Warbird Information Exchange

I knew Jeff and his family and a nicer guy you never met. I flew with him in SNJs at OSH years ago and and about 20 years ago I was flying my SNJ from Vancouver, WA to Arlington, WA and a SNJ painted blue angels came up and flew on my wing, the same paint job he had flown my wing at OSH, freaky moment. It was an outfit that doing rides around the country.

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I really appreciated this threat when it first came around back in 2007. As a kid I only knew of Jeff as "the guy in the videos." I hadn't really put it all together when the crash occurred that this was the same guy. Reading about him made me curious enough to spend a few hours researching him and re-watching a couple of videos. I really respect what people like Jack and Bill G have said about him. While Bill and I couldn't agree politically, I really respect him as a pilot and think he's a stand up guy. All that has been said about Jeff here and elsewhere has been extremely positive. He certainly seemed like a passionate guy. I've seen this situation explained over and over again, read the report a few times, etc. I think a lot of what Bill said resonates with me. Based on my superficial view and my lifetime around aviation I think it's important to make a delineation between "qualified" and "legal." I've been driving on farm since I was 9 and there is no doubt I'm qualified to drive a car. However, if I live out of state long enough I may be driving illegally unless I prove it to the proper authorities, file the paperwork, and pay the fee. To me this looks like a situation where Jeff was likely more than qualified to safely operate that aircraft but didn't appear to be legal. He had experience in the type and seemed incredibly knowledgable.

It's unfortunate he made some mistakes that lead to him losing his life and greatly affecting the lives of several others. When you look at some of the greats we've lost to aviation due to what may have just been stupid and avoidable mistakes it really bums you out. We all make them in the Dodge or Chevy but often make it home alive because the stakes just aren't as high. Aviation is pretty unforgiving. I wish Jeff was here to debate this with us.

Well said Ryan.

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I met Jeff Ethell in person a year or two before he died. He was ferrying a Cessna 210 from FL to Front Royal, VA for a friend and had stopped in Columbia, SC for fuel etc. Apparently the line guy there had forgotten to replace the oil filler cap on the engine when he checked the dipstick and by the time that Jeff was passing over central NC, his oil temp had spiked and the oil pressure had dropped to next to nothing after most of the oil was blown out of the engine. As I recall, that would have been on a Sunday evening because he and that C-210 were the center of attention at work the next morning.

It's only a guess based on some old notes I kept, but the Cessna 210 may have been N8278M, a 1970 C-210K. According to the current registration database, it was sold by someone in CA a couple of years ago and exported to Mexico.

In any case, we cleaned it up, flushed out the sump, checked the filter (and removed a whole bunch of metal) re-filled it with fresh oil and ran it up a little bit more, and then checked the filter screen again - and it was full of new metal all over again. So of course we pulled the engine to tear it down, inspect and repair it as necessary - and found all kinds of scary things about its installation.

The two biggest things that stand out in my memory are that the air-oil separator on the breather and wet-drive vacuum pump discharge was plumbed backwards such that it pressurized the engine case with the vacuum pump output and instead of returning the oil to the sump actually dumped it overboard. Also, when we separated the aft induction elbows and throttle body assy, pulling the engine first and then tilting the throttle body down to more easily access the control cable connections to the throttle body, I found that the throttle arm was cracked about 3/4 of the way through.

Jeff said that the engine had about 30 hours SMOH by a shop in FL that was owned by some recent German immigrants. The TCM IO-520 engine was also painted dark gray (darker even than Lycoming gray) if that rings any bells for anyone. I showed Jeff what I had found wrong with the installation and asked him if the oil consumption up to that point had been unexpectedly high (because of the abnormally pressurized case and backwards drain on the air-oil separator.) He claimed it had been just fine and normal, but the broken throttle arm did give him a pause.

Of course, the whole time we were working on the C-210, we chatted about warbirds and all of the different types the he had flown. And for a long time afterward I thought about that encounter every time I saw him on a Wings channel program - you know, before Wings became Discovery Wings, and then the Military Channel, and now the American Heroes Channel. I miss the good old plain/plane old Wings channel! (Pun obviously intended.)

It was a quite a shock to hear about Jeff's death when it happened. Being in the aviation business, everybody at work knew who he was and remembered meeting him during that time too and it cast a pall over work for a while afterward. It seems to be an all too common thing in this community that if you are in it long enough, you will eventually lose some friends or acquaintances. Jeff is definitely missed by everybody in the warbird community whether or not they ever met him or actually knew him.

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Warbird licensing: I did this last weekend -- checked out Joe Cosmano on the P-40.

Background: you need a Type Rating for High-Performance aircraft as well as for over 12,500 lbs. HP is defined under FAA or TC regs. It's related to top speed, and stall speed.

Each person must, to receive the rating, accomplish a Ground School on the aircraft. It should be followed by a written exam corrected to 100%.

Then a qualified person must recommend the candidate (as a P-40 pilot with substantial time on type I am a qualified person) and that isn't going to happen without flight training in the aircraft if it's a 2-seater, or training in an appropriate type if it's single-place (and that means Harvard/T6). In Joe's case we did all of that: GS, Harvard, then famil rides with him in the back seat of the P-40 while I flew some engine-eval flights.

Then an over-the-wing briefing and oral quiz about nomal operations and emergencies, and go fly. In this case I rode in the back seat of the P-40 with him on that first flight.

Thus the application for type rating has to include a letter stating that ground school was accomplished, that adequate training took place, and that a flight was accomplished. The recommender signs it.

You have to beware of hopping from one of these aircraft to another. They were never designed to be safe. They were designed to accomplish a military mission, and that's it. So, there may be little commonality. Before we fly anything we haven't seen for a while, even if it's on our license, we get back in the books, write the Flt-Ops exam on it for that season, review the documents, talk to the mechanics, and then go sit in it for :30 min with a checklist, going over the whole flight sequence. Then we take a break, have a snack, hit the head, and only then do we start the engine.

We don't rush.

Dave

I've never met Jeff, but it feels like I've known him for years. He just seemed to have a way to connect with people rather it was in person or watching him on tv. I often watch his P-40 check out video, which happened to be in Geneseo's P-40E. Jeff seemed to be connected in some way to every warbird and aviation community in the country

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Amen !
Dudley Henriques

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Dudley Henriques
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Great thread here.. had not seen it before today and just read through it. I thoroughly enjoyed everyone's stories and thanks so much Jack (and everyone) for the insights. I never had the chance to meet Jeff but I can say I have
may of his books on the shelf and they are some of my favorites. It was inspirational enough to help me to chase my pilot dream and eventually be flying the CAF pt26 these days.. and if you would have asked me this back when this thread was created whether I would have come this far, I would have said you're nuts. Instead, I'm forever grateful to the brain trust for sharing their knowledge, and for the friends I've made via WIX and other places.
From the photography side to the flying, to the community.. a heartfelt thanks! .

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Every so often I Google dad's name and see if anything has been posted out there, but I haven't done so in a few years.

This thread brought some great memories to my heart and I'm blessed by all the folks here who appreciated Dad and his life. He was one of a kind and I miss him every day. He died 3 years before I married so my wife and children never got the privilege of meeting their grandfather, but they will one day.

Jerry, thanks for the stories (shared 9 years ago on this thread!). I remember filming with you all that day as you graciously included Jeff's young pup in your reenactment crew. Still a great memory. I'll also never forget your classic B-25 check ride comic routine (complete with out of sync twins). Brings a smile 20+ years after we were all at Geneseo together.

Thanks to all of you for the memories. Whatever the controversy around the crash, the fact is, like my dad said to me: "No one is 100%, 100% of the time." We're human. My Dad was probably the best human I've ever known.

Cheers,
David Ethell

David,

Your dad did so much for aviation, he is missed by the entire aviation community. But he left his mark and will never be forgotten.

So sorry you lost him. He was a fine man. Yes, we are human.

David, thanks for posting.
I was fortunate enough to meet your dad on several occasions, at air shows in Canada and the U.S.A.
He always had, what seemed to me. all the time in the world to talk airplanes with this airshow . A wonderful man.
He truly enjoyed sharing his passion.
Fondly remembered and always missed.

Andy Scott

David,
I did not post my story about your Dad and I am not planning on it, but I will say in all the years I have been dealing with Warbirds, Jeff was one of the people I truly enjoyed meeting and treasure the times we got to talk planes. I have been lucky to meet a lot of people who are no long with us, people like Carl Schmieder, Bill {Can I fly your airplane?) Dodds, Jim Orten, Howard Pardue, Dick James, Scoop Smith, John Sandburg, Clay Klaybo and makes me treasure those who are still around even more.

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David,
I just saw your post today and it brought back a flood of memories. I wish your dad was still with us, but the memories I have will, sadly, have to do. I'm so glad you enjoyed working as a "crew" back in 1992, and I can't believe you remembered the B-25 routine!
Working with your dad was so much fun and I was very grateful that he called us to help out with the videos. three years later he gave me my first P-51 ride. I can never repay his kindness.
Here's two photos from that shoot at Geneseo.
This was after the Wednesday Air-to-Air photo and in cockpit camera flight that your father asked my son Russ and I to come along in the back.


This was Saturday early morning out at "Fuddy Duddy" before we moved over to shoot the B-25 stuff.


I'm hoping you and your family are well.
Blues skies,
Jerry

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So great to see this thread pop up -earlier I was just thinking about Jeff today. Glad to have met him and talked about aviation, I remember that conversation once in awhile one of the nicest guys in aviation.

Jeff was a true gentleman and I shall always remember the times we had talking warbirds. We lost him too soon but lots of fond memories