Just saw this over at CNN, Scott Crossfield killed in a plane crash.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/20/georgi ... index.html
A Legend Passes Away
Moderators: lilfssister, North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, I WAS Birddog
Famed aviator Scott Crossfield dies in plane crash
P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
Scott Crossfield, the University of Washington graduate who was the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound, was found dead Thursday in the wreckage of his single-engine plane in Georgia.
Crossfield, 84, dueled with . Yeager a half century ago in piloting rocket-powered aircraft. He helped design and then piloted the X-15 rocket plane. He was a legend to aeronautic students at the UW, but he considered his cutting-edge career an ordinary profession.
AP
Test Pilot Scott Crossfield sits in a centrifuge machine which duplicates the stress of extreme acceleration encountered by jet pilots at high altitudes in this Feb. 28, 1958, file photo. Crossfield, the first person to fly at twice the speed of sound, was found dead Thursday in the wreckage of a single-engine plane in the mountains of northern Georgia.
Air-traffic monitors had lost radio and radar contact with Crossfield Wednesday as he was en route from Alabama to his Virginia home. Thunderstorms were reported in the area.
The cause of the crash, about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, is under investigation. Crossfield was believed to be the only person aboard.
"We're in a state of shock," said Adam Bruckner, chair of the UW's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "He was sort of a hero here to our department, our students, our faculty and others.
"What better role model can you imagine than someone who flew the greatest and the latest and then helped design an even better one?"
Crossfield, 84, a native of Berkeley, Calif., enrolled at the UW in 1942, interrupting his studies to serve as a Navy fighter pilot and instructor during World War II. He returned to Seattle to earn a bachelor's degree in 1949 in aeronautical engineering and a master's degree in aeronautical science in 1950. He worked in the UW's Kirsten Wind Tunnel from 1946 to 1950.
After graduate school, he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor of NASA, as a research pilot.
The Cessna 210A in which Crossfield died was a puny flying machine compared with the rocket-powered aircraft he flew as a test pilot. During his heyday, he routinely climbed into some of the most powerful, most dangerous and most complex pieces of machinery of his time, took them to their performance limits or beyond -- or "pushed the envelope," as test pilots put it -- and usually brought them back to earth in one piece.
Six years after Yeager broke the sound barrier, Crossfield set the Mach 2 record in November 1953, going twice the speed of sound and reaching about 1,300 mph in a Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket. The plane reached an altitude of 13.6 miles.
He left NACA in 1955 to help North American Aviation design and build the X-15, then flew the unproven aircraft in dangerous tests to test its airworthiness. He piloted the rocket plane more than a dozen times, reaching a maximum speed of Mach 2.97 -- about 1,960 mph -- and climbing 16.7 miles above Earth in 1960.
In a 1988 interview with Aviation Week & Space Technology, he downplayed any talk of heroism.
Test pilots are "all just people who incidentally do flight tests," Crossfield said. "It is a profession just like anything else.5 In my mind, we should divest ourselves of this idea of special people (being) heroes, if you please, because really they do not exist."
The early days of the research airplane program had much less bureaucracy than later years, Crossfield said in the same interview. "For instance, there could be a day where I would do an X-1 launch early in the morning, fly the X-4 over lunch hour, and do a D-558-II launch in the afternoon. That was not a typical day, but there were days of that type. We were very versatile in our operation in those days."
During the 1950s, Crossfield embodied what came to be called "the right stuff," dueling Yeager for supremacy among America's Cold War test pilots. Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947. Only weeks after Crossfield reached Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, Yeager outdid him.
"He's really one of the major figures," said Peter Jakab, aerospace chairman at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. "He was not only the great cutting-edge research pilot 5 but after that, he continued to be a great adviser and participant in all aspects of aerospace."
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin hailed him as "a true pioneer whose daring X-15 flights helped pave the way for the space shuttle."
In "The Right Stuff," Tom Wolfe's history of the dawn of the space age, Wolfe portrayed Crossfield, Yeager and other members of the brotherhood of test pilots as possessors of "the right stuff," which the author defined as "the ability to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide on the line and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the coolness, to pull it back in the last yawning moment -- and then to go up again the next day, and the next day, and every next day."
(During an interview on "The Early Show" on CBS in 2003, Crossfield said he would "not endorse anything that was in ‘The Right Stuff.'.")
The first group of seven NASA astronauts was selected in 1959. Bob Jacobs, a NASA spokesman, said Thursday that Crossfield never applied, though he did some engineering work on the Apollo space program. Many test pilots sneered at the Mercury program and did not consider it real flying; they regarded astronauts as little more than "Spam in a can" because their capsules were controlled from the ground.
Attempts to break the sound barrier in the years following World War II involved high stakes and some big egos.
On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager finally reached the landmark, pushing his orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane past 660 mph over the Mojave Desert in California. His feat was kept top secret for about a year.
The now 83-year-old Yeager, in his book "Yeager: An Autobiography," described friction between the military pilots and the civilian NACA pilots. He groused that Crossfield "was a proficient pilot, but also among the most arrogant I've met. 5 None of us blue suiters was thrilled to see a NACA guy bust Mach 2."
The competition did not end at Mach 2. On Dec. 12, 1953, just a few days before the 50th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight, Yeager bested Crossfield when he flew an X-1A to a record speed of more than Mach 2.4, or more than 1,600 mph.
The upcoming Wright anniversary had weighed on his mind, Yeager wrote: "The television networks had scheduled special programs about Crossfield and his Mach 2 flight. 5 Our plan was to smash Scotty's record on December 12."
Nowadays, the best fighter jets can fly well over Mach 2.
Crossfield left NACA in 1955 to work for North American Aviation on the X-15 project, including its first flight, an unpowered glide, in 1959. Other early X-15 test flights were made by pilots Joe Walker and Robert White.
In one of his test flights, Crossfield reached about three times the speed of sound on Nov. 15, 1960, in an X-15 launched from a B-52 bomber. The plane reached an altitude of 81,000 feet.
There were some close calls. During an X-15 flight in 1959, one of the engines exploded. The emergency landing broke the aircraft's back just behind the cockpit, but Crossfield was not injured, according to the Edwards Air Force Base Web site.
Less than a year later, a malfunctioning valve caused a catastrophic explosion during a ground test while Crossfield was in the cockpit. He again escaped injury.
In later years, he was an executive for Eastern Airlines and Hawker Siddley Aviation and a technical consultant to the House Committee on Science and Technology.
"I am an aeronautical engineer, an aerodynamicist and a designer," he told Aviation Week & Space Technology. "My flying was only primarily because I felt that it was essential to designing and building better airplanes for pilots to fly."
More recently, Crossfield had a key role in preparations for the attempt to re-enact the Wright brothers' flight on the 100th anniversary of their feat on the sand dunes near Kitty Hawk, N.C. Crossfield trained four pilots, and one of them, Kevin Kochersberger, was selected for the Dec. 17, 2003, attempt.
But in the end, unsuitable weather doomed the attempt to get the replica into the air. The plane plopped into wet sand as the crowd of 35,000 groaned.
Among his many honors, Crossfield was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983.
P-I Reporter John Iwasaki contributed to this report by The Associated Press
P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
Scott Crossfield, the University of Washington graduate who was the first man to fly at twice the speed of sound, was found dead Thursday in the wreckage of his single-engine plane in Georgia.
Crossfield, 84, dueled with . Yeager a half century ago in piloting rocket-powered aircraft. He helped design and then piloted the X-15 rocket plane. He was a legend to aeronautic students at the UW, but he considered his cutting-edge career an ordinary profession.
AP
Test Pilot Scott Crossfield sits in a centrifuge machine which duplicates the stress of extreme acceleration encountered by jet pilots at high altitudes in this Feb. 28, 1958, file photo. Crossfield, the first person to fly at twice the speed of sound, was found dead Thursday in the wreckage of a single-engine plane in the mountains of northern Georgia.
Air-traffic monitors had lost radio and radar contact with Crossfield Wednesday as he was en route from Alabama to his Virginia home. Thunderstorms were reported in the area.
The cause of the crash, about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, is under investigation. Crossfield was believed to be the only person aboard.
"We're in a state of shock," said Adam Bruckner, chair of the UW's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "He was sort of a hero here to our department, our students, our faculty and others.
"What better role model can you imagine than someone who flew the greatest and the latest and then helped design an even better one?"
Crossfield, 84, a native of Berkeley, Calif., enrolled at the UW in 1942, interrupting his studies to serve as a Navy fighter pilot and instructor during World War II. He returned to Seattle to earn a bachelor's degree in 1949 in aeronautical engineering and a master's degree in aeronautical science in 1950. He worked in the UW's Kirsten Wind Tunnel from 1946 to 1950.
After graduate school, he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor of NASA, as a research pilot.
The Cessna 210A in which Crossfield died was a puny flying machine compared with the rocket-powered aircraft he flew as a test pilot. During his heyday, he routinely climbed into some of the most powerful, most dangerous and most complex pieces of machinery of his time, took them to their performance limits or beyond -- or "pushed the envelope," as test pilots put it -- and usually brought them back to earth in one piece.
Six years after Yeager broke the sound barrier, Crossfield set the Mach 2 record in November 1953, going twice the speed of sound and reaching about 1,300 mph in a Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket. The plane reached an altitude of 13.6 miles.
He left NACA in 1955 to help North American Aviation design and build the X-15, then flew the unproven aircraft in dangerous tests to test its airworthiness. He piloted the rocket plane more than a dozen times, reaching a maximum speed of Mach 2.97 -- about 1,960 mph -- and climbing 16.7 miles above Earth in 1960.
In a 1988 interview with Aviation Week & Space Technology, he downplayed any talk of heroism.
Test pilots are "all just people who incidentally do flight tests," Crossfield said. "It is a profession just like anything else.5 In my mind, we should divest ourselves of this idea of special people (being) heroes, if you please, because really they do not exist."
The early days of the research airplane program had much less bureaucracy than later years, Crossfield said in the same interview. "For instance, there could be a day where I would do an X-1 launch early in the morning, fly the X-4 over lunch hour, and do a D-558-II launch in the afternoon. That was not a typical day, but there were days of that type. We were very versatile in our operation in those days."
During the 1950s, Crossfield embodied what came to be called "the right stuff," dueling Yeager for supremacy among America's Cold War test pilots. Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947. Only weeks after Crossfield reached Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, Yeager outdid him.
"He's really one of the major figures," said Peter Jakab, aerospace chairman at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. "He was not only the great cutting-edge research pilot 5 but after that, he continued to be a great adviser and participant in all aspects of aerospace."
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin hailed him as "a true pioneer whose daring X-15 flights helped pave the way for the space shuttle."
In "The Right Stuff," Tom Wolfe's history of the dawn of the space age, Wolfe portrayed Crossfield, Yeager and other members of the brotherhood of test pilots as possessors of "the right stuff," which the author defined as "the ability to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide on the line and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the coolness, to pull it back in the last yawning moment -- and then to go up again the next day, and the next day, and every next day."
(During an interview on "The Early Show" on CBS in 2003, Crossfield said he would "not endorse anything that was in ‘The Right Stuff.'.")
The first group of seven NASA astronauts was selected in 1959. Bob Jacobs, a NASA spokesman, said Thursday that Crossfield never applied, though he did some engineering work on the Apollo space program. Many test pilots sneered at the Mercury program and did not consider it real flying; they regarded astronauts as little more than "Spam in a can" because their capsules were controlled from the ground.
Attempts to break the sound barrier in the years following World War II involved high stakes and some big egos.
On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager finally reached the landmark, pushing his orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane past 660 mph over the Mojave Desert in California. His feat was kept top secret for about a year.
The now 83-year-old Yeager, in his book "Yeager: An Autobiography," described friction between the military pilots and the civilian NACA pilots. He groused that Crossfield "was a proficient pilot, but also among the most arrogant I've met. 5 None of us blue suiters was thrilled to see a NACA guy bust Mach 2."
The competition did not end at Mach 2. On Dec. 12, 1953, just a few days before the 50th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight, Yeager bested Crossfield when he flew an X-1A to a record speed of more than Mach 2.4, or more than 1,600 mph.
The upcoming Wright anniversary had weighed on his mind, Yeager wrote: "The television networks had scheduled special programs about Crossfield and his Mach 2 flight. 5 Our plan was to smash Scotty's record on December 12."
Nowadays, the best fighter jets can fly well over Mach 2.
Crossfield left NACA in 1955 to work for North American Aviation on the X-15 project, including its first flight, an unpowered glide, in 1959. Other early X-15 test flights were made by pilots Joe Walker and Robert White.
In one of his test flights, Crossfield reached about three times the speed of sound on Nov. 15, 1960, in an X-15 launched from a B-52 bomber. The plane reached an altitude of 81,000 feet.
There were some close calls. During an X-15 flight in 1959, one of the engines exploded. The emergency landing broke the aircraft's back just behind the cockpit, but Crossfield was not injured, according to the Edwards Air Force Base Web site.
Less than a year later, a malfunctioning valve caused a catastrophic explosion during a ground test while Crossfield was in the cockpit. He again escaped injury.
In later years, he was an executive for Eastern Airlines and Hawker Siddley Aviation and a technical consultant to the House Committee on Science and Technology.
"I am an aeronautical engineer, an aerodynamicist and a designer," he told Aviation Week & Space Technology. "My flying was only primarily because I felt that it was essential to designing and building better airplanes for pilots to fly."
More recently, Crossfield had a key role in preparations for the attempt to re-enact the Wright brothers' flight on the 100th anniversary of their feat on the sand dunes near Kitty Hawk, N.C. Crossfield trained four pilots, and one of them, Kevin Kochersberger, was selected for the Dec. 17, 2003, attempt.
But in the end, unsuitable weather doomed the attempt to get the replica into the air. The plane plopped into wet sand as the crowd of 35,000 groaned.
Among his many honors, Crossfield was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983.
P-I Reporter John Iwasaki contributed to this report by The Associated Press
- NoseDraggers Suck
I can't believe Yeager called Crossfield the "most arrogant guy he's met". Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. The best pilot in the world is . Yeager, according to . Yeager. The very least he could have done is show some class by not saying anything. The only reason . is famous is because another pilot wouldn't take that flight until his hazard pay was sorted out.
In case you hadn't figured, I don't like . Yeager.
In case you hadn't figured, I don't like . Yeager.
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Capt Pistolla
- Rank 0
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 5:36 am
I was surprised to hear how he died. 84 and natural causes ok but not like that. The day before I was watching the wx and storm warnings around that area and thinking that would be a nice place to avoid.
I never could understand some peoples approach to flying around and even through CB's...There are some things you just don't do no matter how good you are.
I never could understand some peoples approach to flying around and even through CB's...There are some things you just don't do no matter how good you are.
We don't really know what happened yet though.
Maybe he did have a medical problem and became incapacitated. They only said thunderstorms were in the area. You would think a man like Scott Crossfield would know to stay out of a thunderhead in an aircraft like a 210.
Godspeed Scott Crossfield.
Maybe he did have a medical problem and became incapacitated. They only said thunderstorms were in the area. You would think a man like Scott Crossfield would know to stay out of a thunderhead in an aircraft like a 210.
Godspeed Scott Crossfield.
NTSB Issues Final Report On Crossfield Accident
NTSB: Controller "should have recognized that the adverse weather
represented an immediate safety hazard"
The NTSB has released the final report on the tragic accident that killed
famed Aviator Scott Crossfield. The report summary is attached below...
NTSB Identification: CHI06MA115
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Wednesday, April 19, 2006 in Ludville, GA
Probable Cause Approval Date: 9/27/2007
Aircraft: Cessna 210A, registration: N6579X
Injuries: 1 Fatal.
The airplane flew into an area of severe thunderstorms identified as a
mesoscale convective system (or "MCS") with intense to extreme intensities
during cruise flight at 11,000 feet then descended rapidly and impacted the
terrain. The on-scene investigation revealed no preimpact mechanical
malfunctions or anomalies that would have prevented the normal operation of
the airplane or its systems.
The airplane entered the severe convective weather; the pilot then requested
and received clearance from the air traffic controller to initiate a turn to
escape the weather. The airplane was lost from radar about 30 seconds after
the pilot initiated the turn. Before the airplane entered the weather, the
controller's radar scope depicted a band of moderate to extreme weather
along the accident airplane's projected flightpath that was consistent with
an embedded, heavy-precipitation, supercell-type thunderstorm; however, the
controller did not provide the pilot with any severe weather advisories and
did not advise the pilot of the weather depicted on his radar scope.
Although Federal Aviation Administration directives state that controllers
should give first priority to separating aircraft and issuing safety alerts,
the directives further state that controllers should use good judgment and
first perform the action that is most critical from a safety standpoint.
Review of air traffic communications and radar data identified no air
traffic control (ATC) radar limitations, no excessive traffic, no radio
frequency congestion, and no controller workload issues that would have
prevented the controller from issuing pertinent weather information to the
accident pilot. On the basis of the controller's workload and available
resources, he should have recognized that the adverse weather represented an
immediate safety hazard to the accident flight and should have provided
appropriate advisories to the pilot.
The pilot obtained several weather briefings before departure. At that time,
the current weather along the route of flight showed significant convective
activity and a moving squall line, and the forecast predicted significant
thunderstorm activity along the planned route of flight. The pilot also
discussed the weather with an acquaintance, mentioning that he might need to
work his way around some weather. On the basis of the weather information
obtained by the pilot and his comments regarding the weather, the pilot was
aware before departure that he would likely encounter adverse weather along
the planned route of flight; however, by the time the airplane encountered
the weather, the pilot had been airborne for over an hour and had not
requested any updated weather information from air traffic controllers. The
airplane was equipped with a BF Goodrich WX-950 Stormscope, which has some
ability to depict the location and frequency of lightning strikes in the
vicinity of the airplane; however, the investigation could not determine if
and how this equipment may have been used during the flight. The airplane
was not configured to display satellite weather information on its global
positioning systems.
In October 2006, the National Transportation Safety Board issued Safety
Alert SA-11, "Thunderstorm Encounters," as a result of this accident and
three other fatal accidents that involved in-flight encounters with severe
weather. The safety alert addresses ATC involvement in these accidents. The
alert also states that IFR pilots need to actively maintain awareness of
severe weather along their route of flight, and it provides suggestions to
assist pilots in avoiding involvement in similar accidents.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of
this accident as follows:
The pilot's failure to obtain updated en route weather information, which
resulted in his continued instrument flight into a widespread area of severe
convective activity, and the air traffic controller's failure to provide
adverse weather avoidance assistance, as required by Federal Aviation
Administration directives, both of which led to the airplane's encounter
with a severe thunderstorm and subsequent loss of control.
NTSB: Controller "should have recognized that the adverse weather
represented an immediate safety hazard"
The NTSB has released the final report on the tragic accident that killed
famed Aviator Scott Crossfield. The report summary is attached below...
NTSB Identification: CHI06MA115
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Wednesday, April 19, 2006 in Ludville, GA
Probable Cause Approval Date: 9/27/2007
Aircraft: Cessna 210A, registration: N6579X
Injuries: 1 Fatal.
The airplane flew into an area of severe thunderstorms identified as a
mesoscale convective system (or "MCS") with intense to extreme intensities
during cruise flight at 11,000 feet then descended rapidly and impacted the
terrain. The on-scene investigation revealed no preimpact mechanical
malfunctions or anomalies that would have prevented the normal operation of
the airplane or its systems.
The airplane entered the severe convective weather; the pilot then requested
and received clearance from the air traffic controller to initiate a turn to
escape the weather. The airplane was lost from radar about 30 seconds after
the pilot initiated the turn. Before the airplane entered the weather, the
controller's radar scope depicted a band of moderate to extreme weather
along the accident airplane's projected flightpath that was consistent with
an embedded, heavy-precipitation, supercell-type thunderstorm; however, the
controller did not provide the pilot with any severe weather advisories and
did not advise the pilot of the weather depicted on his radar scope.
Although Federal Aviation Administration directives state that controllers
should give first priority to separating aircraft and issuing safety alerts,
the directives further state that controllers should use good judgment and
first perform the action that is most critical from a safety standpoint.
Review of air traffic communications and radar data identified no air
traffic control (ATC) radar limitations, no excessive traffic, no radio
frequency congestion, and no controller workload issues that would have
prevented the controller from issuing pertinent weather information to the
accident pilot. On the basis of the controller's workload and available
resources, he should have recognized that the adverse weather represented an
immediate safety hazard to the accident flight and should have provided
appropriate advisories to the pilot.
The pilot obtained several weather briefings before departure. At that time,
the current weather along the route of flight showed significant convective
activity and a moving squall line, and the forecast predicted significant
thunderstorm activity along the planned route of flight. The pilot also
discussed the weather with an acquaintance, mentioning that he might need to
work his way around some weather. On the basis of the weather information
obtained by the pilot and his comments regarding the weather, the pilot was
aware before departure that he would likely encounter adverse weather along
the planned route of flight; however, by the time the airplane encountered
the weather, the pilot had been airborne for over an hour and had not
requested any updated weather information from air traffic controllers. The
airplane was equipped with a BF Goodrich WX-950 Stormscope, which has some
ability to depict the location and frequency of lightning strikes in the
vicinity of the airplane; however, the investigation could not determine if
and how this equipment may have been used during the flight. The airplane
was not configured to display satellite weather information on its global
positioning systems.
In October 2006, the National Transportation Safety Board issued Safety
Alert SA-11, "Thunderstorm Encounters," as a result of this accident and
three other fatal accidents that involved in-flight encounters with severe
weather. The safety alert addresses ATC involvement in these accidents. The
alert also states that IFR pilots need to actively maintain awareness of
severe weather along their route of flight, and it provides suggestions to
assist pilots in avoiding involvement in similar accidents.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of
this accident as follows:
The pilot's failure to obtain updated en route weather information, which
resulted in his continued instrument flight into a widespread area of severe
convective activity, and the air traffic controller's failure to provide
adverse weather avoidance assistance, as required by Federal Aviation
Administration directives, both of which led to the airplane's encounter
with a severe thunderstorm and subsequent loss of control.
-
shimmydampner
- Rank (9)
- Posts: 1764
- Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2004 3:59 pm
No disrespect intended, but 84 year olds dying at the wheel of motorized machinery might as well be "natural" causes. A guy's gotta hang up the keys at some point before he becomes a danger to himself and those around him. Lets call a spade a spade--84 year olds shouldn't be driving cars let alone flying airplanes.Capt Pistolla wrote:I was surprised to hear how he died. 84 and natural causes ok but not like that.
All that aside, condolences to the family.
Shimmy, you are full of shit. I'll bet Scott Crossfield even at his age could fly rings around your ass.
Lots of seniors are capable of operating machinery. To make a blanket, arrogant statement like that shows you to be a narrow-minded pratt and proves you don't know how to read.
So, at what age should they be banned, oh God-like aviation hero? 56? 63? 72? 79?
Damn it, now I'll have to come back here later when I'm not mad and edit this 'cause I sound like Doc...
Lots of seniors are capable of operating machinery. To make a blanket, arrogant statement like that shows you to be a narrow-minded pratt and proves you don't know how to read.
So, at what age should they be banned, oh God-like aviation hero? 56? 63? 72? 79?
Damn it, now I'll have to come back here later when I'm not mad and edit this 'cause I sound like Doc...
"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
-
Rudder Bug
- Rank 10
- Posts: 2735
- Joined: Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:09 pm
- Location: Right seat but I own the seat
I'm kinda mad too, turning older soon. Oct 30 by the way but I don't accept money. Greetings will be ok.
Alright, I don't jump around like I used to do. Getting more and more chicken. Fly like an old lady, never get scared.
I hate to say it, retirement happens when we just begin to figure it out.
Alright, I don't jump around like I used to do. Getting more and more chicken. Fly like an old lady, never get scared.
I hate to say it, retirement happens when we just begin to figure it out.
Flying an aircraft and building a guitar are two things that are easy to do bad and difficult to do right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yd_QppdGks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yd_QppdGks
-
Chuck Ellsworth
- Rank 11
- Posts: 3074
- Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2007 6:49 am
- Location: Always moving
Age has no bearing on how profficient a pilot is.
Bob Hoover was still doing his engines feathered routine in the Shrike Comander at age 84.....
I am going to be 72 next month and I can not believe the arrogance of anyone suggesting that older pilots should be grounded, I personallly feel I am a far better pilot today than when I was in my early years for the simple reason I have survived this long and have all that experience to draw on...
...just this morning I was wringing out a new aircraft from the factory at Aviat and can see no difference in my flying now than when I was younger....except that I am more aware of the limits now.
So anyone who thinks older pilots are not up to their standards are welcome to come fly with me and lets see what happens.
Bob Hoover was still doing his engines feathered routine in the Shrike Comander at age 84.....
I am going to be 72 next month and I can not believe the arrogance of anyone suggesting that older pilots should be grounded, I personallly feel I am a far better pilot today than when I was in my early years for the simple reason I have survived this long and have all that experience to draw on...
...just this morning I was wringing out a new aircraft from the factory at Aviat and can see no difference in my flying now than when I was younger....except that I am more aware of the limits now.
So anyone who thinks older pilots are not up to their standards are welcome to come fly with me and lets see what happens.
The most difficult thing about flying is knowing when to say no.
After over a half a century of flying I can not remember even one trip that I refused to do that resulted in someone getting killed because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying I can not remember even one trip that I refused to do that resulted in someone getting killed because of my decision not to fly.
Nothing pisses me off more than remarks like.."Godspeed" (what in the hell is godspeed, anyway?) and "RIP" and my all time fav, "He died doing what he loved." But, in this particular case, the last may well be true.
This guy has lived a life most of us can only dream of. He was part of the "leading edge" of the learning curve, that among other things opened the doors to space. And I'd be willing to bet, that at the ripe old age of 84, he could most probably fly our collective asses off?
Wouldn't want to challenge Arnold or Jack on a golf course!
This guy has lived a life most of us can only dream of. He was part of the "leading edge" of the learning curve, that among other things opened the doors to space. And I'd be willing to bet, that at the ripe old age of 84, he could most probably fly our collective asses off?
Wouldn't want to challenge Arnold or Jack on a golf course!
-
shimmydampner
- Rank (9)
- Posts: 1764
- Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2004 3:59 pm
xsbank wrote:Shimmy, you are full of shit. I'll bet Scott Crossfield even at his age could fly rings around your ass.
Lots of seniors are capable of operating machinery. To make a blanket, arrogant statement like that shows you to be a narrow-minded pratt and proves you don't know how to read.
So, at what age should they be banned, oh God-like aviation hero? 56? 63? 72? 79?
A ha ha ha ha, you amuse me. But seriously, don't be such a child. Maybe he could at his age still fly rings around my ass........oh but wait...he's dead. Either way, I never claimed to be a "god-like aviation hero."
I'm aware that lots of seniors are capable of operating machinery. When I lived in civilization I would see lots of them at the malls and grocery stores on their motorized electric carts.
There shouldn't be an age limit and they shouldn't be banned. They should have the brains to know that they're too old to do certain activities safely anymore and voluntarily give it up. Even the best hands and feet get slower with age, it's indisputable science. And with the increased risk of health issues, the potential for hurting himself and others increases. And really, if we want to get right down to it, obviously his decision making skills were suffering a bit as well or he wouldn't have flown near enough a thunderstorm to end up dead.
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shimmydampner
- Rank (9)
- Posts: 1764
- Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2004 3:59 pm
Shimmy. just so you know, I've seen more than a few young guys make really bad decisions, run out of gas, fly to close to a storm, push weather, and die. You know, really stupid things. Really stupid decisions are not age related. Maybe, when you grow up, you'll begin to realize that simple fact of life? Maybe. If you don't make any really stupid mistakes due to your approaching cognitive decay.
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Mitch Cronin
- Rank 8
- Posts: 914
- Joined: Fri Feb 27, 2004 9:15 am
- Location: Right beside my dog again...
Right flippin' on! ...and if anyone had a RIDE, Scott Crossfield sure as hell did!W5 wrote:Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body; but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming:
WOW....WHAT A RIDE!!!
Author: Unknown
For Doc:
Etymology
From Middle English, from "God speed you." (May God help you prosper.)
Pronunciation
IPA: /gɒdˈspi:d/
Interjection
Godspeed
An expression of respect and good will when addressing someone, typically someone about to go on a journey or a daring endeavor.
A Christian substitute to the otherwise sacrilegious "good luck", which implies that anything can be random and out of the hands of God. Used to express concern and prayer for someone.
Examples:
Evangelist, after he had kissed him, gave him one smile, and bid him God-speed. (John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress)
"I'm wishing you God-speed, Hattersley," cried Arthur, "and aiding you with my prayers." (Anne Brontë, Tenant of Wildfell Hall)
Rowland at the garden gate was giving his hostess Godspeed on her way to church. (Henry James, Roderick Hudson)
Eight years before he had seen his friend off at the North Wall and wished him God-speed. (James Joyce, Dubliners)
z
Etymology
From Middle English, from "God speed you." (May God help you prosper.)
Pronunciation
IPA: /gɒdˈspi:d/
Interjection
Godspeed
An expression of respect and good will when addressing someone, typically someone about to go on a journey or a daring endeavor.
A Christian substitute to the otherwise sacrilegious "good luck", which implies that anything can be random and out of the hands of God. Used to express concern and prayer for someone.
Examples:
Evangelist, after he had kissed him, gave him one smile, and bid him God-speed. (John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress)
"I'm wishing you God-speed, Hattersley," cried Arthur, "and aiding you with my prayers." (Anne Brontë, Tenant of Wildfell Hall)
Rowland at the garden gate was giving his hostess Godspeed on her way to church. (Henry James, Roderick Hudson)
Eight years before he had seen his friend off at the North Wall and wished him God-speed. (James Joyce, Dubliners)
z
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Chuck Ellsworth
- Rank 11
- Posts: 3074
- Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2007 6:49 am
- Location: Always moving
Some of us atheist's wouldn't understand that concept.A Christian substitute to the otherwise sacrilegious "good luck",
The most difficult thing about flying is knowing when to say no.
After over a half a century of flying I can not remember even one trip that I refused to do that resulted in someone getting killed because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying I can not remember even one trip that I refused to do that resulted in someone getting killed because of my decision not to fly.
