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

On Monday, June 19, 2017 at 12:20:20 PM UTC-4, Steve Leonard wrote:
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.


Steve, "colorful" is the adjective I most closely associate with Bill. I only met him once but Charlie Spratt had a number of very funny (and perhaps true) stories about Bill. My own Bill Seed story goes back to 1981 when we all showed up for the 15M Nationals at Minden, NV. Bill was flying an Open Class ASW 17 with short tips. The glider seemed to match his personality: larger than life and sort of "in your face" compared with the rest of the skeek, more conventional 15M ships.

To cooperate with the power traffic there, we had to stage on an intersecting taxiway and then wheel each of us onto the runway just before launch. Bill was in the cockpit in position to take off when word came to get him off the runway to allow power traffic to land...immediately!

One of the line crew hopped up on the nose of the glider so two others could pivot the glider and get it off the runway. The '17 was no lightweight. Neither was Bill. And neither was the crewperson perched on the nose staring right at him.

This was in the days before we weighed gliders so the max gross for most pilots was determined by whatever we could get into the aftermarket oversized wing ballast tanks. Bill's glider needed a lot of water ballast owing to its high wing area. And this was a particularly strong weather contest (IIRC, we flew a 455 mile thermal task, the longest in the world at that point, with time to spare). The '17 was a stout airplane so I probably just imagined the mainwheel and gear groaning when they were forced to bear the added load of the substantial crewperson on the nose.

I thought Bill was going to explode! He turned red and started yelling and sputtering, with no effect. The ground crew hustled him off the runway and let the power plane land, then got him back out there again without the gear collapsing. We were too polite to laugh...until after he launched.

RIP.

Chip Bearden
"JB"

On Monday, June 19, 2017 at 9:20:20 AM UTC-7, Steve Leonard wrote:
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.


I first met Bill nearly 20 years ago, when I went out to Tonopah for the first time with my new DG-303. Over dinner before my first flight there, I mentioned that I didn't yet have any badge legs, as I'd been thwarted multiple times by incorrectly positioned turn point photos or faulty barograph set up, and decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Since I had a shiny new GPS-NAV, he persuaded me to give a try the next day, told me his milk run task (Tonopah, Eureka, Austin, Goldfield, and return), and agreed to be my observer. Next day, he helped me assemble, made sure I got the declaration right, helped me pack up enough food and water, then ran my wing. 5 hours later I was back with 326 miles and all of my badge legs except Diamond altitude, which he grudgingly signed off on. Then, he said that was pretty damn slow, I should ballast up the next day. So, next day I filled up, and flew the same task, this time in under 4 hours, which he considered to be an adequate performance.

I ran into him a few more times at Tonopah and at conventions here and there. It was always a pleasure hearing his stories, particularly late at night at TPH. RIP

Marc

On Monday, June 19, 2017 at 7:30:17 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Monday, June 19, 2017 at 9:20:20 AM UTC-7, Steve Leonard wrote:
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.


I first met Bill nearly 20 years ago, when I went out to Tonopah for the first time with my new DG-303. Over dinner before my first flight there, I mentioned that I didn't yet have any badge legs, as I'd been thwarted multiple times by incorrectly positioned turn point photos or faulty barograph set up, and decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Since I had a shiny new GPS-NAV, he persuaded me to give a try the next day, told me his milk run task (Tonopah, Eureka, Austin, Goldfield, and return), and agreed to be my observer. Next day, he helped me assemble, made sure I got the declaration right, helped me pack up enough food and water, then ran my wing. 5 hours later I was back with 326 miles and all of my badge legs except Diamond altitude, which he grudgingly signed off on. Then, he said that was pretty damn slow, I should ballast up the next day. So, next day I filled up, and flew the same task, this time in under 4 hours, which he considered to be an adequate performance.

I ran into him a few more times at Tonopah and at conventions here and there. It was always a pleasure hearing his stories, particularly late at night at TPH. RIP

Marc

Like Marc, met Bill at Tonopah in the 90s. What a character!
Rest at cloudbase,
Jim

On July 18, 1991, Bill and I attempted a 750K O&R from TPH to Wells, NV and return - he in his DG600 and I in my ASW-20B. The day overdeveloped and we ended up landing at Eureka on the way back.

I fully agreed with him on the possibilities of the great basin, having flown a 1000K triangle from IYK to Dayton Valley, Warm Springs and return the year before.

He certainly was a character and that clipped wing ASW-17 was cool!

5Z

On Monday, June 19, 2017 at 9:12:43 PM UTC-7, JS wrote:
Like Marc, met Bill at Tonopah in the 90s. What a character!
Rest at cloudbase,
Jim