Warbird Information Exchange

Amyone have a clue who's been piloting the plane at recent shows?

He was
what every warbird pilot wanted to be...cool under pressure, low key, level
headed and funny, with a VERY dry sense of humor. I remember talking to him
at Reno about Matt Jackson and how he was upset about being called for the
pylon cut and thought it unfair. I told Art I was going to give him the
pole in the Sunday race, to which Art said, "**** him, it's just whinny baby
crap". Art spent several evenings on the phone with me going over the finer
points of air racing, and really went out of his way at Reno rookie school.
I remember being upset about my airplane being down with a bad fuel pump at
Reno in June and thinking I wasn't going to get my race license. Art took
me aside and told me not to worry, that air racing needed younger guys who
would race and return to keep the sport alive.

Art also told me that Reno is the most dangerous flying we're likely to do,
and he described it as "reasonably dangerous". "You need to be prepared to
accept that this is an endeavor in which people die", he said to me.

After I finished my Commercial Pilot's License I asked Art if I should send
a copy to Reno right away, or wait until we got to the air races. "****
them, I never send any information to RARA. It's none of their goddamn
business what my paperwork looks like. You're an Unlimited Air Racer now,
so you had better get used to being a bit of an elitest. This isn't the
Sport Class."

Several years ago Art bailed out of a burning Corsair at a few hundred feet,
coming down almost on top of the wreckage. He said that in hindsight he
probably stayed with the airplane too long, but thought it was pretty tough
to know when exactly too long was when you were sitting in a burning
Corsair. His bailout procedure that he taught me was the 3
asses...plexiglas, harness, my ass. I asked him if I should take a jump
class to learn about parachutes, as I know nothing about them. "Ever watch
a John Wayne western?", Art asked me. "Sure", I said. "Well then, you know
everything there is to know about killing Indians, don't you.", which he
said while pretending to shoot an imaginary six gun. "OK Art", I said, "I
get it".

Thanks again for letting me know about this. Sorry to wax on, but it seems
to help put some closure to the loss of a friend. So many people told me
that Art was such a tough ass, and hard to get along with. I found him to
actually have a very soft side, which he hid well.