Jim Leroy went in today...

In article ,
"Kyle Boatright" wrote:

"Doug Semler" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Jul 28, 7:39 pm, "Gerald S." wrote:
Doug Semler wrote:
On Jul 28, 6:44 pm, "Blueskies" wrote:
..Spun in down at Dayton.

Now all the masters of disaster have gone to the great airshow in the
sky...

Blue skies forever...

Big bummer.

The only time I saw him was in Salinas a year and a half ago. I had
never heard of him before and was thinking "This guy is balls to the
wall and beyond insane." After seeing more videos of him, he became my
favorite acro pilot.

Anyone hear what happened?

Gerald

The story I saw makes it sound like he basically ran out of altitude
during a pullout and pancaked to the ground...

Which is why I wish they would institute a 200' (or whatever) minimum
altitude for airshow performers. First, I don't like seeing airplanes
*that* close to the ground. It makes me uneasy (which I realize is part of
the draw - but I still don't like it). Second, in many shows, the sight
lines are terrible for low, low, acts anyway.

A higher minimum altitude, with corresponding higher entry altitudes, would
have saved quite a few great pilots over the years.

KB

We used to have a similar rule for performers at Watsonville. Too low
and the audience can't see it -- and the danger increases exponentially
the lower it is.