Homebuilt down Friday, one fatality near, Santa Paula, CA


I saw a picture of the plane in the dry river bed, inverted, according to the
newscast the pilot died in the plane after his attempt to land didn't work out.
Looked like the nose went in and the plane flipped right over forward. They
said it was a homebuilt. I couldn't tell what it was. It was a high-wing.
The pilot was ~80 years old. Condolences to family and friends.


Does anyone know more about this?



R. Hubbell

On Sat, 8 Nov 2003 19:08:06 -0800, "R. Hubbell"
> wrote:

:Homebuilt down Friday, one fatality near, Santa Paula, CA
:
:
:I saw a picture of the plane in the dry river bed, inverted, according to the
:newscast the pilot died in the plane after his attempt to land didn't work out.
:Looked like the nose went in and the plane flipped right over forward. They
:said it was a homebuilt. I couldn't tell what it was. It was a high-wing.
:The pilot was ~80 years old. Condolences to family and friends.
:
:
:Does anyone know more about this?

It was Russ Cathaway, he was 85. It was an RV-6A. Russ was a retired
Skunkworks engineer. Here's a link to a story that touched on him
working on the F-104
http://home.socal.rr.com/elliottbe/altitude1.htm

He also designed and built "El Bandito" (also called the Frenzel
Special) back in the early 60's

http://www.hacker-model.cz/scale35/bandit.htm

On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 04:08:04 GMT
wrote:

> On Sat, 8 Nov 2003 19:08:06 -0800, "R. Hubbell"
> > wrote:
>
> :Homebuilt down Friday, one fatality near, Santa Paula, CA
> :
> :
> :I saw a picture of the plane in the dry river bed, inverted, according to the
> :newscast the pilot died in the plane after his attempt to land didn't work out.
> :Looked like the nose went in and the plane flipped right over forward. They
> :said it was a homebuilt. I couldn't tell what it was. It was a high-wing.
> :The pilot was ~80 years old. Condolences to family and friends.
> :
> :
> :Does anyone know more about this?
>
> It was Russ Cathaway, he was 85. It was an RV-6A. Russ was a retired

Well I was wrong about it being a high-wing. The plane was immaculate
according to a report I read.

> Skunkworks engineer. Here's a link to a story that touched on him
> working on the F-104
> http://home.socal.rr.com/elliottbe/altitude1.htm
>
> He also designed and built "El Bandito" (also called the Frenzel
> Special) back in the early 60's
>
> http://www.hacker-model.cz/scale35/bandit.htm
>
>


Sounds like he led an interesting life.


R. Hubbell