crashaz
August 27th, 2009, 10:56
OK everyone.. take your favorite beverage and a toast to my father.
He passed away last night... heart could not keep going.
Not a time of sadness or anger.
A time for remembrance.
My Dad Roy... always wanted to be remembered first as a pilot.
So hence: Roy Smith - Worlds Greatest Pilot. :ernae:
All pilots want to be remembered as the best though don't they?:icon_lol:
Stubborn man... great pilot.
6000 + hours from Cubs and Citabrias to Aztecs and King Air 200s
True story... I had to have been 21 - 22 then....
Many years ago.. after they took his medical when he developed diabetes, he flew one final time to help a friend ferry a cropduster back from Iowa. Like he was going to say no! As he flew into Arizona.. ran into Monsoons and flew around them.. fuel dangerously low because of wind and a non-direct route.
He always buzzed over the farm to let us know to go pick him up at the airport. VOOOOM!
That night was a dark night... post monsoon storm, no moon. After he buzzed the house he headed for the airport ... and so did we.
When we got there... he was nowhere to be found.. we circled around.. looking???
Out of the darkness he comes walking across the runway..as he got closer... all you could see were teeth. The smile was that big.:icon_lol:
Turns out that while beginning the turn into the base leg... the engine coughed then quit... out of fuel. He calmly shuts down the power and listens for the shudder of the stall... takes the energy of the plane and his eyes adjusting for the darkness.
Lands the cropduster ( not known for their great instrumentation) in the desert short of the airfield. Too dark to see... he makes the call about what happened and we head home.
Next morning we go out early to see how the aircraft did. He landed it in desert that had reclaimed farmland... there were old ditches partially filled with sand. Enough to rip out the undercarriage easily. He landed the plane in a area bordered on all four sides by ditches and trees.
Not a scratch on the plane... he stopped just short of one of them ditches. They had to tow the plane out of there to the airfield.
I hear the owner of the cropduster ask... 'How the hell did he do that??'
He winks at me.
Roy Smith - World's Greatest Pilot :ernae:
He passed away last night... heart could not keep going.
Not a time of sadness or anger.
A time for remembrance.
My Dad Roy... always wanted to be remembered first as a pilot.
So hence: Roy Smith - Worlds Greatest Pilot. :ernae:
All pilots want to be remembered as the best though don't they?:icon_lol:
Stubborn man... great pilot.
6000 + hours from Cubs and Citabrias to Aztecs and King Air 200s
True story... I had to have been 21 - 22 then....
Many years ago.. after they took his medical when he developed diabetes, he flew one final time to help a friend ferry a cropduster back from Iowa. Like he was going to say no! As he flew into Arizona.. ran into Monsoons and flew around them.. fuel dangerously low because of wind and a non-direct route.
He always buzzed over the farm to let us know to go pick him up at the airport. VOOOOM!
That night was a dark night... post monsoon storm, no moon. After he buzzed the house he headed for the airport ... and so did we.
When we got there... he was nowhere to be found.. we circled around.. looking???
Out of the darkness he comes walking across the runway..as he got closer... all you could see were teeth. The smile was that big.:icon_lol:
Turns out that while beginning the turn into the base leg... the engine coughed then quit... out of fuel. He calmly shuts down the power and listens for the shudder of the stall... takes the energy of the plane and his eyes adjusting for the darkness.
Lands the cropduster ( not known for their great instrumentation) in the desert short of the airfield. Too dark to see... he makes the call about what happened and we head home.
Next morning we go out early to see how the aircraft did. He landed it in desert that had reclaimed farmland... there were old ditches partially filled with sand. Enough to rip out the undercarriage easily. He landed the plane in a area bordered on all four sides by ditches and trees.
Not a scratch on the plane... he stopped just short of one of them ditches. They had to tow the plane out of there to the airfield.
I hear the owner of the cropduster ask... 'How the hell did he do that??'
He winks at me.
Roy Smith - World's Greatest Pilot :ernae: