JohnHKart
04-10-12, 09:15 PM
Well known aerobatic pilot, cornerstone, icon and legend of the warbird movement Howard Pardue was killed performing aerobatic manuevers on takeoff last Wed April 4 in his famous XF8F-1 Bearcat. The accident took place in his home town of Breckenridge Texas.
I was utterly shocked to get a text message two hours after the accident last wed while at work. By coincidence it was my mom's bday- and that makes even tougher. I had to walk away from my desk for a few minutes, and I was at work taking calls from customers. It's very tough to maintain my composure at work when dealing with news like this. I posted this on an air racing board:
I am deeply shocked and personally very upset at this tragic turn of events. I grew up watching and reading about Howard, meeting him at airshows and watching those spectacular routines and going to Reno- and had the great pleasure of flying air to air with him in the Bearcat and taking pics at Tracy in 93. I am not mad at what happened, as was said, how many times did he do that manuever? The Bearcat is an amazing airplane capable of some incredible things, like that time to climb record. It's so sad to have it end this way after more than 14000 hours in the air. I normally do not get this personally involved with crashes, but this one affects me deeply and emotionally. I am not mad-nor will I blame Howard- obviously something's happened beyond his control- he got away with this 100s of times before.
I also had one of those strange experiences that happen to me alot. Last weekend I went racing in Fontana at Cal Speed Karting. I pulled into the parking lot, next to a trailer with the number 14- Howard's race number. The karts are assigned to us each session at random. We don't pick them. The number of the first Kart I had in practice? 14. And the kart was colored blue and red like his airplane. Amazing. Best thing for me was being in the Kart and playing gigs last weekend, so I could block out the hurt I was feeling.
Link to NTSB:
www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20120404X61705&key=1
Obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/reporternews/obituary.aspx?n=howard-edwards-pardue&pid=156885590
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/apr/09/no-headline---pardue_funeral/
http://www.pbase.com/image/142504194/original.jpg
I was utterly shocked to get a text message two hours after the accident last wed while at work. By coincidence it was my mom's bday- and that makes even tougher. I had to walk away from my desk for a few minutes, and I was at work taking calls from customers. It's very tough to maintain my composure at work when dealing with news like this. I posted this on an air racing board:
I am deeply shocked and personally very upset at this tragic turn of events. I grew up watching and reading about Howard, meeting him at airshows and watching those spectacular routines and going to Reno- and had the great pleasure of flying air to air with him in the Bearcat and taking pics at Tracy in 93. I am not mad at what happened, as was said, how many times did he do that manuever? The Bearcat is an amazing airplane capable of some incredible things, like that time to climb record. It's so sad to have it end this way after more than 14000 hours in the air. I normally do not get this personally involved with crashes, but this one affects me deeply and emotionally. I am not mad-nor will I blame Howard- obviously something's happened beyond his control- he got away with this 100s of times before.
I also had one of those strange experiences that happen to me alot. Last weekend I went racing in Fontana at Cal Speed Karting. I pulled into the parking lot, next to a trailer with the number 14- Howard's race number. The karts are assigned to us each session at random. We don't pick them. The number of the first Kart I had in practice? 14. And the kart was colored blue and red like his airplane. Amazing. Best thing for me was being in the Kart and playing gigs last weekend, so I could block out the hurt I was feeling.
Link to NTSB:
www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20120404X61705&key=1
Obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/reporternews/obituary.aspx?n=howard-edwards-pardue&pid=156885590
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2012/apr/09/no-headline---pardue_funeral/
http://www.pbase.com/image/142504194/original.jpg