God rest Mr. Buck. He probably saved quite a number of lives that day. May it be counted unto him for righteousness.
My CFI was a Delta captain and built homebuilt aircraft in his spare time. That was almost 50 years ago - once I got a job that prevented me from flying at least once a week, I felt I wasn't sharp enough and quit. Still have my ticket but my medical isn't current.
I was working as a PacBell engineer by day and teaching courses at Southwestern College two nights a week to finance my expenses for my flight instructor and flight time in an Aeronca Champ and Cessna 150. I did my check ride in Bill Bearden in early 1982. A few recreational flights followed as time/money allowed. July 18, 1982 was my last one. Months later, I purchased a new home and my monthly mortgage went from $323 in the condo to $1323 in the 4 br/2 ba house. I also stopped teaching. No disposable income to fly. In August 1985, I was diagnosed with cancer. Treated successfully, but that shot hopes of getting my medical approved again. C'est la vie. Rolling forward to the current time, the 40 years of writing software all day has harmed my vision. I need my specs to see the instruments.
I could probably still fly today. My situational awareness is good enough. I had COVID in January 2022 and January 2023. It seemed mild, but when I went to the skating rink, I managed to do a face plant on the wood floor. That never happened in the 60 years I've been skating. Clearly, I have some neurological impact that harmed the fine kinesthetics necessary to skate. I'm hanging up the skates and redirecting the time to become fluent in Scots Gaelic.