Russ Schleeh, pilot and boat racer passes

[The Inspector]

Col. Russ Schleeh, who inherited the XB-49 flight test program pilots job from Pete Cardenas and also was a top notch unlimited hydroplane driver in the 1950's passed away May 6, 2012.
While still in the Air Force, Russ wound up driving the SHANTY 1 unlimited for Bill Waggoner with teammate Bill Stead (yes, THAT Bill Stead) on a fluke offhanded remark to a Boeing employee who was also on the crew of Stan Sayres'; SLO-MO IV. He was 93 when he passed in Mission Viejo, CA. The whole article can be read on the Hydroplane Museums website @ www.thunderboats.com.
Come this years SEAFAIR Races I'll wave my plumbers friend in his memory, the story is in the article.

[Speedy]

Not only raced Waggoner's Shanty-I (in which he won the 1956 National High Points Championship), but also Rebel Suh, the experimental Shanty-II, Thriftway Too, Nitrogen Too, Miss Reno/Tahoe Miss, and Miss Exide. Also raced David Maytag's P-51D at the 1966 Los Angeles Air Races at Lancaster.

AND was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in August of 1957.

As Ron Burgandy would say "I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal..."

[The Inspector]

I figured keeping the posting short and a bit vague would bring folks to the Museums article about the Colonel. The guy was one heck of a practical joker and very droll with his humor, he raced with the sports giants Brow, Musson, Cantrell, Wilson, Regas, and of course Stead and Muncey when it was Tee shirts and work boots and a flimsy half helmet in 3 tons of hurtling plywood. Once in Seattle he bailed out of the unpredictable THRIFTWAY TOO at around 165 MPH and came up waving that plumbers friend

[Robbie Stuart]

Very good article! Funny as He11 about the plumbers friend. Sounds like he was one He11 of a guy. I envy you guys that knew him. Godspeed Col..

[The Inspector]

On more than one occasion, a TV pit reporter would ask him a dumb question, he'd provide a deadpan answer, and two..three..four the reporter would realize he'd just been speared on camera.

[cwmc]

I saw him at the 2010 Planes of Fame show. He was glad to talk to guys that remembered his doing stuff, like flying the Wing and the Maytag Mustang. I'd seen him when I was a teen speak at AAHS meetings, and loved the pioneering connection he had to aviation.

But mostly he liked talking to my wife, and gave her a kiss. He was very charming, she said.

Chris...

[AvroAvian]

This http://www.thunderboats.org/history/history0303.html is a better link to Russ Schleeh's story. Sounds like and interesting guy and the thunderboats site has plenty of great reading, a lot relevant to the warbird scene.

[Speedy]

For what it's worth, the Col.'s racing helmet and 'the' plumber's helper are in a display case at the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum in Kent, WA. They also have the 'logbook' he used while testing the nasty Shanty-II. It's actually an F-84 logbook, so he must have just grabbed whatever he had sitting around. But every time he took the boat out, he made an entry in the logbook along with notes of how the run went. Once a test pilot......

[JohnB]

Several pilots seems to drive hydroplanes as well.
Well known racer and aerobatic pilot Mira Slovak (sp?) used to race them and in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho there is a memorial to a Warner E. Gardner, Lt. Col. U.S.A.F. (Ret.) hydroplane driver that is topped with a nice F-86 sculpture. He was killed racing in Detroit in 1968.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/16827

[b17engineer]

Not to hijack this thread, but Fred Leland, driver, owner and builder of unlimited hydroplanes, passed away recently as well.

Rick

[The Inspector]

Not to hijack this thread, but Fred Leland, driver, owner and builder of unlimited hydroplanes, passed away recently as well.

Rick

Yes, Fred was the modern day Bob Gilliam, a born scrounger who did more miracles in hydroplane racing with a handful of popsicle sticks and two old hot dog wrappers than a lot of other present day teams could do with dump truck sized budgets.

Mira was, after flying his airliner full of Czech citizens out of Czechoslovakia to Germany to became Bill Boeing Jrs. pilot. Bill just happened to own a boat named WAHOO named after his wifes home town (Miss WAHOO spent a lot of time in Boeings wind tunnel being 'refined'). Mira got tapped as driver and was an absolute terror on the unlimited circuit. He went to work flying for CONTINENTAL AIRLINES, eventually retiring as a senior DC-10 Captain. He also raced @ Reno, and just missed qualifying Mr. Mennen because of a date that went a bit long. A couple of years ago the museum built a cabinet grade replica of Miss WAHOO (the project can be found on the restoration page of the Museums website, if you love top drawer wood working, it's worth a look). When they took it to Pasco to test, they invited Mira along to give him a ride. He took his ride, then took over the seat and ran very competative laps in a brand new, untested old boat. There is an iconic photo of Mira @ Lake Chelan in WAHOO just flying along about 8 feet off the water during a heat race when he hit a roller.

Warner drove the boat I worked on before it belonged to the guy I worked for when it was the 7th Notre Dame and was killed @ Detroit in Dave Herinsbergers EAGLE ELECTRIC, a sister hull to the boat I was with, both built by Les Staudacher, who son is a world class aerobatics aircraft designer/builder. Brian Wyggle a now retired Boeing test pilot split driving tasks with Russ on the U-62 THRIFTWAY TOO.

[Speedy]

http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/showthre ... ight=wahoo

Some photos I posted from my collection at the bottom of page one on this link....including Russ in Shanty-I, the "Flying Wahoo" shot Inspector was talking about, and Brien Wygle in Thriftway Too.

And I'll miss "Fearless" Fred Leland. Gave me my first shot working on the Unlimited hydroplanes a LOOOOOONG time ago. Smartest 'self-educated' man I ever met.

[The Inspector]

http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/showthread.php?t=10004&highlight=wahoo

Some photos I posted from my collection at the bottom of page one on this link....including Russ in Shanty-I, the "Flying Wahoo" shot Inspector was talking about, and Brien Wygle in Thriftway Too.

And I'll miss "Fearless" Fred Leland. Gave me my first shot working on the Unlimited hydroplanes a LOOOOOONG time ago. Smartest 'self-educated' man I ever met.

One more name in the Russ/SHANTY tale, the late Bill Newman the absolute god of ALLISON performance, that man could stand 50 feet away from the boat and just hold up a wrench at it and it would run much better. When he passed decades ago, his wife sold all his ultra rare ALLISON tools for $100.00