He never claimed weather was a factor but there was a significant adverse wind.  Gusting from the west.  This was minutes before they decided not to run the unlimited race final due to wind and turbulence.  The failure occurred while he was headed easterly near the home pylon.   He attempted make a right turn back to 26.  He was still not aligned with the runway when he ran out of altitude and caught the wing tip.  Makes you think twice about trying to return to your departure runway after an engine failure on take off.

David

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [LML] Thunder Mustang Crash at Reno
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 10:32:52 -0400
From: Bill Bradburry <bbradburry@bellsouth.net>
To: lml@lancaironline.net



He never explained how he converted 2K feet of altitude into a cartwheel??  Personally I prefer landing on the wheels and not the wing tips.  :>)



Bill B



------------------------------------------------------------------------

*From:* Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] *On Behalf Of *Steve Colwell
*Sent:* Saturday, September 25, 2010 8:46 AM
*To:* lml@lancaironline.net
*Subject:* [LML] Thunder Mustang Crash at Reno



There was an seminar at Sun and Fun years ago where they talked about how to best crash an airplane without a suitable place to land...and this guy did it...a cartwheel.  The energy is dissipated more slowly and the G Forces are minimized.  They looked at a number of crashes and found that in those that cartwheeled, the pilot walked away.  Your comments?



Steve Colwell   Legacy

http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-092110-pilot-survives,0,646191.story?track=rss