Another VF-9M fatal
Type here is wrong ?
http://www.accident-report.com/USN/aircraft.html
311121 F7C-1 "6583" VA 7658
6583 was "Lowe-Willard-Fowler DT-2"
Only a small number of F7C-1 built and crash photo shows it to be
A-7658 F7C-1 Curtiss Seahawk
1 Lt Joel Benedict Nott
Birth 1 Sep 1905
Death 21 Nov 1931
1 Lt Joel Benedict Nott
On 20 November (1931), Cloud departed Brown Field with six F7C-1's for New Berne, North Carolina, to take part in the dedication of the city's new airport. Because of other assignments, Jerome and two squadron pilots were unable to take part. Cloud borrowed three pilots from squadron VO-6M to complete the assignment. M usual VF-9M was well received on its arrival at New Berne and were the guests of the city during its three-day stay. Saturday afternoon, Cloud led the squadron through its exciting performance and, just before preparing to land, gave the hand signal for the squadron to form a Lufberry circle. It was Cloud's intention to lose altitude gradually and, at the same time, tighten the circle. When low enough, he would break out of the circle into a dive, with each airplane following to form a line; then, with throttles wide open, to dive past the grandstand at less than 50 feet off the ground. This was always a crowd pleaser. The six-plane formation was getting lower and the circle was getting tighter. Cloud was about to give the signal to follow him down when Lt. Joel Nott, flying the number two position behind Cloud, suddenly flipped over into a spin, and before he could possibly recover, crashed to his death on the airport to the horror of the spectators
In all probability the fatal spin was the result of two things: the near-stalled attitude of the airplane as Nott tried to stay in the tight formation, and the turbulent prop-wash created by the other airplanes in the continuous tight circle. It was a terrible blow to Cloud, who somehow blamed himself. Nott was the least experienced of the six pilots, and it was for this reason that Cloud has assigned him as his number one wingman where he could keep an eye on him. His death marked the eighth violent Marine fatality of the year.