The Beat Goes On

My favorite grass strip, Moontown Airport outside of Huntsville, AL, held its annual Fly-In this past weekend. They sent me that announcement, and gosh, I wanted to go, but couldn’t.

Now I’m glad that I couldn’t get there.

Friend George Myers, who owned Moontown for many years, was one of those pilots with whom you’d let your kids ride. In fact, he reportedly had a 17-year-old riding with him on Sunday in his Yak when it crashed during the fly in, killing both occupants.

It always comes as a shock when this happens to a well-qualified pilot, and George fit that description. Recently we discussed this type of thing on AVSIG—the online aviation forum—after top airshow pilot Bob Odegard was killed in a warbird crash. I also remember the same discussions decades ago after the great Bevo Howard was killed in an airshow in the Carolinas.

We don’t yet know the cause of George Myers’ accident, but we do know that certain types of flying in certain types of airplanes are more dangerous than regular flying in regular airplanes. We must also accept the fact that the people who participate seem to believe the pleasure is worth the risk.

Someday, maybe I’ll be able to accept these things more easily.