HH,

I apologize for my lack of use of BOLD to emphasize my points, however I have seen this in-person by my own wrong doing. One thing I have never understood is why people are so scared to have other people know about their crashes. Heaven forbid someone know that so and so crashed their Viper Jet on landing, or what's his name lost their A-10 due to engine failure, or ol' dude plowed it in during a figure 9. Crashes happen. It's sad, it's expensive, and it's just part of the hobby. No one is calling this guy an idiot, albeit I felt like one when I crashed, but just to nail this point home, when I first crashed my BARF, guess who I blamed......BVM. I told them that a control surface failed in flight, which is what appeared happened to me. I wasn't trying to lie or be deceitful, I really felt an elevator failed in flight, causing this barrel roll to the ground.

I claimed this until someone much more knowledgeable than I explained an accelerated (or high-speed) stall. Not only did he explain it, he PROVED it by taking a plane with a high wing loading, making it a little nose heavy, adding in 50% expo, and inducing one before my eyes (at altitude).

Since this demo, I have done it myself, on purpose, at altitude. It wasn't enough for me to see it, I wanted to know how to get out of it. Unfortunately, the only answer is altitude, relax the elevator, and altitude. Being really high up doesn't hurt either. Without this demo, I would STILL be flying around at 50% expo on elevator (because it makes me fly really smooth) not concerned about relative wing loading and aircraft limits.

These are not digs on the pilot, they are chances for him/her and everyone else reading these threads to learn. If you are flying at a high rate of elevator expo, you are a candidate for this to occur. If you have a nose heavy plane, you are a candidate for this to occur (I am aware of the saying nose heavy planes fly like crap, tail heavy planes fly once.). If you have a plane with a higher than designed wing loading, you are a candidate for this to happen.

Now, one last monkey wrench.....temperature will also greatly affect this (Density Altitude). You may do a maneuver on one cool day, and try the EXACT same maneuver, with the same set-up on a hot day and dump the plane right out of it. I just did this last weekend with my Flash. Bottom of a happy face, a little slow on the down side, pulled hard to get up and do the nose and I saw two dips of the wing. Fortunately, the flash is one of the most forgiving sport planes out, and two dips was all I got, but I have done 1000 smiley faces, but in 112 degree weather, I need to be a little more aware of my speed and control surface deflection.

This is a sad event, but it is also a chance to learn.

Chad