Gone West... Bill Seed

The soaring community lost a colorful character on June 3, 2017, when Bill Seed passed away at his beloved Sunflower Aerodrome and Gliderport near Hutchinson, Kansas. He was 73 years old.

Bill was known to many in the soaring community for various things, but he was known most to me for three major accomplishments and contributions.

First, in late 1973, he got wind of the pending sale of the former Naval Air Station south of Hutchinson, Kansas. He had fallen in love with sailplane racing after attending the Nationals that were held at Liberal, Kansas, earlier in the year. Bill told me that seeing Tom Brandes in his giant 604, coming in flat out, on the deck, dumping water as he crossed the finish line just got his heart racing like nothing ever had before. He was a member of the Kansas Soaring Association, and knew we were looking for a place to call “home�. He also knew that the club would not be able to react quick enough to be able to bid on NAS Hutchinson, so he bid on it himself. He won the bid, and invited KSA to move to his new home, Sunflower Aerodrome and Gliderport. KSA and a sister club, the Wichita Soaring Association, have operated at Sunflower since 1974.

Second, Bill got involved in competition, raced successfully for many years, and also developed many friendships along the way. One of those friendships was with Wally Scott. Bill crewed for Wally during one of the Smirnoff Derby events, and completed his Diamond Distance on a flight from Odessa to Springer, New Mexico, on a day that Wally said “wasn’t good enough�. In 1982, Bill won the Barringer Trophy, along with his good friend, Wally Scott, with a flight from Brownsville, Texas, to Bowie, Texas.

Third, and most important to a lot of people, I believe that Bill Seed was the true pioneer of soaring out in the Great Basin of Nevada. He saw the potential in Tonopah and points further into the Basin, and even established his own camp at Tonopah. Must have been quite the sight to see, with Bill in his pickup, with his 5th wheel camper trailer, and the sailplane trailer behind it heading down the highway! He told me that he had been told that it was not the right location for soaring, and why it was wrong, but he went there anyway. Without a towplane on site, his first flights were via auto tow. You can imagine the truck speed needed to launch an AS-W20, on a 100 degree day, at 5,400 foot field elevation! Due to not having flown auto tow in a while, his first tow was handled conservatively, and only got him to 700 feet AGL. He set up on downwind, hit a thermal, and just a few minutes later, was going through 12,000 feet and looking for his oxygen mask!

In July of 1994, Bill went on to establish a US Motorglider record for speed over an out and return course of 300 KM from Tonopah. The record is 104.97 MPH, and was established in a DG-600M, flying without water ballast.

In 2002, after much persuading, Bill finally was able to get a contest to be held in Tonopah. He was not involved with running it, but it was held due in large part, to his efforts and telling people “You just won’t believe how amazing it is out there.� It was a memorable (both good and bad, I believe) event for all that were present. Average daily winning speed was over 100 MPH, and done in thermals. It was not long after this contest, that soaring in the Great Basin really took off. Others may dispute the sequence of events, but to me, Bill was the person that got soaring out into the Great Basin.

High cloud bases, strong thermals, and tailwinds for you, Bill!

Steve Leonard