up.
Here's the “theory” of the crash from experienced racers.
In 1989 this type of thing happened to another pilot but he lived to tell the story. When flying a P-51 at 450+mph you need to have full nose down trim to keep the plane level. The elevator trim tab broke off and the aircraft immediately went in to a 10G climb, confirmed by the G-meter. The pilot came to, from the sudden blackout and realized he had slipped through the shoulder harness and was looking at the floor of the aeroplane. He was able to reach the throttle and pull it back to slow down and was able to recover and land.
Photo is the aeroplane taxiing, note the pilots head in the canopy
Photo is typical oil canning as a result of the tremendous torque these engines put out at high power.
photo of GG upside down with a missing elevator trim tab. Note all you see is the back of the pilots head indicating he is being forced down in the cockpit.
Photo is a view of the left side nose down with the tail wheel extended and no view of the pilot. The tail wheel is held up by hydraulics only with no mechanical uplock, thus indicating a high G-force causing it to extend.
Photo from the left side prior to impact, note no view of the pilot and the tail wheel extended.
Photo from the left side prior to impact, note no view of the pilot and the tail wheel extended.
Photo is the debris just after the crash. To the right of center above the crowd it appears to be the wing with the leading edge down.
I guess if this is correct at least he was unconscious well before hitting the ground.
