Slightly OT- Model B52 Crashes

Sort of. The B-52 crash at Fairchild was a simple accelerated stall, no
spin. It stalled at a near-90 degree bank angle and slid sideways into the
ground. Very tragic. There was a white paper written by a USAF major some
time afterward that examined the leadership and airmanship climate prior to
the crash that makes fascinating reading. I may even have an electronic
copy of it if anyone's interested.

Shawn
"Jerry Springer" wrote in message
k.net...

Wasn't that a B2 instead of a B-52?


Bill Daniels wrote:
I understand the illusion of the "downwind turn" to an RC pilot and the
difficulty to keeping it straight in your mind which way to apply
aileron
with the model coming at you.

However, there was a famous video involving a real B-52 at Fairchild
AFB, WA
where the pilot was hot-rodding low passes and turns. The old bomber
overbanked and spiraled in just like the model did in the video - except
the
real B52 only managed 1/2 turn before impact right in front of the
camera.
I'm wondering if this is a real behavior of the B52 that was accurately
modeled in the RC crash. If so, it's a credit to the accuracy of the
model
builders. Sad to see their loss.

Bill Daniels

"Jay" wrote in message
om...

It looked to me like the pilot might have gotten confused which wing
was low and then corrected the wrong way. As the roll was continued,
the nose fell through. When an RC plane is flying and the light is
behind it, its often easy to get confused which wing has dipped to
know which way to correct. In that circumstance, you only know you've
got it wrong when it responds the opposite of what you thought it
should. A normal turn would have been back towards the camera to come
back over the runway, not away as he ended up doing and crashing.

"Bob" wrote in message

...

"Maule Driver" wrote in message
r.com...

My impression was that it 'stopped flying' before it looked like it

stopped

flying. I think that's what dooms many a pilot because they continue

to

pull after the aircraft as already stalled but before any sort of

break.

Looked like the dreaded downwind turn to this old RCer

And yes, there is no such thing as a downwind turn except as an

optical

illusion that effects the pilot.

It looked to me like it had already made the downwind turn and was

turning

back into the wind when it crashed.
Bob

The issue I was trying to point out wasn't the control "reversal" new
R/C pilots experience when the model is flying towards them, it was
related to the limited (albiet fantastic) dynamic range of the human
eye. When the model is back lit you just see the black siloette. In
this circumstance, the image the viewer sees is ambiguous as to which
way the roll has begun and thus the pilot doesn't know which way to
correct. You can see this in the video because the camera is even
more limited than the human eye.

"Maule Driver" wrote in message . com...
"Jay" wrote in message
om...
It looked to me like the pilot might have gotten confused which wing
was low and then corrected the wrong way.

It's a little hard to imagine that a pilot susceptible to that particular
challenge of RC flying would be flying the B52. I flew for many years and
yet never completely got past my training that included pushing the stick
towards the down wing when it's coming at you. My brother is an
accomplished pattern flyer and I recently asked him whether he still used
that. He laughed and tried to explaing that he 'is completely in the plane
and always oriented". Anyway, it was a pretty simple turn, a large
aircraft, and close in... I don't think so.... but without a black box,
we're all guessing.

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 17:38:11 GMT, "ShawnD2112"
wrote:

Sort of. The B-52 crash at Fairchild was a simple accelerated stall, no
spin. It stalled at a near-90 degree bank angle and slid sideways into the
ground. Very tragic. There was a white paper written by a USAF major some
time afterward that examined the leadership and airmanship climate prior to
the crash that makes fascinating reading. I may even have an electronic
copy of it if anyone's interested.

Here's a URL to the case study:

http://s92270093.onlinehome.us/crmdevel/resources/paper/darkblue/darkblue.htm

A terrible tragedy.

Marty