Sad News: Michael Masterov

Long-time poster Michael (thisoldairplane.com) died yesterday, June 24
in Berrien County, Michigan when his motorcycle was hit by someone who
apparently ran a stop sign. The other driver was killed too. Local
media is thin on the details.

Micheal's funeral will be in New Jersey on Sunday at Wien & Wien
Funeral Directors, 402 Park St Hackensack, NJ 07601.

He was one of a handful of usenetters whom I've had the privilege of
meeting in real life and I've enjoyed knowing him.

I learned a lot about flying from discussions with him both online here
and the several times we met in real life. He was an iconoclast and a
bit of a curmudgeon, but he always offered good food for thought. I
valued his opinions even when I didn't agree with them.

He engaged in a number of activities that could not be described as
"risk-free", but more than anyone else I've known he made every effort
to understand and evaluate those risks.

I hadn't been in touch with him lately, but I picked up his domain a
few weeks ago when I realized he had let it lapse. If anyone has good
ideas for a tribute page, let me know.

Morris

Journeyman wrote:
I hadn't been in touch with him lately, but I picked up his domain a
few weeks ago when I realized he had let it lapse. If anyone has good
ideas for a tribute page, let me know.

Unless there is another fellow by that name, it looks like he has a few
stories floating around the net that might be collected into a
self-tribute. Here are two I found:

"Reflections of a Novice Glider Pilot"
by Michael Masterov:

http://www.soaridaho.com/Schreder/HP...flections.html

"An IFR Checkride":
http://www.whittsflying.com/web/page...FR%20Checkride

On Jun 25, 6:10*pm, Journeyman wrote:
Morris,
I am terribly sorry to hear of the terrible news about Michael. I
have never met him but had read pretty much all of his very insightful
posts in the last 7 years or so. He was one of the most valuable
contributors to rec.aviation.xxx newsgroups. It just happened that
last Monday, our local aviation community lost a great aviator, John
Miller at the age of 102. I had the privilege of listening to many
of John's great flying stories from Charles Lindberg's days. If I had
had a chance to meet Michael in person, there was no doubt that I
would have enjoyed listening to his stories too and would have learned
a great deal from him. The passings of these passionate flyers were
great losses to our community. Please send my deepest sympathy to his
family and loved ones.

Hai Longworth

Long-time poster Michael (thisoldairplane.com) died yesterday

Terrible news. My thoughts are with his family.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Jun 25, 11:37 pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
Long-time poster Michael (thisoldairplane.com) died yesterday

Terrible news. My thoughts are with his family.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


I just heard of the news today and am very saddened. My thoughts and
prayers go out to his family.

I interned for Michael my Jr. Year in college. I stayed in touch with
him periodically over the last 6 years.

Over time Michael became my “career coach” and from whom I would
bounce ideas off of and ask for advice. Michael always was accessible
and sincere when I spoke to him.

The man was an intellectual giant from whom I learned about work, life
and how the two are completely different things.

Michael also had a great sense of humor as anyone who knows him will
tell you. Michael was a pure “R&D” guy who hated working with
associates from sales…which I found very amusing. The things he would
say about them….

Rest in peace Michael.

I am Michael's fiance. We were just returning from dinner when this
accident happened. He had on every bit of protective gear on. He
simply could not sustain the injuries that he had. He died of
internal injuries. I had always known I would be in the emergency
room for this man, I just had hoped I was going to be taking him home
in whatever shape he came in. I know that Michael would have rather
died doing something that he loved then dying in bed. I wished he
would have been around for longer. We had just moved up to Michigan,
and were settling in up here. He was excited about being at the
Benton Harbor airport. He was having Thomas Isakson come from Sweden
for additional flight lessons on Friday. I believe Thomas sought out
Michael a few years back from having read his postings online.

For anyone wanting to do any type of tribute page I would love to
contribute anything that I could for this. Michael had an amazing
life history, and an amazing story. While I am highly biased since he
was the man that I loved and adored his patents, his charity work for
Angel Flight, and contributions to the flight community as well as the
usenet group are something that I wished I could capture. I know he
had a wonderfully rich and diverse life that I wished could be
captured. I know he his contributions to the usenet community are
something he thought were important. He wanted to let me know he had
plenty of "Geek-Cred".

Unfortunately I do not know everyone in the flight community and have
no way of letting everyone know about his passing. The Benton Harbor
airport folks have offered to do a local memorial for him. I am going
to try to get that set up for the weekend after July 4th. I will post
details once I get them. I know I and he would be deeply honored if
anyone could come to this. Unfortunately I will be attending his
funeral, and honestly this isn't the way he would want to be
remembered. He would want to be remembered at an airport. If you are
in the Houston area, Saturday night there will be a celebration for
him at Wieser airport. I know Michael would feel the best way you
could honor him is to enjoy a drink or two and speak about aviation.

Stephanie

On 2008-06-25, Journeyman wrote:

Long-time poster Michael (thisoldairplane.com) died yesterday, June 24
in Berrien County, Michigan when his motorcycle was hit by someone who
apparently ran a stop sign. The other driver was killed too. Local
media is thin on the details.

I heard this news from a friend of mine in Houston yesterday.

It's yet to sink in. I've know Michael for around 10 years, and when we
were both in Houston, we often met, shared beers, and told lies about
flying (he always said the 'F' was silent in 'hangar flying').

I will really miss his insight - his analysis of many subjects was
interesting and insightful.

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:19:55 -0700 (PDT), StephanieM wrote in
:

I am Michael's fiance. We were just returning from dinner when this
accident happened. He had on every bit of protective gear on. He
simply could not sustain the injuries that he had. He died of
internal injuries. ...

Condolences and prayers for you, his family, and all
of his friends.

So sad ...

Marty
--
Big-8 newsgroups: humanities.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.*, talk.*
See http://www.big-8.org for info on how to add or remove newsgroups.

"Journeyman" wrote:


Long-time poster Michael (thisoldairplane.com) died yesterday, June 24
in Berrien County, Michigan when his motorcycle was hit by someone who
apparently ran a stop sign.

Terrible news.


He was one of a handful of usenetters whom I've had the privilege of
meeting in real life and I've enjoyed knowing him.

Ditto. He was a regular at the rec.aviation fly-in at Pinckneyville. I got
my first ME left seat time in his Twin Comanche.

His posts will be missed; always interesting and written with a clear style.

Boy, this sucks.

On 2008-06-26, Dan Luke wrote:

Ditto. He was a regular at the rec.aviation fly-in at Pinckneyville. I got
my first ME left seat time in his Twin Comanche.

Tina Marie was in touch with Highflyer. He said he'd go have some rum
and a good cry.

I sent email to John and Stella. I don't think I have any other contact
info for the many people who dropped off usenet.

I'm sorry I missed it the last couple of years. Being on the left
coast made it less tractable. I was seriously thinking about getting
on a commercial flight to St. Louis this year, but things were too
hectic. You think you have all the time in the world...

Morris