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[razor1uk]

  Sorry Wild and others, I have been between multiple forums on this topic, and some of them have been much more inconsiderate at times, so don't worry too much, I was just feeling a bit hacked off altogther with them collectively. I offer my sincere apologies to the Mods to for maybe encroaching on there toes.

  Anyways, the photographer of the shots, Mr. Tim O'Brien, has joined/had to join ww2aricraft.net to explain himself; (which in it self due to internet humans bickering on details there) I feel was far more crass and disrespetful to the event. -

  But the few details that until the NTSB is concluded on this, is all we have etc, is in hindsight, natural but slightly morbid and hence am remorseful.

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/mustang-crashes-into-crowd-reno-30309-4.html#post824013

[Pursuivant]

Excellent link, Razor. It's got comments by the guy who took the pictures of the Ghost's final moments, an aeronautical engineer who worked on the Galloping Ghost, aircraft mechanics and skilled pilots. Far more collective expertise than I've seen so far.

And, while the circumstances are liable to have anyone on edge, for the most part the conversation has been amazingly civil, at least for the Internet (i.e., angels of altitude above your usual comment flame wars on You Tube, and only one person has been banned so far).

[Wildchild]

I think I read that the steam is from a boil-off cooling system
It is really odd that the pilot can pull down the head so it cannot be seen anymore. but the border of the cockpit to the glss is quite high in the racer plane. Look a pics  from the take off there you can see what i mean.

I just remembered... He cannot do that. Its impossible for him to. I have the same Seat Belts in my racecar that he had, and its impossible to be pushed forward at all, unless there un-done, or broke (Dale Earnhart...)

Also, he has a Hans device behind his head which stoppes him from breaking his neck in high G turns. So, if he was prepairing for a bail out, he would have to remove the Hans. Which takes about 10 seconds in an airplane. Never had enough time for even that... 

[razor1uk]

  Hans Device eh, is not F1, Windy Cart? or other some other ground based 4 wheeled motorsport, the only places where Hans Devices are used TTBOMK, apart from Powerboat Racing.
  Seat belts are are more as likely just logo'd belt over wraps/sponsors belt padding on aviation certified & graded 5 (or 6) point harnesses...
  But I agree, no altitude or time for bail, & possibility of upto 10 to 12+G suddenly, let alone what happened or maybe did in Turns 5 - 7, & in 'The Valley of Speed'..

[congo]

[Also, he has a Hans device behind his head which stoppes him from breaking his neck in high G turns. So, if he was prepairing for a bail out, he would have to remove the Hans. Which takes about 10 seconds in an airplane. Never had enough time for even that... 
[/quote]

This is simply not true they do not wear Hans devices, plus most WWll aircraft had inertia reels for the shoulder belt system to allow the pilot to lean forward to be able to reach what he needs to in the cockpit. Pilots do not break their necks in high g turns. If Leeward blacked out during the violent pull-up he very well could have slumped forward as there was not a sudden enough pull to engage the inertia reel. Wildchild where do you come up with this stuff?

[razor1uk]

  With regard to the possibilites of what did happen and what could have assisted in such Wild, I'd recommend re reading the earliest posts, both onsite/here and the 2 related threads at ww2... 

  Apart from than those few aeronautical/engineering/logical/flight and knowledge based assumptions and the statements of some witnesses, there isn't much left (if any) that'd believably end in such a result - all thats left is what mechanism(s) broke first which led to the trimmer acting so suddenly that one of its mounts failed, leading to the aerodynimc windblast of 480+ (more like 490+; as he was pushing Rare Bear hard & very very closely, which itself is uncharacteristical of Jimmy.) suddenly hitting a tiny lil' bit of tab at an angle and speed it never experienced before, and so peeling it away from the elevator leading to the pitchup & 1/2 barrel-rolling loop.
  We all would love know 120% what happened to help prevent worse in the future, but as its a extremely 'unlimited' modified racer, running at high race speeds 480mph+ at roughly 80ft alt (above the terrain underneath), and the human brain has for the last 40,000+years been used to going roughly 4mph - not holding this against the racers & Jimmy; whom are used to such speeds, but more to those of us who aren't.
 
Anyhow, all we can adjectively do now, is await the collective experiences (hopefully) of those there will be filtered, checked, & pieced together by the NTSB Investigators in their (eventual) Accident Report along with any aero/engineering findings they are able discover.
------
Edited slightly, as I realised I seemed to be adding the wrong 'inflections'. - I tend to write first, & redraft later...

[X-Raptor]

I think wolud be better to stop any other tread about this very sad accident in respect to all dead people and all injuried ones who still suffer or have body handycap forl all the rest of their live. Is just cinic to continue to argue.

[razor1uk]

  For my part, I think that a slight amount of humility at times, is all that needed to post; tis' true we learn more by mistakes & questions, than without them yes? (and for myself ...rereading & redrafting - sometimes too many times or not atall)

[razor1uk]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/crashes/how-a-small-piece-of-metal-caused-the-reno-air-race-crash-6481596

[Spinnetti]

I use a hans.. it doesn't do a thing for "high G turns".. its purely for fore-aft motions, and doesn't do anything unless your head is going further forward or backwards than normal.... I think that one is a red herring (i.e. not a factor)... I think he passed out after mechanical failure caused him to pull probably over 12g... he's been racing that bird since 1975, so its not like he didn't know what he was doing.

[BravoFxTrt]

It was his and theirs destiny. All the dialog or second guessing wont change it. Its happened.

[Thunda]

I think this quote from the Popular Mechanics article (thanks, Razor) answers any outstanding questions about the 'no pilot visible' issue.

"Andy Chiavetta, who worked with the pit crew of another Unlimited racer, says that according to telemetry broadcast from the Galloping Ghost to Leeward’s team, the g load was far higher than that.(11 g's) "From what I understand he hit 22.5 g’s, which no pilot can take," Chiavetta says. At that point, the crushing force pulls a pilot down so far that he or she isn’t even visible in the canopy in pictures taken from the ground."