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ACRO E-mail Archive Thread: [IAC] Accidents

Thread: [IAC] Accidents

Message: Re: [IAC] Accidents

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From: DALE EVANS <dale at evans1.com>

Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 14:15:14 UTC

Message:

  Race cars with cages absorb terrific impact....much too heavy
construction for aircraft. Composites are quite durable, but shatter and
disintergrate, thus allowing the pilot to "absorb" impact. The "crumple
factor" helps to a certain extent, but a serious crash in a light weigth
plane will almost always be fatal.

The guy I crew for did 10 flips at Daytona this past Feb...and walked
away, nothing was left except for cage...no motor, sheetmetal,
axels...nothing...everything shredded off....but the specd' rool cage
stayed intact....2-1/2 steel tubing, and alot of it......much too heavy
for flight...although he did get about 20 feet off the ground a few
times.....pictures are available to the curious.

Dale Evans
Miami, FL
CD -'99 US Nationals