Legendary pilot Scott Crossfield's body found in plane wreckage.

CNN/AP | 4/20/06

[Names Ash Housewares]

Breaking on CNN web page from AP report.

[oxcart]

RIP

[Fatuncle]

84 years old?!? And still flying? Good God!

[antiRepublicrat]

How ironic - survive a crash in an X-15 carrying pretty much a full load of fuel, only to die in a private plane crash.

Sort of like Francis Gary Powers dying in a helicopter while doing traffic reports for news radio.

[Dashing Dasher]

We had a crash at my local airport last year and the pilot (who walked away) was 72 years old.
The press came to the airport to interview some of us about the crash. The interview went something like this...

---

TV News Reporter: I understand the pilot was 72 years old and still flying. Is that normal?

Old Buzzard: It's perfectly normal to me. I'm 82 and fly every day.

TV News Reporter: CUT CUT !!!!

Hrmpf... fade into distance....

[Liberty Valance]

I just heard about this. A legend gone. RIP Scott.

[oxcart]

I use to see Bob Hoover all the time when I worked at the FBO at Wiley Post Airport in OKC. His routine is the stuff of legends, I will never forget his engines out loop in an aero commander!

[Dashing Dasher]

Hoover video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZBcapxGHjE&search=aerobatic

[beelzepug]

"84 years old?!? And still flying? Good God!"

Indeed. I have a friend, a retired Army colonel and chaplain, who only stopped flying and sold his 182 a couple of years ago and he's 85 today. He mostly stopped because his wife (since deceased) was physically unable to climb into the plane anymore. The man is still tough as nails.

[Richard Kimball]

Almost makes me wonder if this was really an accident. I can't think of a more perfect way for him to go.

[Loud Mime]

There's quite an article on Scott here:

http://www.edwards.af.mil/history/docs_html/people/pilot_crossfield.html

Groundloop! Scott Crossfield blew a tire.

[Magic Fingers]

"He was the pro's pro."

Further making dino's point.

[Dashing Dasher]

I know virtually nothing about piloting planes or national statistics on small plane crashes. However, I do know that roughly half the people who I personally have known in my life who regularly pilot private small planes have died in plane crashes. I wouldn't regularly fly small planes as an amatuer in a million years.

You seem to be unlucky with your choice of flying friends.

While most of my friends are pilots and I do lose a few each year to crashes - not nearly the statistic that you are quoting.

[Names Ash Housewares]

"I know virtually nothing about piloting planes or national statistics on small plane crashes. However, I do know that roughly half the people who I personally have known in my life who regularly pilot private small planes have died in plane crashes. I wouldn't regularly fly small planes as an amatuer in a million years."


I am a private pilot. In five years in my flying club (hundreds of members, dozens of aircraft) we have had one fatal crash. And that was a military pilot likely screwing around doing something he was not supposed to be doing with a general aviation aircraft.

Private flying is about as safe as driving motorcycles.

It can be dangerous if you do not put safety first.

You must stay current in your training and always learning.

It's as safe as you make it.

I often read NTSB reports and am always astonished at how many accidents were truly preventable. Despite all the training, General Avaition pilots still do not find new ways to kill themselves. The same mistakes get made over and over again. The accident rate is going.

I have given many people rides, it is a joy to share this with people, a delight to give the controls for a few minutes to a passenger and let them "fly" the aircraft. Life is risk, no activity is 100% safe. There is no avoiding it. But you can minimize it.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Completed sentence from above..

.....accident rate is going down however.

[narby]

I do know that roughly half the people who I personally have known in my life who regularly pilot private small planes have died in plane crashes. I wouldn't regularly fly small planes as an amatuer in a million years.

Crossfield was hardly an "amatuer".

[Names Ash Housewares]

"so I doubt this was controlled flight into terrain. I shouldn't speculate,"

Its possible too he simply died of natural causes in flight. Not a bad way to go for a pilot as long as no harm done on the ground.

[narby]

Among his many honors, Crossfield was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983.

My mother was the director of the Will Rogers Memorial in the 80's when Rogers was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame. She was one of the dignitaries for the presentation, and during the day of the ceremony she was met by the AHoF people and given a tour of the place.

She and my dad were driven all over the air base for several hours by this nice guy, who they were introduced to as "a pilot". He told them about everything and was a great host. They had no idea who he was.

At the presentation that night, the previous inductees were on the dais, and their driver turned out to be Scott Crossfield. My dad said he could have kicked himself. He'd have loved to ask him about all his flying experiences, but they didn't know who he was.

Have a good flight West, Scott.

[narby]

I use to see Bob Hoover all the time when I worked at the FBO at Wiley Post Airport in OKC.

When/where did you work at Wiley? I was a line boy at Tulakes Aviation in the early 70's.

[Dashing Dasher]

I would have recognized him.

;-)

[narby]

Further making dino's point.

The original point was demeaning to aviation. This is probably not the right thread to be making such uneducated opinions.