Lots of speculation abounds about the crash of the Galloping Ghost, but still...
Take a look at these photos from a similar incident in 1998. There, an elevator tab came off and the airplane pitched up violently, pulling at least 10 Gs. The pilot suffered G-LOC (he passed out) and he came to as the airplane was climbing past 9,000'.*
The same sequence of events, though when an airplane has rolled past vertical, probably will end very badly. In this case, the pilot may have been unconscious when the airplane crashed, which might be some small mercy.
(Earlier posts)
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* Despite the sign to the contrary, Bob Button continued to race Voodoo Chile for several more years.
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If I recall correctly, that was the first year Voodoo was campaigned with it's new owner. Following this incident the plane was torn down and found to have structural problems resulting in it being badly out of rig thus necessitating it needing to be flown with an excessive amount of down elevator. If a plane is properly rigged you should need no trim adjustment at the speed you want the performance to be maximized.
The loss of the trim tab could however induce flutter which at these speeds is very bad and recognizable to an experienced pilot calling for an immediate reduction in speed by pulling up.
In an earlier thread it was noted that there was no sign of the pilots head being visible despite a very small canopy and a poster suggested seat back failure during the initial pull up resulting in nothing to hang on to except the stick and no way to reach the throttle. Two failures and one very big tragedy.
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