Warbird Information Exchange

It is my very sad duty to inform you of the passing of fellow forum member Steve Young in a car accident on 24th July.
Steve was a refugee here when the Key Publishing forum was down. He was a great friend and very dear to the hearts of all of the forum members over at Key.

I for one dont have a memory of Steve that doesnt raise a smile, it was a honour to have known him.

He leaves behind a fiance Julie and a young son Haydn from a previous relationship, not to mention countless friends.

There is a condolence thread running here http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?p=710066#post710066

Thanks for posting this, Nick. The only sad memories I have are that Steve has gone. Great bloke, great friend.

Rob

My condolences and prayers for healing to all affected.

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

I always think of the page in the back of the EAA sport aviation dedicated to those aviatiors deceased. "GONE WEST, Not into the unknown but into the company of others". Watched the sun go down for you today Steve. Take care buddy!

That's very sad news indeed.

I don't recall if I met him at Legends or not (met too many people), but I hope he'll keep taking care of the ones he loved from where he's now.

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

Ollie,

Steve was there in the Red Lion with us on the Saturday evening after Legends, with his fiancee Julie and his young son Haydn.

A top bloke, who will be sadly missed by those of us privileged to have known him.

So very sad indeed. My thoughts & prayers go to him, his loved ones, & friends.
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

News like this is never easy. It is a shame to hear about a loss of someone's friend, but even more so that I did not have a chance to get to know the guy. My condolences to the family.

Mike

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Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

I'm compiling a book of condolences to be passed to Steves fiencee and son as a lasting reminder of how he was thought of on the various forums, with your permission I would like to add the comments made on WiX to those on Key Publishing and UKAR.

Also at sometime during your evening wherever you are, please raise a glass in his memory, a friend, forumite, enthusiast and one hell of a human being.

Thanks

Ian

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Ian

Hi all--

Read this terrible news on FP this morning and replied to it as best I could given that I knew Steve only from his forum posts. Soon afterward there were over 100 replies in the FP thread, confirming my perception of Steve as a true gentleman and "class act", both online and off.

On reflection, the nearest parallel I can recall coincidentally also relates to FlyPast: the shocking news of the passing of FP's founding editor Mike Twite in an air crash in 1984. I knew Mike in the most limited of ways, through just a few letters (in those pre-Internet days); but it did not matter: I felt a dreadful sense of an irreplaceable loss. And as I said then about Mike, the loss I feel at this news about Steve cannot begin to compare with what Julie, Haydn and Steve's parents must be going through right now. My heart goes out to all of them.

Steve Tournay

Thank you for all your thoughts guys.

I am out of words for now. So, Ill copy and paste something I trawled last night about my last days with my mate, at Legends. Ollie, you did meet him - ill-fitting jeans, hairy arms, and the biggest goddamned grin you ever saw!

"3 P51's coming in from the right for the first pass...... nice and fast, nice and close.....beautiful sight..... would make a superb photograph.....and the clicker-clique do their impression of a hedgehog, half a dozen large white lenses raised skyward.....just as the click-click-click of multiple motorwinds is about to commence, at that moment when the trigger-finger flexes, in that split second when it all comes together.....
P51 CADILLAC OF THE SKIES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The shock of a screaming Mr Young causes camera shake of earthquake proportions, heads turn in unison, the Mustangs fly off unrecorded.....
.....and the shout travels INTO the speaker, down the cables, along the flightline, up into the control tower, out of the earphones and back, via the commentator, in less than 5 seconds!
Classic."

"well son, the Typhoon was like that Sea Fury over there, but with the pointy nose of a Spitfire, and it had a radiator underneath the nose."
"Was that to heat the engine?"


"Where's my sunglasses" ??????
(on top of your head Steve?)


"Rings Snapper on mobile...
"Have you seen Steve Young about only I need to find him as I've got something to give him for his son?"
"No, mate, he didn't meet us where he was supposed to......."
Conversation rattles on for about five minutes re meeting up and keeping an eye out for Steve etc. Mark says "Where are you" "In flypast enclosure" I replied. "I'm on the flight line, hang on I'll give you a flash......."
Ten Minutes later the phone rang. "Hiya Mate it's Steve."
"You don't half sound like Mark on the phone" says I.
Two hours later Steve tells me it was him I'd been speaking to as well as Mark. They'd took me in like a pawn shop!"

And, on reaching for his coat...

"Hmm, I'm starting to become ever so slightly concerned about the fact that I've been quite prominently involved in the majority of wind-up recollections on here... I'd best not let herself see this thread, she'll ban me from coming next year..."

Don't worry Steve, you'll always be there with us.

Geoff.

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Formerly 'von Perthes' (44 posts).
Volunteer with The Shoreham Aircraft Museum.
Member of The Battle of Britain Historical Society.

Yeap, I do remember him now me thinks... Sad nonetheless...

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB