Reno Crash

[John Owens]

There was a mention this evening that he had an in flight camera, and they might have recovered the memory card, if true this could be a help in determining what happened.

[Dana]

There's a good report on the crash from someone who was there and witnessed it over on Homebuiltairplanescom:

http://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/fo...tml#post109885

[Zack Baughman]

This was posted on another forum I frequent, and I thought it appropriate to share here:

Flight is freedom in its purest form,
To dance with the clouds which follow a storm;
To roll and glide, to wheel and spin,
To feel the joy that swells within.

To leave the earth with its troubles and fly,
And know the warmth of a clear spring sky;
Then back to earth at the end of the day,
Released from the tensions which melted away.

Should my end come while I am in flight,
Whether brightest day or darkest night;
Spare me no pity and shrug off the pain,
Secure in the knowledge that I'd do it again.

For each of us is created to die,
And within me I know,
I was born to fly.

-- Gary Claude Stoker

[George Herzog]

In 1998 a similar loss of trim tab on P51 "Voodoo Chile" is reported here: http://www.warbird.com/voodoo.html

A pilot unprepared for an onset of high G forces is particularly vulnerable to G-force loss of consciousness, and GLOC may explain the very clear left side photo of the diving aircraft (infield location of photographer) that appears to not show Leeward's head in the cockpit and may indicate that he had slumped forward.