Fair winds Inspector

StudeDave · **Posted:** Sat Mar 29, 2014 11:30 pm

Though Bill and I have never met, we did exchange a few PMs.
He and his knowledge (aviation and classic car) will be sorely missed.

My condolences to you and your family.

DaveG · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:30 am

I am sorry for your loss. I enjoyed and learned a lot from reading his posts and opinions. I too exchanged a few pm's with him and appreciated his informative responses to pictures on the "What did you see flying" thread.

Dave

Rajay · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:39 am

I’m in shock. I haven’t been on the forum for just a few days and when I logged on this morning, this was one of the first things that I saw. It apparently has been only two days since Bill passed (not even 48 hours really since the news was posted) and there are already 4 pages of condolences and testimonials to Bill, his knowledge & wisdom, and of course his numerous and unique contributions to this forum. He obviously will be greatly missed here and elsewhere as well.

Bill was a kindred spirit and I found it actually quite easy to relate and “talk” to him. It was through our common interest in and love for Grumman amphibians in particular that very early on after joining this forum I first came to know both “Bill 2” (the Inspector) and “Bill 1” (Mr. Widgeon.) I can’t even begin to compare it to the relationship that they had with each other, but over the course of the last 5 years, they have been two of my closest “friends” on this and other forums as well.

I’m sorry that I never had the opportunity to know him better or outside the scope of this online community.

Godspeed, Bill! :spit

Dave

Mark Allen M · **Joined:** Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:48 pm **Posts:** 7865

If there is anything that has developed over the course of this thread that brings a sense of pride and joy to help overcome the sadness, it's the reality that there are some darn good people that post here on WIX.

marine air · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2014 12:59 pm

Your dad had an amazing knowledge base and was always diplomatic when sharing it on WIX. He was truly one of the "good guys." Thinking back to my 50 years of growing up and now making a living in aviation, I can only think of one other person that could even , maybe, hold their ground, or compete with your dad's experience and knowledge. ( A local WW II vet with lifelong experience.) My condolences at this time for you and your family.

Rod Schneider · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2014 1:34 pm

I also enjoyed reading the Inspector's posts. He and I both had careers working on "heavy iron" airliners, and a lot of his posts felt very familiar to me.
So sorry for your loss, 262Crew!

BigGrey · **Posted:** Sun Mar 30, 2014 7:36 pm

Sorry for your loss 262 and thank you for taking the time to inform us.
I will miss the depth of his knowledge greatly. Thank you also Bill Bailey for sharing the details of your friendship with Bill 2.

Les

CWBuff · **Joined:** Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:14 am **Posts:** 854

I guess I'm one of those whom your Dad rubbed the wrong way... or it may have been mutual, I dunno.

Regardless... though he and I may not have gotten along too well, I certainly recognized his boundless wit. I may have gritted my teeth and muttered at him more than thrice, but I can recall smiling much of the time as I did so.

You have my most sincere condolences.

Blue Skies and Bright Stars to the Inspector...

Fade to Black...

Airlift48 · **Joined:** Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:01 pm **Posts:** 744

Godspeed Inspector...you will be and are already missed by many....

JDK · **Posted:** Mon Mar 31, 2014 6:05 am

That's a beer I won't be buying when I'm next in Seattle. :cry:

Really sorry to hear your news, 262, and we at WIX are far the poorer for losing The Inspector before his time.

His posts were always worthwhile, and though we've disagreed at times, I'd like to think it was as friends - certainly he added a lot of sense and wit to his contributions and I'm proud to say he taught me a lot; in fact I've quoted him to friends on a number of occasions.

I was looking forward to meeting the guy behind the smart remarks on WIX, and I'm now doubly sad we didn't managed to coincide when I passed through 'his patch' a few years ago, but I appreciate that we did get to know each other here.

Blue skies and clean riveting.

Nathan · **Posted:** Mon Mar 31, 2014 7:21 am

Bill really helped us out a lot on us-aircraft.com. I spent many pm's with him and he always seemed to appreciate the efforts I made on the website. He was on not less then 48 hours ago. So this news is a bit surreal for us right now. I am very saddened and I always admired Bill. He had a lot of knowledge and experience!

Very sad to lose a friend.

Ztex · **Posted:** Mon Mar 31, 2014 8:48 am

I'm sorry to hear this news.
Bill was a colorful character here on WIX, always quick to respond with some interesting and informative insight.
I imagine that he was that way everywhere he went. Nice guy for sure!

Ryan and I had the pleasure of talking with Bill on Warbird Radio back in January of 2012.

You can hear the spirit in his voice.

Click the little black arrow or the 'Audio Mp3" button to listen.
http://www.warbirdradio.com/2012/01/wix-warbird-weekly-live-wednesday-8pm-eastern-11/

Blue Skies Sir, you will be missed.
:drink3:

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Mon Mar 31, 2014 9:18 am

All too sad to loose another great voice here from our great site. While I never met the inspector, he was always a source of fascinating information and experience. Blue skies good sir. You are missed here and will be remembered.

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11330

I enjoyed the Inspector's perspective on the issues and had a number of PM conversations with him about the innards of Boeing and the unions. I always checked out his postings. I "got" his sense of humor and I will sorely miss him.

My condolences to the Inspector's family and friends. I hope you all have a good sendoff for him! :drink3:

RandolphB · **Posted:** Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:48 am

Blue Skies and condolences to his family. Glad for WIX and the ability for those of us who have never met in person to get to know each other through our shared interests. Truly a loss for all of us.

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Fair winds Inspector

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