He flew right into the ground. I can only assume that he was applying back
stick pressure. It's been a long time since I saw the video on the news.

Bob Gardner

"T o d d P a t t i s t" wrote in message
...
"Bob Gardner" wrote:

Once upon a time there was a geology instructor at Western Washington
University who was also an aerobatic pilot. He got hooked up with someone
over in the Middle East (king of Jordan?) and went there to teach him
aerobatics...the Arab was already jet-qualified. He did exactly what you
describe, only on television news. Hard way to watch someone die.

Bob,

Can you describe the accident for me a bit? Did the
aircraft head to the ground, break up or roll?

In the last quarter of the loop you'd be at nearly maximum
speed. Stalling requires that you bring the aircraft to its
maximum lift coefficient and doing that at high speed means
the pilot will be experiencing a very high G-load.
Depending on the aircraft and the loop exit speed, this
might be enough to produce structural failure.

Assuming it does not fail structurally, I would next expect
behavior somewhat similar to a straight ahead level stall,
except that the nose of the aircraft (and path of the
aircraft) is pitched down prior to finishing the loop. If
the stall progresses smoothly outward from the root to the
tips, the wings may stay reasonably level (relative to the
flight path), but lift would decrease delaying/stopping the
final portion of the loop. You'd find yourself headed
towards the ground at high speed unable to pull out.

Other aircraft may not stall smoothly and symmetrically and
could snap roll in this configuration.

High speed stalls are pretty rough on the airframe (and
pilot). They are an area that's extremely hard to explore
safely.

Do not spin this aircraft. If the aircraft does enter a spin it will
return to earth without further attention on the part of the aeronaut.

(first handbook issued with the Curtis-Wright flyer)