Simviation Forums

Aerobatics pilot Nancy Lynn dies in crash at air show,

Here is a news artcle,

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bi ... _16-36/TOP

There's a nice video of her flying here at her web site

http://www.lynnaviation.com/nancy_lynn_airshows.html

Oh well, she died doing the thing she loved most, must have been a helluvaway to go.

Oh well, she died doing the thing she loved most, must have been a helluvaway to go.

Just posted on an eerily identical thread on another forum...and I have to repeat what i wrote there:

As a pilot, the last place I want to be when I die is in an airplane. Better an airplane than Wal-Mart with a box of Depends in my hand, I suppose, but...

Generally, there's time in these accidents for the pilot to consider the fact that something has just gone very wrong, more than likely due to their own error,and now their last flight is going to end up a mess. And oh yeah, they're about to die, possibly taking others with them.


I really can't see anything good about that, myself.

:-/

I partly agree with you, pepper, in that at least she didn't know the pain of being grounded due to old age... there's something to be said for that.

If i would need to pick one way to go then that would be free falling from 100.000 feet. Gives you a great view and people will say 'boy, did he go out with a bang'.

And well, could she have complained having a bad life? A whole lot more people die in a lot worse conditions, i feel sorry for her family, never fun losing someone you love, but it happends and its a risk you take, the same one as walking out of the door every morning.

just all my oppinion though, i think quite easy about life and death, i think the humans made it way too complicated for what it really is, a natural life cycle.

If you read the article posted on her website she was well aware of the risk. Note that this was written 2 years ago. http://www.lynnaviation.com/media.html
[quote]Still risk isn

If i would need to pick one way to go then that would be free falling from 100.000 feet. Gives you a great view and people will say 'boy, did he go out with a bang'.

And well, could she have complained having a bad life? A whole lot more people die in a lot worse conditions, i feel sorry for her family, never fun losing someone you love, but it happends and its a risk you take, the same one as walking out of the door every morning.

just all my oppinion though, i think quite easy about life and death, i think the humans made it way too complicated for what it really is, a natural life cycle.

I hear ya... nothing wrong with the risk-taking life, it's just that she never said, and I don't think any aerobatic competitor has ever said it would be neat or exciting or even appropriate to die while performing. I've heard some of the greats (who are, remarkably, still alive and well) say the opposite. It's part of the culture of safety, staying focused on staying alive rather than flirting with death.
These accidents don't do much for the image, although it doesn't seem to hurt ticket sales. I'm reminded of the scene in The Great Waldo Pepper when the pilot is stuck in the burning wreckage and all the yokels gather around and just watch, nobody liftng a finger. The right attitude is to defy that sort of ghoulishness; an aerobatic display should appear to be more bold and risky than it really is. It shouldn't be like russian roulette.

And going "splat" from 100,000 feet is one thing; being poured into an ambulance while you're still smoking (and alive!!) is something nobody would enjoy, nor would I wish it on anybody.
 A lunatic might want that, but once he felt the pain he'd change his tune quick. Problem with low-level air mishaps is that it's not always quick and neat...there's often much suffering involved.
I guess, for me, it's a "quality of death" thing, not so much the thought of dying.

And I have to give "props" to her son for keeping his cool on-mic when it happened... it's one thing to be philosophical about the dangerous occupation of a loved one, and quite another to watch your own mother die horribly right in front of you. Not that I'd blame him if he lost it.

Your right there too, but that is the way things are. Not much we can do about it, and indeed, it will only spark the fear for aviation.

Culpeper has claimed its share of lives. There was a crash there in 1980, when I was a young buck working groundcrew for an aerial applicator. I never learned what caused it...