On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:43:52 -0500, Dudley Henriques
wrote:

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote in news:jPSdnQVqtcu-
:
You knew Dick Schramm? Cool!

Most of the time I did this I was flying barefoot anyway....

Bertie

Knew both Sr. and Jr. Both were great guys. Dick Jr. was on the mike
narrating for Dick when he was killed.
He was probably one of the finest sticks ever with a light plane.
It was a freak accident, and I used it in my "Importance of Preflight
Inspections" safety talks for many years.

I don't know how it happened, in fact. My father saw it and came home
talking a buch of BS about how it was a result of that fake stick thing he
used to do, and in fact I heard that story from the usual suspects for
years afterwards, but I alwyas thought it sounded like BS.

Bertie

The way we got it was that Dick used to "borrow" a J3 from Red Bank when
he was doing the clown act at Reading. I believe it was their airplane
that day that he was using.
Apparently they had used it the day before for a photo shoot and had
taken the rear stick out of the airplane to accommodate that mission.
When the stick was put back into the airplane after the photo shoot,
whoever put it back apparently forgot to replace the lower cotter pin
that safties it in the bracket.
Dick was doing one of his low altitude loops and had just gone through
the upper energy gate and was starting down the back side when the stick
came out of the bracket. He had 0 control at that point. I swear I saw
him trying to put it back in the bracket (of course we had no way of
knowing this was what he was doing at the time).
He went straight in. Never had a chance. Dick Jr. was on the mike and I
don't know how in hell he got through it but he kept his cool and tried
to quiet everyone down. We both knew it was bad.
Anyway, that's what happened.

Dick is remembered fondly in the aerobatic and demonstration community.
There is an award in his name and he is probably the only person ever to
be made an honorary Naval Aviator without going through Naval Flight
training. A wonderful guy, and a great pilot. Never had a bad word for
anyone about anyone.
The cotter pin should have been checked secured before the display but
for some unknown reason it was missed.

************************************************** **********************

I was taking dual in a Rearwin Jr back in the 30's. Came across the
fence and was starting to flare and pulled the stick out of its holder
on floor. Bird kind of fell to ground and dribbled down the R/W and I
kept straight with rudder until stopped. (My best landing of the day
) I then poked the instructor in the back and said what should I do
with this. He said when did that come out and I said as I was trying
to flare and his cigar went from one side of his face to the other, He
reached around and stuck stick in socket and gave it a 180 degree
turn and said lets go try that again. Some times your lucky and some
times your not.

Big John