questions about flight capacity of a damaged P51D

[Flyingkag]

hi all,

concerning a crash I'm investigating about, it seems the Mustang was touched in the motor and white smoke (coolant problem?) was seen pooring from the motor by the last witness;

the plane get into a narrow valley, and as the pilot suddenly realised there was no issue (it was a "dead-end"), he bailed out at ground level (less than 50 meter altitude, maybe just 20 or 10) ...and died;

the brightness of the valley was about 250 meters at same level, as he bailed out; he probably had no capacity to gain altitude again because the "passage" just was about 10 meters higher and he didn't try to continue his flight.

my question are:

- should he have a single little chance to make a 180° turn and get out of such a narrow and closed valley with a powerless motor?

- What shoul be the minimal diameter for a 180° with a very low flight (maybe 150mph/or less)?

- what should be the minimal time for a bail-out between the pilots decision and the (fatal) jump?

it seems he was loosing slowly altitude but was able to fly as seen last time.

Thanks for your technical help!

Mathias

[drgondog]

Very hard to make estimates but you can say a couple of things.
1. Thrust less than Drag which was why he was sinking.
2. Don't know what his boost settings were or whether he was at full throttle (not likely)
3. If you assume that he was using maximum power available due to a badly overheating engine, then he no ability to climb at all and if he could not climb in level flight, he certainly could not turn and maintain altitude - in fact a turn would cause a significant drop in altitude under the above assumed conditions.

[Flyingkag]

very interesting elements, Drgondog! Thanks!

intersting is te fact that the pilot was flying along one side of the valey and not in the midle; that could have let him more capacity to turn back -if necessary; but as it appeared suddenly as nessecery, he tried to stay on same side and believed he could overpass the hill on that one side - just 10 meters higher;

The valley was in a "V" profile; 250m bright at his flight level, so a turn back - causing a loss of altitude as you explained - would let him less than 150 or 200m as diameter for his turn back and it would have been not enough I presume (?) for succeeding.

Pilot had probably noticed that there was no possibility for a belly landing in that little and long valley and would have been a hopeless solution;

then he had just the choice of a quick-end and maybe a crash with fire...

Terrible and immediate choice!