Old Deja Vu Racer update?

[rwflyboy]

http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/survivors/pages/44-74204.shtml

I was looking at the above web page and wanted to know if anyone knew how the restoration was coming and how Speer was killed at reno in 1994.

[Race 29]

Bill Speer was practicing on the course when his motor blew. He radioed that oil had covered his windscreen and he was flying blind AND deadstick. C.J. Stevens, who was also on the course in Loyd Hamilton's "Baby Gorilla" pulled up off the course and flew over to help knowing there either wasn't a safety plane on the course at the time, or it was busy. I can't remember which. Bill did his best to line up for Runway 8 for a deadstick landing, but had too much glide slope and hit the dirt area at a pretty high rate of speed just short of RWY 8. C.J. did his best to get to him. I just don't think he had enough time. Bill did a good job, but the weather was pretty bad that year, and may have had a factor.

I'm sorry if this brings back unpleasent memories for anyone. As I watched it unfold, and heard everything on my scanner, it seemed like it was going to be your textbook deadstick landing. After going to Reno for years and years, I've seen so many deadsticks that I had no reason to think otherwise. What I saw though, was burned into my memory and I still think about it pretty often. We need to remember that during ALL emergency situations, that nothing up there is textbook, and there's someone up there who's really trying to save his or her own life.

Race 29

[Unregistered]

The project was acquired by Keith Shell who continued the restoration. There were no wings with the project. Shell and his wife died in the crash of his T-6 in bad weather two or three years ago. I believe his family still has the project but don't know what the plan is.

[speeddemon]

The REAL story?

I will apologize for this right up front, because I know this is going to ruffle some feathers and bring up some bad memories...but I hate to see 'dis-information' being put out there.
(And I will admit...if there are people 'closer' to the story who can correct any bad info I'm putting out...please feel free, I won't take it personally.)

Race 29, this is NOTHING against you, and the version of the accident that you posted...because that is the story that the 'official' NTSB report said.

But I know 'who' wrote the NTSB report, and I also know that NTSB reports don't always tell the 'real' story of the accident.

What I have been told is that, while there may have been an oil leak, THAT is not why Bill came over the radio and said "I'm blind...I can't see". What a lot of people don't know (or don't remember...or want to admit) was that Bill Speer had been medically grounded for several weeks right before Reno '94, with something that had severely effected his eyesight. If I recall, he also passed out a day or two before he had his accident.

The "I'm blind" comment was true...he really couldn't see...but I'm pretty sure Bill Speer had a massive coronary or something (not a doctor...so I can't say what causes that). He was 'awake'...he could still 'fly by feel'....but he 'redded out' in his eyes, and truly couldn't see. So he was able to follow the directions of the other pilot (I don't remember if it was C.J. Stephens, or not) and somewhat set up for a landing, just like Race 29 says.

I also seem to remember that there was either NO oil on the windscreen in the wreckage, or very little (a small enough amount that anyone could have dealt with it.)

I've talked 'quietly' to a lot of people about this accident, and the common theme I get from everyone is that Bill should NEVER have been given the medical clearance to race that year, and that he was dead from the moment he set foot in the cockpit.

Just my .02, and I apologize for any feathers this ruffles. It's over...it's done...and let's remember Bill for what a nice person he was and the contributions he made to air racing.

Speeddemon

[Unregistered]

I hate to tell ya, but if there are that many people "in the know" who know "what really happened"...........then the NTSB would not make up a report.

Thier job is to determine why an aircraft has crashed, not protect anyone or anything else.

If what you say is true, why didn't they report it as such.

Here is the report narrative:

On September 12, 1994, at 1317 hours Pacific daylight time, a North American P-51D, N51U, collided with level terrain while approaching runway 8 at the Reno-Stead Airport, Reno, Nevada. The airplane was being operated by the pilot/owner while taking part in the Reno Air Races. The pilot was participating in qualification heats when the accident occurred. The airplane was destroyed and the certificated private pilot received fatal injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time. The flight originated at the Reno-Stead Airport about 1300 hours.

According to race control authorities, the pilot pulled up off the race course and transmitted a "Mayday" distress call. The pilot indicated the airplane's windscreen was covered with oil and he could not see. Race control cleared the pilot to land any runway. The pilot indicated he was landing on runway 8.

Another race pilot was maneuvering his airplane to join the accident airplane and planned to assist the accident pilot land on the runway. The other pilot noticed the accident pilot's airplane was right of the runway extended centerline and informed the accident pilot he should turn left. The accident airplane's rate of descent was then noted to "increase sharply." The accident airplane was observed by witnesses to collide with the ground in a "20-25 degree" nose-down attitude.

According to witnesses, the airplane struck the ground on the main landing gear and propeller, and then broke apart. Inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)conducted an on-scene examination of the wreckage. The wreckage path was approximately 450 feet long in level chaparral brush. The airplane's horizontal and vertical stabilizer's leading edges were covered with oil. The oil pattern on the stabilizer surfaces followed the path of airflow when the airplane is in flight.

The FAA inspectors traced the source of the oil to the propeller hub. According to the inspector's report, a blade-feathering oil seal was dislodged, allowing pressurized oil used to change the propeller pitch to leak.

A post mortem examination on the pilot was conducted by the Washoe County Coroner's Office on September 13, 1994, with specimens retained for toxicological examination. The results of the toxicological analysis were negative for routine drug and alcohol screens.


King

[Randy Haskin]

Originally posted by Unregistered
The accident airplane's rate of descent was then noted to "increase sharply." The accident airplane was observed by witnesses to collide with the ground in a "20-25 degree" nose-down attitude.

I'm not throwing my opinion on this one either way, but I will say this....

I have flown (and landed) an aircraft in which I could not see out front because the windscreen was blocked. Now, admittedly it was a jet and I did not have any kinds of issues with engine power, but it was still an emergency none the less.

But, the point is at no time did I have any reason to violently pitch over the airplane to 25 degrees nose low while on or near extended centerline on final. In fact, I can't think of any reason that this would happen, outside of an aircraft malfunction, weather phenomena (microburst?), or......

......physiological incident with the pilot.

So, if all that was wrong was a blown prop seal and the pilot couldn't see out the front, what is with the pitch over and lack of attempted recovery from the nose low pitch attitude? There are plenty of peripheral cues out the side of the canopy to tell you how nose low you are, and anyone who flies airplanes would have a natural urge to pull back the stick if the airplane was in that attitude that close to the dirt.

Something to think about.

Something else to think about is this: In the fighter world, if we have any problems where we cannot safely fly an approach and landing ourselves (lost/damaged canopy, loss of pitot-static instruments or airspeed indications, etc), we fly a formation approach and the lead aircraft will "drop us off" in the flare. It only requires the wingman to fly good formation until time to chop the power, then start a flare and wait for the bump when the wheels hit the pavement.

Since formation flying skills are a requirement for unlimited pilots, why don't they train to use a formation approach off the pace jet or safety airplane in the event of a covered windscreen? It isn't any more difficult than flying standard fingertip formation...

[Race 29]

Speed,
No ruffled feathers here. But thanks for considering it.
I consider you and your brother both two of my buddys. I know you wouldn't say anything purposfully malicious. So again, thanks.

Everything I put up about the accident was all from memory, I never read the NTSB report. But your version makes much more sense. Throughout the inital mayday and set up for landing, there really didn't appear to be too much wrong (as I said, textbook). Of course the outcome proved otherwise, and really suprised me because it looked like he had everything under control. I honestly can't remember if he specificly said "Oil on the windscreen" or not. I was in the pits when it happened and it didn't look to me like something he wouldn't survive. Talking with John Crocker a few hours later confirmned that he didn't. John seemed pretty mad about it rather than emotional from losing a friend. That might have just been his way of dealing with it, or maybe that leads to lend creedence to your version. I'm not trying to slam John Crocker at all, just conveying what I percieved to be his emotional state at the time.

As many people already know, Bill's other Mustang "Pegasus" was aquired by Bob Button and now races as "Voodoo"

Race 29

[Unregistered]

<<we fly a formation approach and the lead aircraft will "drop us off" in the flare.>>

Randy,
This assumes you can SEE the other aircraft. Sounds like we don't have all the infoon this one, nor are we likely to.

GP

[Leo]

oil

WAP ran some pictures in their message board section a couple months back of a mustang that Dan Martin landed safely after a seal failure dumped oil all over the front of the plane, covering the windshield and conopy.
I don't know what happened with Bill other than what I saw and anything else is third party information to me. But as hard as a landing under those conditions, it has been done many times before...

[Unregistered]

Safety Plane

One other item that I remember about this incident, was that there was no safety plane in the air. Before this happened there was no safety plane that was in the air during qualifying and practice. I believe that this incident prompted RARA to change their operations to require that a safety plane be in the air whenever qualifying or practicing is happening. From what I remember, the other pilot trying to help, was not able to get over to his position to help out by trying to guide him down.

Whatever happened it was very sad, and got the week off to a bad start.

Isn't that also the year that the 2 T-6's collided comming down the chute on Sunday?

Dan Wilkie

[Race 29]

It was a pretty bad week at Reno that year. I believe it was the same year. We lost Ralph Twombly when he collided with Jerry McDonald. Jerry was able to land safely despite heavy damage to his T-6. All of the crash was not only witnessed by the thousands in the stand, but replayed many times on the news the rest of the week. I was appalled the day after Bill's death because I'd never seen so many news trucks at Reno before. The sport needs WAY more promotion, but I'd rather it not be promoted over "it might hit the fan at any moment"!

Race 29

[Leo]

The fan

I thought the "hit the fan" promotion was in terrible taste. Here in Reno, we had to hear the ad at every commercial break on every station.
The only time I have heard news about the air races (outside of this area) in the media was when there was an accident. There is rarely a blurb in the sports section and no tv cpoverage, unless someone dies.
The unfortunate thing is that those who are not fans of any motorsport think that we fans are just sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for the fiery crash. Whether its Air Racing, NASCAR or go-carts all the non-fan public sees is the tragedy.
It would be so much better if they showed the close finishes, the behind the scenes dramas and the cinderella stories, but nowadays the viewer and reader wants the blood they accuse the fan of seeking.

[Pylon1_Mark]

Re: Old Deja Vu Racer update?

Originally posted by rwflyboy
http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51...44-74204.shtml

I was looking at the above web page and wanted to know if anyone knew how the restoration was coming and how Speer was killed at reno in 1994.

Well.... I do get a little miffed when I see others taking credit for pictures that they do not own. Rob Prior is not the photographers of that shot and should not recieve any credit for it - I took that shot and I have the negative & print to prove it. Here's a much larger scan of that image. clickie

As far as the accident...

speeddemon, not meaning to sound harsh but I think you need to first think about what you say and how it effects others... as I think that's the more important issue here. Personally, I don't put too much faith in third party recounts. The NTSB report is the diffinative version of the story. Everything else is hearsay. Buying into that hearsay does nothing but hurt the sport & the people who made/make it all possible. Let's not guess about what caused it... and let's not cast ridaclue towards those that were directly involved without proof. That type of dis-information serves no one.

[rwflyboy]

Nice shot Mark

You took another great one.....(not suprised)....hows the Honey? I hope that things are about to be back on track...no pun intended.

[Pylon1_Mark]

Re: Nice shot Mark

Originally posted by rwflyboy
You took another great one.....(not suprised)....hows the Honey? I hope that things are about to be back on track...no pun intended.

My sweetie is doing much better, thanks for asking. Not 100% yet, but on the mend for sure .