Scott Crossfield

One doesnt even need to fly for one year to know better than mess with
the Big Weather. At least thats what I thought.

Tony wrote:
One doesnt even need to fly for one year to know better than mess with
the Big Weather. At least thats what I thought.

And the more years one flies for a living, the more ways one finds to
chisel away at that psychological wall between you and Big Weather --
until you are left with something closer to the essentials of its
indomitable nature. And still they are more than we can fully grasp.

Every day's a new day: isn't that what we love about flying?


Jack

Jack wrote:
Shawn wrote:

The Greatest Generation.

Sycophantic journalists named them that. They won WWII and we should
be forever grateful, but what's so great about building a
hyper-consuming, unsustainable economy? Just how I see it when I try
to look from my children's perspective.


They are "the Greatest Generation" now on the planet, especially when
compared to the one that whines about too much success.

They bought some of their "greatness" on the backs of their unborn
grandkids. Buy now, those "whiners" pay later. How nice.

For the sake of his reputation, I hope they find a medical reason for
the crash.


I got one right here -- he was eighty friggin' six, Shawn. I think his
reputation is well enough established, whatever the contributing factors
in his demise, that it will withstand the flaccid criticisms of those
fools who are not worthy to pull his chocks.

Has Pete Rose gotten into the Baseball Hall of Fame? News to me.
Like I said in the portion of my post you deleted, the sky is not
merciful of anyone's mistakes. Are you saying that this great pilot was
above all criticism, no matter how badly he screwed up (if he did)?
*If* this crash was due to pilot error, he made the second worse mistake
a pilot can make-one that kills himself (the worst is taking innocent
people with you).


Shawn

Shawn wrote:

Has Pete Rose gotten into the Baseball Hall of Fame? News to me.
Like I said in the portion of my post you deleted, the sky is not
merciful of anyone's mistakes. Are you saying that this great pilot was
above all criticism....

So now you are competent to criticize Rose's ball playing, as well as
Crossfield's flying? Gee, I sure hope my spell-checker is working: I
feel so vulnerable.

Any soaring in your area?


Jack

Jack wrote:
Shawn wrote:

Has Pete Rose gotten into the Baseball Hall of Fame? News to me.
Like I said in the portion of my post you deleted, the sky is not
merciful of anyone's mistakes. Are you saying that this great pilot
was above all criticism....


So now you are competent to criticize Rose's ball playing, as well as
Crossfield's flying? Gee, I sure hope my spell-checker is working: I
feel so vulnerable.

We're all competent to criticize the clear errors of any pilot.
Problems can arise when those criticisms aren't made because the pilot
who saw the mistake "Isn't worthy to pull his chocks" or the criticism
goes unheeded due to the said unworthiness of the messenger.

Pete Rose, I meant that Pete Rose was a great player but because of
the gambling BS his reputation and chance at Cooperstown has been hurt.
That last mistake can be what you're remembered by if for no other
reason than it gets used as an example.
E.g. "Don't bet on games or you'll end up like Rose." or "Even
Crossfield augured in in a Cessna so it can certainly happen to you."

Any soaring in your area?

Some of the best.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChaffeeSoaring/
Yesterday looked like the best day so far this spring.

Shawn

Shawn wrote:

We're all competent to criticize the clear errors of any pilot.

When you put "clear" and "competent" in the same sentence you are
stacking the deck. Accident results are usually pretty clear: causes are
rarely clear, despite the bureaucratic necessity of assigning "probable"
cause.

"Black and white" views of the world have a way of changing with years
and experience, if you're lucky. I wish you many years and thousands of
flight hours of good fortune.


Jack

Bryan wrote:
Scott Crossfield, was killed yesterday at the age of 84 while piloting his
Cessna 210A near Ranger, Georgia. Thunderstorms were reported in the area
at the time and some speculate that weather was a factor in the crash. An
aviation legend, Mr. Crossfield was the first man to fly at twice the speed
of sound and later in life was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of
Fame. More information, including some comments by Chuck Yeager, can be
found at Yahoo! News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060421/..._crossfield_12


His plane broke up in a level 6 thunderstorm, according to the NTSB -
http://www.comcast.net/news/national...27/378857.html

Tony V.

Generally speaking in these situations it is pilot error to fly into an
area of known thunderstorms. And they will blame him, appropriately,
even if he didn't know, but it was forecast (you're supposed to get a
briefing before you go). There is a *small* possibility that the
thunderstorms were not forecast from weather that built up very
suddenly.

The NTSB is chock full of accident findings whose cause is pilots
venturing into to bad or deteriorating weather conditions. But you
would like to think that a pilot of this stature would not make such a
foolish mistake. The rest of the facts will become known soon enough.

Tom