Fair winds Inspector

Robbie Stuart · **Posted:** Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:19 pm

I just checked in & saw this sad news. 262, I am so sorry for your loss. The Inspector was wise, & wealth of knowledge. He was very sharpe & I always could tell he knew his stuff. I extend my sincere condolences to all affected by his passing.
We will miss you Bill!

Robbie

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11330

Ztex wrote:

I'm sorry to hear this news.
Bill was a colorful character here on WIX, always quick to respond with some interesting and informative insight.
I imagine that he was that way everywhere he went. Nice guy for sure!

Ryan and I had the pleasure of talking with Bill on Warbird Radio back in January of 2012.

You can hear the spirit in his voice.

Click the little black arrow or the 'Audio Mp3" button to listen.
http://www.warbirdradio.com/2012/01/wix-warbird-weekly-live-wednesday-8pm-eastern-11/

Blue Skies Sir, you will be missed.
:drink3:

That was a great interview! It really displayed Bill's character.

RMAllnutt · **Posted:** Mon Mar 31, 2014 5:04 pm

262crew wrote:

As some of you know the Inspector was my dad Bill. I received a phone call this morning from the police informing me that my dad has passed. I know he rubbed some of you the wrong way and he wasn't always easy to read. But if you knew him in person you would have liked him very much! He was very quick with whit and very funny! He had a life long passion for aviation! He was fortunate to get to know some of you in person and spoke to me about you. He was also an avid car guy! I would ask him the most obscure question about any classic car and he always had the answer. To all of you who took the time to know my dad I thank you. It only made his life richer to have common minded people in his life.

I'm incredibly sad to hear this news... Your dad was a wonderful chap, and I loved his sense of humor as well as the first person experiences he regularly shared. I wish I had met him in person. His wisdom will continue to live on on this forum though, which is a small consolation I guess. I send you and your family my best in what must be a very difficult time for you all. Thanks very much for letting us know. Please take care...

All the best,
Richard

spookythecat · **Posted:** Tue Apr 01, 2014 12:34 am

I'm very sorry to hear this. I enjoyed chatting with Bill the few times we had crossed paths.

Hemiman · **Posted:** Tue Apr 01, 2014 8:53 am

262..

So sorry to hear of your dads passing. Always enjoyed his posts and the character he put in them. As a fellow Inspector and mechanic on Boeing, Douglas and Airbus planes, it was easy to understand where he was going with many of his posts.. This site will be less without his knowledge and his comments.. God speed on his flight west..

Bill

Iclo · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2014 2:14 am

I was very sad to read this news.

The inspector and me have discussed several time on various subjets, some of them were politics (mainly on the US Air Force tankers contracts) and our views were hum... far differents but the discussions were never personnal and lot of respects did the debate was enjoyable.

Since two years, The Inspector had shown interest in the restoration projet of a 1928 car I restore with my father and he posted various question and shared information with us.
I will never been able to answer his last question posted on the dedicated subjet in the off-topics section :cry:

So sorry for your loss, 262Crew and familly

mlenoch · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2014 2:31 am

My sincere condolences to 262Crew and family.

As I read them, I could see that all our posts are truly heartfelt. We will all miss him. His technical insight and "humor" were things to treasure.

I most appreciate his consideration of this WIX medium as both a technical resource and intercommunication scourge.

We would most honor him by living the best he has shown us.

Blue skies............

262crew · **Joined:** Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:24 pm **Posts:** 877

I would like to thank all of you for the kind words and well wishes for my dad. I would also like to publicly thank my dad for everything he has taught and given to me. He and I are very much alike we didn't differ much. We had our disagreements but it was always respectful. My dad was very artistic and was never afraid to express himself threw his art. As I've been going threw his things I have found many sketches, paintings and thousands of photographs. In the coming weeks and months I will scan and post some photos. After listening to his interview on WIX radio this morning, recalled the bear cat he was talking about and I believe that photo is in my collection? Again thank you for the love and support!

Respectfully

Garrett

Fouga23 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 03, 2014 3:33 am

Sad news

My deepest condolences and blue skies to your dad

skybolt2003 · **Posted:** Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:48 am

I really look forward to seeing anything of his you would post.
Thank you

262crew wrote:

As I've been going threw his things I have found many sketches, paintings and thousands of photographs. In the coming weeks and months I will scan and post some photos.

Pogo · **Posted:** Fri Apr 04, 2014 6:39 pm

^^^ What he said big time.

XL446 · **Joined:** Wed Dec 15, 2010 6:20 am **Posts:** 83

262crew wrote:

As some of you know the Inspector was my dad Bill.

262crew,
Even though your message is now more than 10 days old, it is the reason why I didn't want to just lurk any longer, and looked up my login details again. I never met your dad (I'm from the other side of the Atlantic), but every time I looked at the forum, I was hoping there was a topic to which he would contribute. Often for the details and the knowledge he would bring into it, but always for the way he would formulate it. There were times when understanding what he was saying was an intellectual challenge (being from the other side of the Atlantic I'm not familiar with all the nicknames or worse given to various aircraft), but there were so many times when I just burst out laughing because of the sense of humour he and I apparently shared.
I missed him when he seemed to not post for several weeks in February or March, and I was wondering whether he had upset a moderator or whether he was suffering health problems. And then when he seemed to be getting back into the swing of things came your shocking message.
Fair winds to you indeed, Inspector, and strength to you, 262crew!

Enemy Ace · **Posted:** Fri Apr 18, 2014 5:37 pm

Just saw that the Inspector will be no longer clocking in to the WIX Hangar. My world is a little dimmer today.
I enjoyed PM'ing back and forth with a true craftsman.
How are we going to get along without BADWRENCH and LOCOWEED references and little tidbits like:
"waving a burning chicken around and runnning through the halls about this"
See you in the big hangar some day after my last flight Bill...

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