Bill Whittington dead in plane crash.....

[Lon Moer]

https://racer.com/2021/04/25/bill-wh...ton-1949-2021/

....The tumultuous life of Bill Whittington came to a fiery end Friday afternoon in a private airplane crash outside Winslow, Ariz.

Whittington, 71, and another passenger perished but details were still sketchy on Sunday as local officials and the National Transportation Safety Board have yet to officially confirm his death. Some of Whittington?s closest friends, however, are grieving after receiving private news of his passing....

Blue Skies and CAVU.

[Guest]

Re: Bill Whittington dead in plane crash.....

https://racer.com/2021/04/25/bill-wh...ton-1949-2021/



Blue Skies and CAVU.

Indeed. He certainly was quite the character.

[Shawn Aro]

Re: Bill Whittington dead in plane crash.....

The Story of Two Bills

Shawn

[Reever]

Re: Bill Whittington dead in plane crash.....

Really sorry to hear this. They had the props off of Precious Metal and I was walking by in the pits. I was staring at the gearing trying to figure out how the contra rotating props worked. Bill was in the pit and said hello and I responded that I was trying to understand the gearing. He lifted the tape barrier and invited us in and tried to explain. RIP Mr. Whittington.

[BellCobraIV]

Re: Bill Whittington dead in plane crash.....

Bearcat Bill, chocks cleared, safe skys.

In the horrible year of Rare Bear history when everything that could go wrong was going wrong. The crew had changed the oil on the Bear, the plane was taxiing out Lyle was off the ramp. I realized that there was probably only a quarter of the tank of oil in the plane, as the unopened oil buckets were in the back of the truck. Myself and another crew member jumped into the truck and raced down the ramp I actually hit 90 mph on the ramp heading to the run-up area. By the time I got to the end of the ramp Lyle was in the run-up area. I might not of known not to blast down the ramp at 90 mph, but I darn sure knew NOT to drive toward the active area. Bill Whittington was down there with a hand held radio talking to Don, I asked Bill if he could please tell Lyle there was no oil in his airplane! Bill said, "No, Man, You've got to tell your Dad that one." He handed me the radio and a beyond slightly perturbed Lyle Shelton, mashed the left hand brake, spun 90 degrees and came back to the ramp. Bill just looked at me as I headed over to oil the Bear and told me "Good luck". I needed it. We put 18 gallons of oil into the airplane.

That afternoon we developed a much more comprehensive postflight and preflight checklist system.


After that I had a friendly relationship with Don and Bill. One person jabbed at me for that friendship....but I enjoyed them both, besides they owned all the parts at the "Bearcats "R" Us" store.

[Fence Sence]

Re: Bill Whittington dead in plane crash.....

^^^Cool story.