Not sure what to say about this one

[Race5]

Re: Not sure what to say about this one

Lefty hit a fencepost with his wingtip in 1981, but never made contact with the ground....but I think that was the same year that Skip Holm hit a jackrabbit on the back side of the course in Jeannie.

IIRC the only pilot to make contact with the ground was Ralph Rina in the T-6 Yabba Dabba Do in 1991 when he cartwheeled it in a turn during qualifying.

There was also the Amsoil Biplane that cartwheeled through the dirt. Still can't believe he walked away from that one.

[Big_Jim]

Re: Not sure what to say about this one

There was also the Amsoil Biplane that cartwheeled through the dirt. Still can't believe he walked away from that one.

The Amzoil Rutan Special actually was a high-speed stall in the turn and it more just fell out of the sky on the west end scatter-pylon as opposed to flying into the ground. But there is no doubt that it was a testament to the strength of Rutan's aircraft that Mortensen was only slightly roughed up with a sprained shoulder and ankle if I remember.

[Danno]

Re: Not sure what to say about this one

[QUOTE=Big_Jim;98519IIRC the only pilot to make contact with the ground was Ralph Rina in the T-6 Yabba Dabba Do in 1991 when he cartwheeled it in a turn during qualifying.[/QUOTE]

I happened to be watching that one. From what I remember, he hit his wingtip going around the last turn, but didn't crash. He actually was able to pull up a little, and flew along the home straight until around the home pylon. He then turned left apparently to try and land on the closed runway, (18 I think?) but had some kind of problem making the last turn, and then cartwheeled. Fortunately, he did survvive.

Please correct me if some of my memory has faded.

Danno

[tow-3]

Re: Not sure what to say about this one

right airplane, wrong pilot. it was jim mott that crashed yabba dabba doo

[Danno]

Re: Not sure what to say about this one

...In fact, I just finished scanning all of my old slides (including many years from NCAR) and found a sequence from Yaba Daba Doo cartwheeling. Here are a couple from the set. These are quite cropped, so not great quality, but it shows what happened.

The first picture shows him flying past home pylon after the wingtip drug the ground. The others show what happened when he tried to circle around to land.

Enjoy!

Danno

[ignomini]

Re: Not sure what to say about this one

Wow. Thanks for posting those.

[Dash]

Re: Not sure what to say about this one

The Amzoil Rutan Special actually was a high-speed stall in the turn and it more just fell out of the sky on the west end scatter-pylon as opposed to flying into the ground. But there is no doubt that it was a testament to the strength of Rutan's aircraft that Mortensen was only slightly roughed up with a sprained shoulder and ankle if I remember.

I actually interviewed and wrote a pretty good story from Danny's own memories of racing the Amsoil Racer. You've got to admit that it was a good little racer and was thinking pretty far outside of the box at the time.