Jimmy Franklin Airshow - Heart Memorial Fund

You're right, John. Back in '74, when Jimmy was just beginning his
career, I scratched from the last of 2 performances he was due to
perform at the first Dayton International Air Show.

During his first performance, he included several ground-up maneuvers
in his act even though he wasn't certified for ground-up maneuvers.
When I told him he was scratched, he got real ****ed off at me and left
the show. Knew then the guy wasn't going to be around long.

On 23 Oct 2005 20:20:50 -0700, wrote:

You're right, John. Back in '74, when Jimmy was just beginning his
career, I scratched from the last of 2 performances he was due to
perform at the first Dayton International Air Show.

During his first performance, he included several ground-up maneuvers
in his act even though he wasn't certified for ground-up maneuvers.
When I told him he was scratched, he got real ****ed off at me and left
the show. Knew then the guy wasn't going to be around long.


Long ago, I saw a sailplane doing a routine at an English airshow.

In a loop, he came within 6 ft of the ground. I was astonished.
I expect the pilot was too, that he survived to fly again another day.

Brian Whatcott

Brian Whatcott wrote:

On 23 Oct 2005 20:20:50 -0700, wrote:

You're right, John. Back in '74, when Jimmy was just beginning his
career, I scratched from the last of 2 performances he was due to
perform at the first Dayton International Air Show.

During his first performance, he included several ground-up maneuvers
in his act even though he wasn't certified for ground-up maneuvers.
When I told him he was scratched, he got real ****ed off at me and left
the show. Knew then the guy wasn't going to be around long.


Long ago, I saw a sailplane doing a routine at an English airshow.

In a loop, he came within 6 ft of the ground. I was astonished.
I expect the pilot was too, that he survived to fly again another day.

Brian Whatcott

And in like vein, did you see the ThunderBird pilot ejecting from
his, I think F-16 after he had almost finished a 'split S' (?).
The writeup said that he had practiced these maneuvers many times
at an airport nearby which had considerably lower field elevation
and as a consequence didn't gain enough altitude before rolling
and pulling through the last half of the loop. It looked like he
was about 20-30 feet above terrain when he got out, the smoke and
heat waves from the engine appeared to be going nearly straight
up so, although the a/c was level it was descending almost
straight down,

The writeup mentioned that the a/c impacted the ground .8 seconds
after the ejection! (that's point eight seconds)

Pls excuse any errors in nomenclature...I'm a heavy metal type
person (fighters aren't my forte)
--

-Gord.
(use gordon in email)

Yep; seen that clip many times, Gord.

Back to Frankin...his tragic and needless death validates the old
saying, "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there
are no old, bold pilots." Jim Pflaum - Raleigh, NC

In article . com,
wrote:

Yep; seen that clip many times, Gord.

Back to Frankin...his tragic and needless death validates the old
saying, "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there
are no old, bold pilots." Jim Pflaum - Raleigh, NC

But as a stupid pilots seem to last unexpectedly long.
Franklin was and old-timer by airshow standards. Another
one that I could not bear to watch was the French Connection,
notably Daniel Heligoin. They were pushing the edge a bit
in their act, but Daniel would always add that extra element
of being a dare devil. I saw them perform over the river at
the arch in St Louis. Heligoin kept seeing how close he could
get to the Eads Bridge. Cars would swerve on the bridge thinking
that he was going to hit the bridge. Maybe Heligoin was a great
pilot, but even then, it was only a matter of time before one
of his dumb stunts would reach up and bite him. It is too bad
that he killed his wife in the process.

-john-

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