Pilot killed in crash is identified

Oaks Christian coach died while landing vintage plane

By Adam Foxman
Tuesday, July 17, 2007



A pilot killed in a weekend accident at the Camarillo Airport was identified Monday as John McKittrick, a 42-year-old Thousand Oaks resident and assistant football coach at Oaks Christian School.
McKittrick was killed Sunday while landing a vintage P-51D Mustang.
Authorities said the World War II-era aircraft flipped over near the south end of the runway shortly after 8 a.m.
McKittrick was pronounced dead at 8:35 a.m.
The plane "bounced several times, shot off the runway to the left, and came to rest and flipped over" while landing, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Gregor said McKittrick gave no sign of trouble before the fatal landing. It was his first solo flight of the aircraft.
Pilots and flying enthusiasts at the Camarillo Airport speculated Monday that too much engine torque caused the powerful warplane to flip over.
"In these big airplanes, the plane wants to rotate in the opposite direction around the propeller," said Casey deBree, a past president of the Commemorative Air Force chapter based at the Camarillo Airport.
"These warbirds are a handful. They are very high-powered, and you can get into trouble very easily."
McKittrick was an experienced pilot, said Jan Hethcock, athletic director at Oaks Christian School in Thousand Oaks, where McKittrick worked as an assistant football coach.
"We're all stunned by what happened," Hethcock said Monday. "It was a freakish accident, I guess."
Hethcock described McKittrick "as a good friend, a great dad, an excellent husband," and someone who loved Oaks Christian.
McKittrick was involved in numerous activities at the school, Hethcock said.
McKittrick's wife, Michele, teaches physical fitness at the school. He also has a son and a daughter who are students there.
"He is going to be missed tremendously," Hethcock said.
The P-51D Mustang fighter planes were used to escort bombers over Germany during World War II.
Worldwide, there are only about 40 P-51s still flying, and they can sell for more than $1.5 million, deBree said.
"The age of a plane really has nothing to do with its airworthiness," Gregor said.
"If an aircraft is properly maintained, it's perfectly safe to fly."
Of the 290 fatal incidents that have involved general aviation in California during the past decade, only two were related to vintage planes, according to a National Transportation Safety Board database.




http://www.venturacountystar.com/new...is-identified/

This is kinda rare to happen. RIP!

Not at all, all of the later variants of the P-51 were known to have this propensity. It was recommended to manually switch the supercharger to Low when operating at altitudes below 14,500 feet, as the torque could easily flip the aircraft onto its back if the throttle was not used very gently. This was normally done automatically but the aneroid switch was known to fail, in which case the supercharger stayed in High without your knowledge. An inexperienced pilot could easily be unaware of this.