Aviation Fatalities: "he died doing something he loved..."

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
"Brad" wrote:

I saw a similar sentiment posted in relation to Scott Crossfield's
fatel accident. I'm not sure I really get it...we're all going to die,
but do you really want to die doing something you love?

it might just beat giving up the thing you love in order to live.


And you'll still die.

"Brad" wrote in message
oups.com...
I saw a similar sentiment posted in relation to Scott Crossfield's
fatel accident. I'm not sure I really get it...we're all going to die,
but do you really want to die doing something you love?

I think the sentiment means different things to different people. However,
I'm in agreement in Gene and Barry. It's not so much that you want the
thing you love to kill you, but that the (an) alternative is to die having
not done the thing you love. When I hear the sentiment, I don't interpret
it so much as "well at least he was right in the middle of doing something
he loved when he was killed" as I interpret it as "yes, the thing he loved
killed him, but at least he took the risk and did what he loved".

Relative risks aside, I do lots of things on daily basis that could get me
killed, and in just as traumatic or potentially painful a way as an airplane
accident could. Believe me, if I've got to die that way, I'd rather do it
in my airplane than trying to get to some meeting while driving down the
highway.

Pete

Yeager implied he was a hot dog who would always push it and that his death
by small plane wasn't surprising.

"Skylune" wrote in message
lkaboutaviation.com...

Yeager implied he was a hot dog who would always push it and that his
death
by small plane wasn't surprising.

Yeager has never liked the civilian test pilots very much and has said so on
many occasions. The competition between the two factions when operating out
at Edwards during the heyday out there was "tense" to say the least.
Yeager overdoes it sometimes. Personally, I wish he'd learn to keep his trap
shut and just finish the good ride life has given him.

He has a propensity for shooting from the hip when questioned by reporters
and can quite often stick his perferbial foot in his mouth.
To this day, Yeager still doesn't know how to handle the press. He is the
ultimate mixture of extreme talent, tremendous ability, and intellectual
stupidity.
Yeager's "independent views" on subjects one and all have been a source of
trouble for him for years, and will no doubt plague him for the remainder of
his life.
It's a wise man who knows when enough is enough and when the hell to just
shut up and enjoy the trip.
Dudley Henriques

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
ink.net...

He has a propensity for shooting from the hip when questioned by reporters
and can quite often stick his perferbial foot in his mouth.
To this day, Yeager still doesn't know how to handle the press. He is the
ultimate mixture of extreme talent, tremendous ability, and intellectual
stupidity.

I wouldn't call it stuoidity, but the fact he comes from a place where plain
talk and a lack of unmitigated bull**** is commonplace.

Understandable considering beginnigs and his "ride" to the top, wouldn't
you say?
--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
ink.net...

He has a propensity for shooting from the hip when questioned by
reporters and can quite often stick his perferbial foot in his mouth.
To this day, Yeager still doesn't know how to handle the press. He is the
ultimate mixture of extreme talent, tremendous ability, and intellectual
stupidity.

I wouldn't call it stuoidity, but the fact he comes from a place where
plain talk and a lack of unmitigated bull**** is commonplace.

Understandable considering beginnigs and his "ride" to the top, wouldn't
you say?

Actually no, at least not in my opinion anyway.
Even when considering Yeager's back country beginnings, anyone who has been
exposed to him through his career (and I know a bunch :-) will tell you in
a nano second that his intelligence goes way beyond whatever boundaries this
factor might define in his life equation.
Perhaps intellillectual stupidity is the wrong phrase to use to describe
Yeager. Closer would be his inability to keep his mouth shut after his point
has been made. He has always had an unbridled propensity to take it out
there "one bridge too far".
This latest statement about Crossfield is a perfect example.
Facing a CNN reporter, Yeager was asked for a comment on Crossfield's death.
His gut reaction and his initial response was correct. He simply stated that
he was "sad this had occurred".
But then something else kicked in. I won't presume to actually know what
that was, but knowing about and his relationship with the civilian test
pilots of his era, and especially his feelings about Crossfield; Armstrong
and a few others, his next remark came as no surprise.
Saying it was "not surprising" and commenting on Crossfield's alleged
propensity to take unnecessary risk was not only out of place, but it took
Yeager right into that area he should know by now causes him trouble.
His follow-up remarks suggesting that Crossfield took unnecessary risks when
a civilian test pilot and got himself into trouble with weather, and
attributing the cause of the crash to Crossfield himself were simply
inappropriate, and based on Yeager's relationship with the civilian test
pilot community, downright mean and intentionally made.
It's the fact that these remarks were unnecessary that mark them as a major
intellectual flaw for Yeager, and mark what he said as being stupid.
There's a time and a place to shoot from the hip, and knowing where those
places are for a hip shooter like Yeager should be 101. He's simply never
learned when to shoot and when not to shoot.
The problem with Yeager is that he came out of the back woods with nothing
but sheer coordination and good eyesight. Then he got the break of his life
when the section trailer in the four ship flight of German aircraft he was
shooting at broke into instead of away from his section leader, colliding
with him and giving Yeager 5 for the day. Stars and Stripes picked it up as
a major story and Yeager was an instant "hero". Not to say he didn't deserve
it, but nonetheless, it was a fluke that launched him. Any fighter pilot
flying in that era will tell you that it was the magic number 5 that
launched Yeager.
If that German pilot had broken the other way and Yeager's score for the one
mission had been 4 instead of 5, chances are S&S would never have picked up
the story and what followed in Yeager's life would possibly have been quite
different then the way it went from that point on.
Yeager has always been lucky. He's also very talented and probably one of
the premier "sticks" of all time.
He was extremely lucky in the Bell X1 program. Everybody in the flight test
community knows it was George Welch and not Yeager who went mach 1 first.
Yeager got the gravy because it came down that way for reasons beyond the
scope of my remarks here.
The trouble with Yeager is his mouth. It's gotten him into trouble with the
AF, and now in civilian life afterward.
He would be just fine if he'd let things be and simply enjoy the good
fortune. Guys like Yeager make a huge mistake when they start "talking" to
an audience that already accepts them as heroes. The more they talk, the
deeper into the way the audience thinks they penetrate. They never seem to
realize that silence and/or extremely well thought out comment is the way to
keep the status quo.
Tom Cruise is going through this right now. Yeager would be wise to observe
what has happened to Cruise and the way the public views him.
I have no doubt Yeager will go on "speaking his mind". Actually, I have it
on fairly good authority that he really doesn't give a damn what people
think about him, and that's the saddest part of all, because all he ever had
to do was to share the limelight with those who shared the risks with him.
Crossfield was one of those with whom he chose not to share, and that, in my
humble opinion is the ultimate stupidity.
You might get the impression from all this that I don't like Yeager. That's
not true. I actually feel sorry for him. He was much better than he has
chosen to project of himself.
Dudley Henriques

Dudley H wrote:

Yeager would be wise to observe what has happened to Cruise and the way the public views him. I have no doubt Yeager will go on "speaking his mind".

I don't recall Crossfield making any public comment on Yeager's going
off the runway in a T-6 a few years back. Chuck should return the honor
and stifle any negative comments IMHO.

"Dudley Henriques" wrote:
in message k.net...

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
ink.net...

He has a propensity for shooting from the hip when questioned by
reporters and can quite often stick his perferbial foot in his mouth.
To this day, Yeager still doesn't know how to handle the press. He is the
ultimate mixture of extreme talent, tremendous ability, and intellectual
stupidity.

I wouldn't call it stuoidity, but the fact he comes from a place where
plain talk and a lack of unmitigated bull**** is commonplace.

Understandable considering beginnigs and his "ride" to the top, wouldn't
you say?

Actually no, at least not in my opinion anyway.
Even when considering Yeager's back country beginnings, anyone who has been
exposed to him through his career (and I know a bunch :-) will tell you in
a nano second that his intelligence goes way beyond whatever boundaries
this factor might define in his life equation.
Perhaps intellillectual stupidity is the wrong phrase to use to describe
Yeager.

Let us not put too fine a point on this.

"Horse's ass" is the good old-fashioned term that I think best describes
Yeager. His remarks upon the death of a great aviator are more evidence of
his resemblance to an equine posterior--as if any more was needed after his
autobiography.

As was noted in AvWeb today, when Mr. Right Stuff ran a T-6 off the runway a
couple of years back, Scott Crossfield maintained a discreet silence, a sign
of a gentlemanly character missing in Yeager.

[snip]

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

("Dudley Henriques" wrote)
[snip]
Perhaps intellillectual stupidity is the wrong phrase to use to describe
Yeager. Closer would be his inability to keep his mouth shut after his
point has been made. He has always had an unbridled propensity to take it
out there "one bridge too far".

This latest statement about Crossfield is a perfect example.

Facing a CNN reporter, Yeager was asked for a comment on Crossfield's
death. His gut reaction and his initial response was correct. He simply
stated that he was "sad this had occurred".

But then something else kicked in. I won't presume to actually know what
that was, but knowing about and his relationship with the civilian test
pilots of his era, and especially his feelings about Crossfield; Armstrong
and a few others, his next remark came as no surprise.

Saying it was "not surprising" and commenting on Crossfield's alleged
propensity to take unnecessary risk was not only out of place, but it took
Yeager right into that area he should know by now causes him trouble.

His follow-up remarks suggesting that Crossfield took unnecessary risks
when a civilian test pilot and got himself into trouble with weather, and
attributing the cause of the crash to Crossfield himself were simply
inappropriate, and based on Yeager's relationship with the civilian test
pilot community, downright mean and intentionally made.


Not intending to ruffle feathers here, but...

In these days of media savvy interview subjects, I found Yeager's remarks
refreshingly honest.

This is what Chuck Yeager thinks vs. This is the APPROPRIATE thing to say -
is how he handled the question.

Was Yeager right in saying what he did?
I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.

Was it an un-classy thing to say?
I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.

Was it (refreshingly) honest?
Yes.


Montblack

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
k.net...

"Matt Barrow" wrote in message
...

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
ink.net...

He has a propensity for shooting from the hip when questioned by
reporters and can quite often stick his perferbial foot in his mouth.
To this day, Yeager still doesn't know how to handle the press. He is
the ultimate mixture of extreme talent, tremendous ability, and
intellectual stupidity.

I wouldn't call it stuoidity, but the fact he comes from a place where
plain talk and a lack of unmitigated bull**** is commonplace.

Understandable considering beginnigs and his "ride" to the top, wouldn't
you say?

Actually no, at least not in my opinion anyway.
Even when considering Yeager's back country beginnings, anyone who has
been exposed to him through his career (and I know a bunch :-) will tell
you in a nano second that his intelligence goes way beyond whatever
boundaries this factor might define in his life equation.

I was refering to his personality; I'd second your assessment of his
intelligence.

His backcountry beginnings made him rather incapable of sucking up to
people.

Perhaps intellillectual stupidity is the wrong phrase to use to describe
Yeager. Closer would be his inability to keep his mouth shut after his
point has been made. He has always had an unbridled propensity to take it
out there "one bridge too far".

From what I've read (I'm sure you actually KNOW him) was not that he went to
far and too long, but he's a man of very few words and those can be brutally
frank and honest.