Lost a friend today

Peter Dohm wrote:
"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
Back in May, I finally got a chance to ride along in a friend's float
plane, and he even let me do a couple of take-offs and landings. I was
hoping that since his plane partner had lost his medical, I could convince
him to take me on as a plane partner.

Today, that plane crashed, and my friend and probably his plane partner
are both dead.

It is much better for each of us to "go out with a bang" doing something
which we enjoy. I have watched several slowly pine away, despite all of the
so-called modern miracles, and that really is much worse. Still, it is a
real shame that your friend was along on that flight--and apparently long
before what should have been his time.

Peter


Naturally, being around the demonstration community most of my life,
I've seen my share of death and managed to avoid it personally,
sometimes by a slim margin.

I've been in conversations like this one many times and in fact have
commented within this context on occasion when talking with other air
show pilots when the subject of dying in a crash has come up.
I've always said the same thing at those times and I'll relate it here FWIW;
My answer was simple and to the point. What I said was that if I drove
one into the ground someday, I sure hoped that my friends didn't all
gather round and say I died doing something I loved to do. I'd MUCH
rather have had them gather round and say that knowing me like they did,
they would take even money that whatever happened, I was fighting it all
the way down trying to save it.

This is just a small point on a personal slant that I've made above, but
FWIW, I think many pilots who don't make it for one reason or another
might rest easier if their friends thought of them this way. I know in
the airshow community, this is how a lot of us feel.

--
Dudley Henriques