Another week, another warbird lost-this time, a P-51 involved in a mid-air at the Duxford Flying Legends show in the UK. Watching the video made me wonder if that Skyraider pilot is gonna get an earful about rolling into a turn and losing sight of the P-51. I'll let the warbird guys figure that one out-they've certainly got good video for the post-accident probable cause.What I found most interesting was the video of the bail out sequence. I'm sure the pilot, Rob Davies, thought hard-but not long-before tossing the airplane and saving himself. In his post-accident interview, he didn't say what the P-51's control issues were and I'm not sure from the video what part came off the tail, but I'd guess the elevator or maybe control cables, so without pitch control, the airplane was headed downhill with no way to right it. His options were down to one.Davies said he made the bailout decision at about 500 feet and got a good canopy at 200 feet. That sounds low and it is, but emergency parachutes are designed to open almost instantly, so it's no surprise he survived. But I give him a tip of the hat for exiting under duress and, at least according to the video, maybe getting perfect body position before deploying. "Perfect" means belly to earth and stable, not tumbling.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/insider/the-p-51-bailout