aerojock wrote:
Dan,
Thanks for the info, good to know. I wished I had a manual to some of these airplanes when I was younger growing up in Harlingen.
TBM Tony,
I was there too when it crashed landed. I heard he flared too high and it stalled. I also heard that the airspeed indicator was in MPH and not KIAS and that was also a factor.
Airshow-itis or hurry-upitis, ultimately appears to be the cause for the crash, not sleep apnia, airspeed indicator issues, or various pilot failings. As told to me by the FAA guy there that week, and who filled out the FAA report. One of these days I'm going to order that report just to have it. Commonly folks dig up the NTSB report, but they came along later and weren't there that day. They had just got her flying, but the -82 had an issue they had been chasing all week with oil supply leakage to the right-side propeller. IIRC, Lefty was overseeing that project and was in the passenger seat when the shunt occurred. This continued right into airshow time, when just before flair on the last landing, the pilot, "Grinny" Messick, lost pitch due oil starvation on the right prop causing a stall to the right or an asymmetric thrust situation. By the photos, the right prop looks as if it has been feathered and the left prop appears in a "normal thrust mode". As I understand it, when the oil is absent to the prop, the blades are free to flop about. The props appear to have had minimal rotation when they struck the ground, as 3 of the left prop blades are bent back "normally" as carrying pitch but little energy with the tip of the 4th blade scuffed and a slight bend back. Remember the landing gear are collapsing somewhere here during the event. The right-side blades, are all bent perpendicular to a feathered appearing state...tho oddly with the tips pointing at each other on a couple pair appearing to have come down as so, (^). There is one photo prior to the crash of her sitting on the ramp with the spinner removed from the right-side with a large oil stain underneath.
When it gets too hot to work outside, I'll try to post a couple of photos.