Jay Honeck wrote:
Bill was killed doing a show with Cork at
Quonset Point on June 5th 1971; the same day we lost 5 pilots in the T6
race at Cape May New Jersey.

FIVE planes down in one accident? Holy crap.

I can't believe I've never heard of it? What happened, Dudley?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

The Cape May race was the worst day I ever spent in aviation. We lost 5
planes and pilots in one race. I was a pylon judge at the scatter pylon.
It involved two separate mid-airs. The first was when Dick Minges and
Don Barrett collided right over my head. Dick went in like a ton of
stone and was killed instantly not 50 yards away. Don managed to bring
his airplane around and landed it; probably one of the best acts of
flying I will ever see. His aircraft was severly damaged.
The rest of it was a true disaster.
Coming around the course, the rest of the T6's were bunched up fairly
tightly as even in race configuration, T6's are fairly close in power
and hard to keep apart. This in my opinion was what caused the next mid
airs.
The normal procedure in the race pattern after an accident was to break
up and out of the course. Because of the altitude difference between the
remaining aircraft coming out of the second turn, as the lower T6's
broke up and out, they hit the ones above. Ed Snyder, a personal
friend,Joe Quinn, and Vic Baker collided. All went in immediately. Ed's
airplane went into the woods right next to me.
Jere Snyder and Toni Minges, two of the widows from Cape May have
remained friends of ours for all these years. Jere died a few years ago
at her home in Neptune Beach Florida and Toni has remarried.
Jere Snyder had one of the most beautiful singing voices I have ever
heard in my life. Bea and I loved her.
Bill Fornof, another friend and member of the IFPF was killed at Quonset
Point the same day.
Anyway, that's what happened. The next year, Howie Keefe, Jere and Toni
all met at Dulles as Howie set the World cross country speed record West
to East for prop planes in Miss America to open the Transpo show. I
managed Miss A the week were were there at Dulles.
As if Cape May wasn't enough, I lost another friend that week when Joe
Howard of the Thunderbirds was killed at Transpo.

It's truly not been all fun and games for me through my career in aviation.
Dudley Henriques