I’m sorry for the loss of your friend.

🙏🙏

​@@zfunk9At least he didn't die of health issues from sitting at his desk. ✌️✌️

@@zfunk9 Anyone can speculate on the circumstances of an accident. It's easy to do. That said, being safety minded and proficient doesn't isolate you from the risks associated with this kind of flying. I encourage you, and all of us, to take a step back and wait for the lessons we will all learn from this unfortunate event. It's not fair to paint an opinion with limited data points.

Condolences to you.

I stopped using bikes after a lady ran into me, so no more Yamaha 500 SR (a lovely bike) and it took 8 years before I was back at work, after numerous operations (I stopped counting after ten)!

After a 30 year career as a pilot in the Royal Air Force I stopped flying once I'd left as I didn't fancy the airlines and my wife pointed out "The most dangerous part of an RAF pilot career is taking up GA flying once you've left". I looked back at the mates funerals I've attended and she has a point!

Man I gave up my street bikes at 27, probably wouldn’t be typing this comment had I not hung up the keys .

SAME HERE! I miss my bikes and my planes. Getting old just sucks!

Get rid of those motorcycles. I waited too long.

So sorry

1996?? I think Edan is about 38 years old at his passing.... so he was 10 years old and your Pitts flight Instructor? I doubt that.

@@johnodea3898video says he was 53 and not 38. That would make him 26 in 1996.

​@@johnodea3898please don't become a mathematician or detective. You would fail at that also.

I agree 100 percent Too many opportunities for too many things to go wrong The holes in the swiss cheese are always waiting to line up

Agreed. Juan's videos are a great way of learning about and understanding the risks. We can (and should) apply the same kind of thinking to other dangerous activities like riding a motorcycle or driving a car. Are you really in the right frame of mind and capable of doing it safely? I've flown gliders in the past and would love to do so again, but I know that right now I don't have the spare mental capacity to be able to do something so demanding.

Me too bro. Pay the airlines to do it and enjoy the ride

If anybody knew the risks of flying before starting flight school they'd never do it.

It's great to see someone actually admit that aviation is not right for them! There are far too many "commercial" pilots who have no business being in the cockpit.

I’m a Casper kid, you live in a gorgeous part of the state.

That's a good point and certainly plausible, but as Juan said, he was highly experienced flying in HDA, generally, and over this practice area, specifically. But anything's possible. As you say, it just takes one time finding those last couple of holes.

Could be, but as Juan said, he’s familiar with the aircraft and this location, and that shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. We’ve got a box nearby in Warrenton where my friend practices constantly in the off season. Perhaps if it was a new airshow venue on an extremely hot day with unfamiliar terrain cues to go off of during the routine, but that just doesn’t sound like the case here.

I've witnessed a few air show accidents over the years. There are a number of videos on KZfaq as well. As Juan said, this is an unforgiving type of flying.

The worst part for me is it looked like he had control and was gonna come out of it fine, then he stalled it again. Really sad.

could be as simple as simple as he miss judged or miss counting how many turns he did and pulled out of it one too late. maybe got ahead of himself and was thinking about the next maneuver. who knows, things happen.

While it's nice that the airframe can withstand 10gs, anything over 2gs in either direction requires physical fitness.

Chuck and Juan were friends.

Wow. No old bold pilots. I used to watch air shows but they are so nerve wracking. So sad.

Eventually it comes down to the "Law of Averages" where when you do anything enough times, you'll find the anomaly.

I too noticed the water conditions and perhaps a downwind recovery was partly at fault here.

I think so too. Maybe just a little less pull at the end and he escapes with his life.

Altitude is life. Why fly close to the knife's edge? Spins and flat spins are notorious pilot-killers. TAKE THE TIME TO CLIMB is my motto as a CFI.

He was our neighbor in ID. Great guy.

Please fly within your limits, don't risk your life to impress a crowd and altitude is life. Wishing you a very successful adventure in your S2B.

Yeah, the curve looked like enough from this angle. I think Juan is right on the money with the startle -> panic reaction of pulling maximum elevator.

I believe that. When I was learning to fly I had a hard time landing, I mean learning to land on a gigantic runway. My instructor took me to a little grass strip and I had it down well, right away

Great point!

I've heard that about glassy smooth water. What about white capping rough water such as this?

@@branchandfoundry560 better, but still a bit deceptive.

People into this kind of thing don't like to hear it but "Air show" is really just a euphemism for "Watch me do these stupid, risky maneuvers on purpose".

@@Taladar2003you could say the same about drag racing, certain water sports, and many other hobbies/sports. Most things that are cool to watch aren’t very safe for the person involved.

@@Taladar2003 as an old pilot, I tend to agree with you. But the freedom to take risks is freedom many enjoy

If you're in a dive or cfit, yeah. But otherwise for forced landings you have some time to fly the plane all or part of the way through the crash, increasing survival odds.

Except for the increased torque from that big paddle out there, as that can exacerbate a spin IF it was how got into the spin.

Exactly. It’s the same as a windmilling prop on a multiengine blocking the air over the wing. We’ve proven this very fact with an Extra 300L. Point it vertical on the downline, idle engine, and you can barely pull hard before feeling the onset of stall/buffet. Bump in either a zero-thrust setting or a bit of power (accelerated slipstream) and you can G the hell out of the plane pulling out. 2) Water is a terrible reference to do low-level air work over. It’s very difficult to judge altitude over… ask any pilot with a seaplane rating. 3) We’ll never know, but this could have been caused by something as simple as an improperly set altimeter. Aerobatic pilots set the altimeter to zero (or some even set neg 50feet so 0’ indicated is 50’agl) when on the ground prior to departure. All your maneuvers should have a min entry altitude and recovery altitude. If the altimeter wasn’t set/zeroed out, the actual entry altitude could have in reality been too low, along with the actual recovery altitude…. this could easily be the outcome of that error.

I live in NWA too

Need more info on that one.

I flew the Citabria for spins while getting my CFI, and for spin potion of the check ride. What a great airplane!

Roger that! I often joked that I did not fly the Citabria but the Citabria flew me which was remarkably close to the truth.

@@forrestsmith9235 I had a good instructor. It was the only spinnable aircraft the school had. He said I needed to at least appear competent in the basics for the evaluator, even if we just went up to do two spins for the check ride. So I had a motivating factor too.

Edan.

You are exaggerating a little bit,the GB-1 has excellent performance for what it is,but it is simply too heavy to hover vertically like a model airplane

@@Pennypincher-ue9ux Have you seen one fly? With a solo pilot it will hover. Empty weight is only 1290 pounds, gross weight is 2200. Maybe I exaggerated a bit on accelerating straight up.

Some of these guys would do this for fun without a single onlooker, but I completely agree about the risk. I always think to myself "it's not worth it" when I see one of these routines.