Post by trimtab on Oct 18, 2006 22:07:28 GMT -7
Here's a tragic story I read in the Washington Post about a recent accident at an airshow. Several years ago, I saw a Citabria crash nose first in a dive while trying to pull out of a spin at low altitude. It's still indelible in my mind. My 37 year old son was ten years old and he remembers it like it was yesterday while we stood together watching.
One moment there was a colorful airplane in a dive coming too close to the ground, then there was a muffled "frump", and black smoke suddenly and rapidly billowing upward. There was next to nothing left of the plane and pilot.
I've known a few top notch test plots in my lifetime and I'm very familiar with Jimmy Doolittle's biography. He (and they) talked about and lived with calculated risks, always walked away in one piece and they subsequently died of old age. Calculated was the key to their survival.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701436.html
One moment there was a colorful airplane in a dive coming too close to the ground, then there was a muffled "frump", and black smoke suddenly and rapidly billowing upward. There was next to nothing left of the plane and pilot.
I've known a few top notch test plots in my lifetime and I'm very familiar with Jimmy Doolittle's biography. He (and they) talked about and lived with calculated risks, always walked away in one piece and they subsequently died of old age. Calculated was the key to their survival.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701436.html
