richs@wjvax.UUCP (Rich Sanders) (09/19/85)
If you haven't read about it in the news, it's apparent that we have lost
one of the great aviators of our time in an aviation accident a few days ago.
Art Sholl, 'The Proffessor', was apparently killed when the Pitts Special
he was flying went into the ocean off the San Diego California coast on
Monday. He was performing an inverted flat spin for an upcoming movie 'Top gun',
when he went into the water. The support helecopter was on the scene within
45 seconds after the incident but there was no sign of life. A search for
the body has not been successful.
Art sholl got his nickname 'the proffessor' while teaching aeronotics at
San Jose State College. It was here that he earned his aeronotics degree
while pumping gas at the local airfield, Ried Hillview Airport, to earn
enough money to fly. He moved into a trailer that he had parked at the
airfield so that he could be near the airplanes.
Although he had done stunt sequences in many movies such as The Great
Waldo Pepper and TV shows such as Baa Baa Blacksheep, he was probably better
known for his aerobatic flying in his highly modified Super Chipmonk at
airshows around the country. He had just completed performing at the Reno
airshow this last weekend. I have been lucky enough to have seen his performance
many times. He was an inovator in stunt flying and was famous for the
introduction of the Lomcevok (sp?) into his aerobatic routine. This manuver
is an out of control tumbling of the aircraft that can cause extreme positive
and negative G loads. He would also fly inverted near the runway and use the
tail section of the aircraft to pick up a ribbon stretched accross the runway
between two poles. Truely an amazing aerobatic performer.
I shall miss him.
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Don't blame me! My ASCII has just merged with my EBCDIC.
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R.Sanders
WJ,San Jose
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