A trim tab going on a plane like this when it is doing 400+mph is a whole different ball game than you and I tooling around in a Cessna though.
Apparently this happened before in another unlimited class racer, however instead of crashing it pitched up right away, exceeding 10g's and the pilot passed out, when they came to the aircraft was a 9000'!
Some quotes from others at the AvCanada forums:
Quote:
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Warning - speculation based on the picture - If a trim tab gets disconnected it can flutter. A fluttering trim tab now acts like a boost tab and could induce flutter on the elevator, a fluttering elevator would mean the joystick would be jack hammering back and forth 100's of times a second making roll control impossible....
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Quote:
From the 1999 race.
, pilot Bob Hannah had a wild ride when the elevator trim tab broke off the aircraft and pitched the racer up at approximately 10 G's. Hannah took a G-induced nap but recovered consciousness high over the race course. The flaps had been mis-rigged, and led to undesirable pitch trim forces. At the speeds they were flying at Reno, the tab was sticking way out in the breeze and it had fluttered off.
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