Scott Crossfield R.I.P.

Former Navy pilot Scott Crossfield dead at 84.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/20/geo....ap/index.html


Flew the F6F and SNJ during the early 1940s.


JD

rip, lost a brave one today...1st to mach II

In article om,
"~^ beancounter ~^" wrote:

rip, lost a brave one today...1st to mach II

I am somewhat interested in hearing the final determination
of the cause of the accident. From my arm chair, it kind of
looks like such a intelligent and talented pilot made a rookie
mistake by flying into weather.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 21:12:27 -0500, "John A. Weeks III"
wrote:

In article om,
"~^ beancounter ~^" wrote:

rip, lost a brave one today...1st to mach II

I am somewhat interested in hearing the final determination
of the cause of the accident. From my arm chair, it kind of
looks like such a intelligent and talented pilot made a rookie
mistake by flying into weather.

Art Vance bought the farm near Cookville, TN (about 60 miles west of
me) in an F6F a while back. He was trying to stay VMC by flying at
40-50' above I-40. A set of power lines ended the flight.

It's a shame when someone with this level of knowledge and experience
makes a "rookie mistake" but we've all done it. Most of us lived to
tell of it; or maybe just think silently "now that was not my finest
hour." But sometimes the penalty for rookie mistakes is death.

My condolences to his family and I hope he is remembered more for his
life than for his death.

Bill Kambic
Haras Lucero, Kingston, TN
Mangalarga Marchador: Uma Raça, Uma Paixão

"John A. Weeks III" wrote in message
...

I am somewhat interested in hearing the final determination
of the cause of the accident. From my arm chair, it kind of
looks like such a intelligent and talented pilot made a rookie
mistake by flying into weather.

-john-

Yeah, I was wondering about that too when I heard about the bad weather in
the area.

I also saw where someone traced the registration number of the aircraft and
looked it up in a database and found that under a previous owner, that same
aircraft had been involved in a hard landing incident a few years back. It
will be interesting to see if the the turbulence from the weather caused
something to become overstressed and break off causing the crash.

OTOH - he was 84 and sometimes your health can go very suddenly....


JD

Joe Delphi wrote:

"John A. Weeks III" wrote in message
...

I am somewhat interested in hearing the final determination
of the cause of the accident. From my arm chair, it kind of
looks like such a intelligent and talented pilot made a rookie
mistake by flying into weather.

-john-

Yeah, I was wondering about that too when I heard about the bad weather in
the area.

I also saw where someone traced the registration number of the aircraft and
looked it up in a database and found that under a previous owner, that same
aircraft had been involved in a hard landing incident a few years back. It
will be interesting to see if the the turbulence from the weather caused
something to become overstressed and break off causing the crash.

OTOH - he was 84 and sometimes your health can go very suddenly....

I was wondering if anyone else was going to mention the glaringly obvious
possible reason for his crash, before speculating on pilot error/Wx. Maybe the
man just checked out.

Guy

"Guy Alcala" wrote in message
...
Joe Delphi wrote:

"John A. Weeks III" wrote in message
...

I am somewhat interested in hearing the final determination
of the cause of the accident. From my arm chair, it kind of
looks like such a intelligent and talented pilot made a rookie
mistake by flying into weather.

-john-

Yeah, I was wondering about that too when I heard about the bad weather
in
the area.

I also saw where someone traced the registration number of the aircraft
and
looked it up in a database and found that under a previous owner, that
same
aircraft had been involved in a hard landing incident a few years back.
It
will be interesting to see if the the turbulence from the weather caused
something to become overstressed and break off causing the crash.

OTOH - he was 84 and sometimes your health can go very suddenly....

I was wondering if anyone else was going to mention the glaringly obvious
possible reason for his crash, before speculating on pilot error/Wx.
Maybe the
man just checked out.

I wondered the same thing. If you want to go quick what better way and
doing someting you love.



Guy

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 21:12:27 -0500, "John A. Weeks III"
wrote:

In article om,
"~^ beancounter ~^" wrote:

rip, lost a brave one today...1st to mach II

I am somewhat interested in hearing the final determination
of the cause of the accident. From my arm chair, it kind of
looks like such a intelligent and talented pilot made a rookie
mistake by flying into weather.

-john-
Well, looking at the FAA preliminary database, the last radio call to
the pilot was "Cleared to Deviate South for Weather"

http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/a...a/B_0421_N.txt
(the last entry).

On flightaware, it shows he made a pretty good deviation
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N6579X

Maybe it just wasn't enough.
--Rolf

Former Navy pilot Scott Crossfield dead at 84.

Flew the F6F and SNJ during the early 1940s.

Can anyone post more info about his WW II service?

vince norris

"vincent p. norris" wrote in message
...
Former Navy pilot Scott Crossfield dead at 84.

Flew the F6F and SNJ during the early 1940s.

Can anyone post more info about his WW II service?

vince norris

From his biography on the NASA Dryden website:

"Born in Berkeley, Calif., on October 2, 1921, Crossfield began his
engineering training at the University of Washington in 1940. He interrupted
his education to join the U.S. Navy in 1942. Commissioned an ensign in 1943
following flight training, he served as a fighter and gunnery instructor and
maintenance officer before spending six months overseas without seeing
combat duty. While in the Navy he flew the F6F and F4U fighters, as well as
SNJ trainers, and a variety of other aircraft. "



JD