I thought I lost orientation and that the plane had rolled towards inverted without me realizing. Watching this video and on-board footage (https://youtu.be/PsvR-N7fWn8), it's clear that's not the case.
As I applied rudder for knife edge, the rudder moved down. I can't say I have any memory of purposely adding down elevator, but the on-board clearly shows the elevator moving. The only thing I can figure is that I wanted to straighten out the line, flying along the tree line then make a turn towards me for a long ke pass. But then again, looking at both cams, I was already lined up perfectly. Unless I had a brain fade and thought I was KE gear in instead, in which case down elevator would have brought the plane towards me (which was the plan).
The other theory is that I didn't apply any down elevator, and that it only looks like it due to the air pushing down on it as the plane starts to rotate. The reason for the rotation would then be rudder to roll coupling. This seems plausible, as the plane doesn't start to rotate until I apply a hair more rudder (at 2:31 in the on-board view). After that it was just me panicking as the plane was headed into the trees. More speed probably would have averted the whole thing.
This is a case where if the Spektrum telemetry logged stick and switch positions, I would know for sure what I did. Are you listening, Spektrum?
