Pilot Bails Out of Corsair

FReeper tip | 03/04/07 | Self

[Eye of Unk]

Back in the early 90's I went to the Reno Air Races, there was a revolutionary new design of an Unlimited Class racer thar was similar to the old twin boom P-38, it was called the Pond Racer, I had a Pit Pass so I was able to get up close pics of it and the pilot. This plane was really fast, it was supposed to be able to beat anything else currently flyinf with a propeller.

Sadly I also heard him declare an emergency on my scanner and he did not bail out but augered into the ground away from the grandstand, it deeply affected me for awhile.

[Northern Yankee]

Just damn!

[FastCoyote]

"Impressive control under pressure"

This is almost like an enactment of WWII footage, must have been scary as hell if you were in the middle of the Pacific doing the same maneuver for real.

[taildragger]

Eye,

Ditto here, but a year before you. Yes the Pond Racer was quite a Machine Ditto "Tsunami" which was my favorite. The Pond Racer had teething problems. Things like intake duct collapsing and not getting the HP out, and some say it's fuel choice of Methanol (If the memory still holds) was a bit out on the edge as well.

The boot strap award and machine I would have love to have flown (and no I am not up to it!) was "Perestroika" Bob Yancy's bird. It is back under a different name.

[RunningWolf]

%%%% &&&&!

I know he was getting the plane to a better place over the ground, but those things are hard to get out of. If it had got into a uncontained roll or spin he would have went in with it most likely.

[tubebender]

How bazaar. My wife is on the phone with her friend, the widow of a WWII F4 pilot...

[taildragger]

Here is Yancy's old Bird back as Check Mate with what looks liks a bigger rudder.

[GBA]

I was there for that. It's something I'll never forget and about the last thing I thought I'd ever see. I was glad that he got out and it's nice to see he's racing at Reno.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Way old news.Budweiser corsair i think. Reno races ruin alot of engines.Merlins are damned expensive these days.Round motors are not cheap at all.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Its a race plane. You do the best you can.No dramas for the mechanic

[enuf]

Our Fave at the Reno Air Races was Skip Holmes Dago Red!
I believe he quit after they accused him of cutting a pylon, and is selling the plane

[RunningWolf]

Oh yes they are extracting way more out of the engine than they were ever designed for, the airplanes too.

Back in Reno early 90's I was associated with a NWA 747 Captain who also raced the Formula 1 class. So we always got close to all the shop talk etc.

Anyway back then a few crews were exploring various early versions of the Yak for Reno Racing. I got it 2d hand there that one of the Russian designers for some of the WW2 Yaks was there, and he wanted to know how in the h### they were getting those speeds out of the Yak, they had never been about to get more than 380 knots out if it in WW2!

[RunningWolf]

they had never been about able to get more than 380 knots out if it in WW2!

[Spirochete]

That's one realistic re-enactment. Scratch one vintage warbird. I wonder what happened.

[Clara Lou]

Whatever the cause, those were some spectacular flames.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

I knew skip back in the 90s. He is a great guy and a damn good stick.Does he still wear the purple hightops? They were his lucky shoes.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

I knew skip back in the 90s. He is a great guy and a damn good stick.Does he still wear the purple hightops? They were his lucky shoes.

[hattend]

and he wanted to know how in the h### they were getting those speeds out of the Yak, they had never been about to get more than 380 knots out if it in WW2!

"Well, Yuri, first you start with a big AMERICAN motor...then" LOL

[RunningWolf]

LOL!

Well, Yuri, first you start with a big AMERICAN motor...then you stuff it into any old airframe you can dig up, say a Yak-3 for instance. Now clip off some of the wing and tail feathers, clean up the airframe some and viola!

[narby]

Kevin broke his neck (I think it was) bailing out. I believe he did the Papi Boyington trick of unbuckling everything, standing on the stick to get negative G, and pulling the rip cord, all at the same time. The parachute was already opening as he came out of the cockpit, and his head hit the vertical stablizer as the chute riped him past. Thank goodness for helmets. The high speed opening ripped a few panels out of the parachute, but it held.

I asked him afterward, when he was running around Chino all bandaged up, why he didn't go down to one of the skydive places and do one jump, just to see how it works. He said he'd thought about it, but never got around to it.