Wildchild wrote:
Engines don't just fall out of the bottom like that... Espcailly on soft sand... There may be a chance he had a piston blow out the block or explode on the inside??
That would have been a wild ride.
If he put the gear down to land out there he might have been in a situation of having to descend extremely fast. Probably not a normal situation of any kind he was dealing with. Unless he was a total rookie at desert flying and lading on sand and rocks. If he had the gear down he was willing to trade off the extra damage that would result along with the possibility of going over on its back.
The gear down landing would have pitched the nose down and that, with the rocks, is what caused the extreme damage up front. What is left of the front portion of the spinner seems to show that it tried to go up on it's nose, breaking off the nosecase and tearing away the radiators and then chewing the bottom of the engine on the rocks.
I've seen pistons and rods tear apart engines but not tear off the bottom of the engine.
My vote is the rocks did it after the nose was torn apart.
The bent upper portion of the pilots seat could be from a shoulder harness strap as the pilot was thrown forward during rapid de-acceleration. A reminder of how violent this landing was.