Masters of Disaster Disaster

For those that have seen the Masters of Disaster air show this may or may
not come as a shock, but Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin are no longer with
us.

See www.avweb.com for the story.

They will be missed.

Jim

For those that have seen the Masters of Disaster air show this may or may
not come as a shock, but Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin are no longer
with
us.

What a shame. What an awful thing to happen right before OSH, too.

Those guys were the best showmen I've ever seen in an airshow. Some people
decried their "Masters of Disaster" airshow as being "too unstructured" (and
maybe it really was, judging by what happened) -- but it was truly exciting
to watch, and got a lot of people interested in aviation.

And that Jet-powered Waco was just unbelievable.

From what I've read, Franklin's son was narrating the show when his dad and
Younkin were killed. At least no one on the ground was hurt.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

http://www.canada.com/national/natio...2-2aac7f50f3a5

A decent newspaper article describing the crash.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

This one hurts. I've been following Jimmy throughout my years of
flying. First saw him at the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque many years
ago when he was new on the airshow circuit. He'd disappear into the
arroyos and appear again. Real cool. On one flight he returned to
Coronado Airport and as he touched down, discovered he had a brake
locked up. He had the presence of mind, quick reflexes and of course
the power to pull up and fly over to the Sunport where he landed on
grass with emergency equipment standing by. He nosed over on landing,
but was flying again the next day. Maybe it wasn't a big deal, but as a
new pilot I was very impressed. Last saw him fly his Waco jet a couple
years ago at Quad Cities. What a performer.
--
Gene Seibel

In article .com,
"Gene Seibel" wrote:

This one hurts. I've been following Jimmy throughout my years of
flying.

I learned to fly at the same time Bobby Younkin did, and from the same
airport. We lived east of Springdale, under the "practice area". I'd
hear his Decatholon and look up to see him flying inverted to the
practice area, then get a good aerobatics display as he played around.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
For those that have seen the Masters of Disaster air show this may or may
not come as a shock, but Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin are no longer
with
us.

See www.avweb.com for the story.

They will be missed.

Jim

It was a good show but I remember wondering aloud at OSH last year how long
they could do it before was a collision.

Mike
MU-2

I was fortunate enough to see their show three separate times, the last was
just last month in Janesville, WI. My thoughts echoed yours and those of
many others each time I saw them.

At Janesville, Bobby Younkin performed his Learjet show. After a low level
smoke on hi-speed pass down rwy 22 he flew off over the trees and TOTALLY
disappeared. The crowd was silent and the announcer stumbled and hesitated.
We were all waiting for the noise and the fireball. Seconds later he pulled
up and the crowd sighed a huge sigh of relieve. Scared the crap out of
everybody. Since seeing that, I flew over the west end of 22 at JVL and the
only thing I can figure out is that he flew down the river, below the tree
line.

Jim



"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...


It was a good show but I remember wondering aloud at OSH last year how
long
they could do it before was a collision.

Mike
MU-2

"Jim Burns" wrote in message ...
For those that have seen the Masters of Disaster air show this may or may
not come as a shock, but Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin are no longer with
us.

See www.avweb.com for the story.

They will be missed.

Jim



Jimmy was one of the best - I remember his inverted flat spins to unbelievably low altitude. Even after watching so many
others he would always make me take notice of his maneuvers. Younkin was great also, but I never saw his Lear routine.
Now I never will.

Blueskies always, Jimmy & Bobby!

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...
For those that have seen the Masters of Disaster air show this may or
may
not come as a shock, but Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin are no longer
with
us.

See www.avweb.com for the story.

They will be missed.

Jim


Did anyone notice that on the AirVenture Air Show page today, Franklin's
and Younkin's names have been erased? Gone. Like they didn't exist. The
EAA took the time to do a big write-up about a plane that won't be coming
due to wing corrosion, but nothing about this tragedy. Somehow I expected
more from them.

"giganews" wrote:

Did anyone notice that on the AirVenture Air Show page today, Franklin's
and Younkin's names have been erased? Gone. Like they didn't exist. The
EAA took the time to do a big write-up about a plane that won't be coming
due to wing corrosion, but nothing about this tragedy. Somehow I expected
more from them.

I expect that if, instead of wing corrosion, the B-29 had gone up in a
ball of flames crash then it too would have quietly disappeared from
the AirVenture website, and correctly so. It should be noted that the
EAA did write up the accident on the EAA website (www.eaa.org), where
it remains the top article at the time of this writing ("EAA Mourns
Loss of Younkin, Franklin in Air Show Accident").

David - email: David at AirplaneZone dot com