I'm sad to report that we lost another Pilot and Warbird at the Wings over Houston airshow yesterday.

An unidentified, at this time, pilot crashed his Wildcat just south of Ellington Field soon after the Saturday performances were over.

An investigation is pending at this time.

There's little one can do or say to remove the pain and heartache caused by the loss of an individual who spent a large portion of their life and income in the pursuit of aviation. The fact that that person was dedicated enough to reach a level of experience enabling him to fly aircraft of such high performance parameters as a world war II Wildcat indicates the amount of love and devotion that he was willing to give to his endeavors.

One can only hope that the pilot passed while experiencing an activity that brought fullness to his life.

I watched the crash happen. Saw the whole thing. Not just the last few moment, I witnessed all the events that lead up to the crash. It was upsetting to me.

My 6 year old son, Zane, saw it also. I am lucky he does not understand that the pilot was killed. He has seen several R/C planes crash and to him, it was just another airplane that crashed. I am going to leave it alone.

I was inteviewed by the FAA and gave a full statement on the crash.

IMO, it was pilot error.

Today at the show, he was honnored with a Missing Man formation.

Tony,
Would you be willing to share an account of what you witnessed, and describe why you feel pilot error was the cause?

I hadn't heard of this and am always distraught to hear of another loss such as this.
Dennis-

There is a little info Here

Me and a group of R/C pilots did demo flights at the Wings Over Houston Airshow. Since we were performers, we were invited to a BBQ later in the evening, there at the air-field.

A group of planes took off about 5:30, after the show ended to go fly around, I guess. In the group were the Wildcat, a P-51, Spitfire, B-25, just to name a few. There were maybe 10-12 planes that left together. We watch the planes take off. When the Wildcat took off, me and others noticed how the pilot yanked the plane off the ground. The mains came off the deck, before the tailwheel came off. Several of us commented he must have been doing a carrier take off, or something. I have seen several R/C warbirds crash on takeoff doing the exact same thing.

About 6:30 the group starts landing.

We are sitting 750 feet off the runway, 35L, watching the group land. We are at the VIP area of the airshow, sitting outside the tents on a very clear evening with a slight wind, right to left across the runway.

P-51, P-39, Spitfire land. We see the B-25 comming in with the Wildcat closing on the B-25. A buddy comments how the Wildcat is trying to scrub off speed by zig zagging behind the B-25.

The Wildcat breaks left behind the B-25 then came back on line with 35L, however I assume he was still to close to the B-25 to land.

He breaks HARD right and climbs a bit, I guess to go around. Not sure of the height he was at, at this time. Maybe 750-1000 feet. When he breaks right and climbs, I comment to another witness, Craig, "DAM, hope he doesn't stall that thing"

The plane continues around to the right, however loosing allitude, at about 90 degrees from his orignal heading, the plane is now heading downwind, the right wing still towards the ground, and it really looked like he just kept pulling up elevator, trying to make the turn all the way around to the orignal heading. The plane just fell out of the sky. Plane never level out to try to gain airspeed. The motor was running, however we did not hear any increase in throttle. You can hear that big radial.

Me an another R/C pilot start yelling and pointing at the Wildcat when it was very evident to us that he was not going to make it around. A few other people were able to look up and see the plane as it went behind the trees, about a half mile from the end of the runway, into an open field. The plane never snapped, it just never got its wings level.

The plane went in on about 20 degree down angle with the right wing 20-30 degrees from level.

It looked just like a R/C warbird, when landing in a cross wind, and when it comming around and it is downwind, if you don't add power the plane will just fall out of the sky. In this case, it was a full scale Wildcat with a 55 year old pilot in the seat.

There was no fireball, no smoke, no nothing when it hit, only silence from the pilots. I told a woman with all types of radios to call emergency service and get them out there. I gave the resuce workings, via radio a direction to head. Another plane that was to land behind the Wildcat, circled the crash site to help direct the fire trucks.

Myself and Craig, another witness, watched the whole thing, as we were watching the planes land. It upest us both, however many of the other pilots, mostly military and or ex-military, were concern for the pilot, however they just went along with eating. I must have looked shaken up and a pilot in uniform told me, "......if you fly warbirds, jets or vintage, you loose pilots......." Wasn't that a line from Top Gun?

Sunday were drove by the crash site. Wings gone, nose of the plane gone. From just infront of the canopy, back to the tail, looked to be in fair shape. By Sunday afternoon the plane was removed.

Tony,
That is quite a graphic account and I'm sure it was a traumatic sight. From what you described, I find it hard to believe an experienced pilot would make such a basic mistake. From 750', he would have had tons of time to recognize his problem and correct it.

Tom