Q: You had an interesting experience in a P-47. . .
Well I was doing another test and rolled over and decided to pull it through in
a dive. And suddenly it began to snap roll and this way, and snap roll that
way, and there was dust all over the cockpit and shards coming out and flying
all over and the stick was hitting me in the knee. And I saw white foam coming
off the wings and then we were on our backs, snap rolling and down below I
could see this fellow on a tractor going back and forth across his field, and I
was heading right for him! So, I tried everything, more power, less power,
more rudder, less rudder, but the controls weren't doing anything. So as we got
down to thicker air I just suddenly said well, I didnít want to crash
because there was that man down there on his tractor. So I just said, "Well,
O.K. God take over!" and suddenly it just calmed down and I could feel the
controls coming back in and it went a great whooooosh -- and my scale went
down, you know, under pressure and it came out in a great dive, which I didn't
believe. After that, on the straight and level going back to the field was
when I began to kind of shake but the plane was O.K., but it was quite an
experience.
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