What the hell just happened

[De Camara]

What just happened?

[Tormentor]

Re: What the hell just happened

um...what now? details please?

[De Camara]

Re: What the hell just happened

Apparently 3 maydays in Sport

Whats the status on #352 John Parker?

[Race 29]

Re: What the hell just happened

From what I could make out on LiveATC it sounded like John called a mayday after the race. He landed short of runway 14 in the dirt, but rolled onto the asphalt. Sounded like he got out of the plane and is ok.

Race 29

[Rampman]

Re: What the hell just happened

We thought there was stuff going on because Parker's approach (pretty sure it was him) didn't look right. We were too low on the tarmac to see the whole thing. The damn anouncers were so loud over the PA speakers that I couldn't hear the maydays on my radio! I can follow a race over race frequency outside the gates better than I can inside. Frustrating. Glad everybody is OK.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: What the hell just happened

From what I could make out on LiveATC it sounded like John called a mayday after the race. He landed short of runway 14 in the dirt, but rolled onto the asphalt. Sounded like he got out of the plane and is ok.

Race 29

I spoke briefly (very) with Mr. Parker this evening and his answer to what happened was.

"It Broke"

[PowerByPackard]

Re: What the hell just happened

I spoke briefly (very) with Mr. Parker this evening and his answer to what happened was.

"It Broke"

So glad John is okay. Any idea about how bad the damage is to the plane?

[omalley1537]

Re: What the hell just happened

Reports (unverified) on FB are that a rod decided it wanted to experience life outside the block. Also saying mainly tail damage from the landing.

[Skyracer]

Re: What the hell just happened

Looked like there was a dolly under the tail when they towed it off the runway.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: What the hell just happened

Parker took Blue 2 off roading after the engine threw a rod through the block, (It was sticking out of the left side of the lower cowling) at which time the tail wheel was damaged. He put the plane down in the sagebrush and ended up on the runway. I couldn't see any serious damage to the plane, but that doesn't mean there isn't any.

Will

[Big_Jim]

Re: What the hell just happened

Since there hasn't really been a good explanation of what happened yet, I'll offer this. Just after crossing the finish line, John pulled up...and as he pulled back on the power, the engine blew in a very big way. BIG puff and trail of smoke. Kind of like what happened several years ago with the silver Thunder Mustang, the afternoon winds played a big part in John not being able to make the runway. So instead, he did his best to line the plane up into the wind and landed in the sagebrush between pylon 3 and the runway, almost perpendicular to 14/32. How the plane didn't end up on it's nose as it bounced through the bushes I'll never know. But a combination of skill and luck slowed him down enough that when he hit the dirt off the east side of the runway he was able to 'kind of' skid the plane to the left and onto the runway itself. The tail wheel had already collapsed by that time, so it was sliding along on it's tail.

I agree that there may very well be damage that you can't see on the outside, but it was overall intact, which was very impressive. The bottom lip of the radiator scoop got ripped away, and the scoop itself (as well as the boundary layer area between the bottom of the wing and the top of the scoop) were packed tight with sagebrush. And the piston-less rod was sticking out the bottom of the engine cowling.

[Rampman]

Re: What the hell just happened

Maybe they should run the gold sports earlier in the day. I remember how windy it was the day of that other crash also. Didn't they cancel the gold unlimited race that year because of the wind?

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: What the hell just happened

I think one of the good things about composite airframes is that they seem to tend to get damaged locally and unlike wood or aluminum, deformation, somewhat, seems to stay local rather than transferring to the entire airframe as one member of the puzzle of parts that make up such aircraft overstress on each other.

Composite is a "whole" until it's not whole and then it's totaled..

HOPEFULLY, all of John's damage is LOCAL and has not overstressed the remaining portions of the "whole" that these airplanes are.