L.D. Hughes

[CRJpilot]

I guess like a rock band most of the discussions tend to revolve around the lead singer and not those behind the scenes.

There is scattered information in this forum about L.D. Hughes and the odd reference to him during race week but clearly he is the solid anchor behind the Strega team. He is deeply involved in most if not all aspects of the aircraft and certainly part of training and guiding the more recent pilots of Strega. Most notably Hoot and Jay both make reference to how valuable he was to them in preparing for the challenges of flying a Gold category unlimited racer.

I don't even know what L.D. stands for. Could those that know details of his background please post here, starting with how long he has been with team Strega and how he ended up in his position as crew chief.

Thanks in advance.

Don

[Big_Jim]

Re: L.D. Hughes

I guess like a rock band most of the discussions tend to revolve around the lead singer and not those behind the scenes.

There is scattered information in this forum about L.D. Hughes and the odd reference to him during race week but clearly he is the solid anchor behind the Strega team. He is deeply involved in most if not all aspects of the aircraft and certainly part of training and guiding the more recent pilots of Strega. Most notably Hoot and Jay both make reference to how valuable he was to them in preparing for the challenges of flying a Gold category unlimited racer.

I don't even know what L.D. stands for. Could those that know details of his background please post here, starting with how long he has been with team Strega and how he ended up in his position as crew chief.

Thanks in advance.

Don

David Hughes was one of Tiger's main crew guys during the 80's and '90's. If you look in pit or hangar photos of the team at the time you'll see a teenager hanging around. That is David's son....who everyone called "Little Dave"....L.D.

During the mid-late 1990's, the owner was involved in some rather 'questionable' activities while going through his divorce and was caught. Several things revolving around how that issue was handled, as well as the airplane being grounded due to the prop-strike at Reno '97, led to a large portion of the team jumping over to Dago Red in 1998, including the crew chief and engine builder.

When the plane was repaired and returned to Reno in 1999, L.D. had taken over as crew chief.

[CRJpilot]

Re: L.D. Hughes

Thank you very much for your reply.

Like everything else related to Air Racing, that's an interesting story!

Cheers, Don