Originally Posted by
WLIU
I have a lot of hours flying ratty old Cessnas hauling skydivers, and have also done a bunch of stalls in them, but have only occasionally have those two experiences intersected. There is no way that in the course of stalling a Cessna you can hit your head on the instrument panel. Even flipping one end for end on landing its hard to hit your head on the instrument panel. I have friends who have demonstrated that.
The aerobatic community has recorded a few incidents where pilots have knocked themselves silly by having seat belts release while doing a snap roll, I think outside (negative) snaps. But in that case the pilot came off the seat and smashed into the canopy. No helmet of course. In the cases that I know of, after the surprise and shock wore off, the pilot got back down into the seat, collected themselves, and landed the airplane.
If the accident pilot in question was avoiding buildings, there is more to the story. Like the airplane was sick, well over gross, and the day was very hot. Which is a narrative at a few of the skydiving operations I have seen.
Fly safe,
Wes
N6234A