Aviation Writer Gordon Baxter

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woxof

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woxof
I gotta admit, he was not my favourite back in the days as I focused on the airline stuff first and his last. Was always talking about those taildraggers. Sort of a artsy kind of writing rather than technical. But I bought both his books and I think I read them, They were put them away in the ever-expanding aviation library long ago.

Of course, since then, I have flown a bunch of taildraggers, including the Stearman, the type he loved so much. Took out the book tonight and read a few pages. Will probably have a lot more appreciation for it.

What do you think?
 
Bax was a wise, observant soul with a reverence for aviation history. His columns and articles were sometimes a little corny, but always a welcome respite from the golly-gee of the latest high-performance airplanes and avionics, that characterized the magazine in those days.

Look for his column "Garbage", from the March 1976 issue, page 96.
 
woxof said:
I gotta admit, he was not my favourite back in the days as I focused on the airline stuff first and his last. Was always talking about those taildraggers. Sort of a artsy kind of writing rather than technical. But I bought both his books and I think I read them, They were put them away in the ever-expanding aviation library long ago.

Of course, since then, I have flown a bunch of taildraggers, including the Stearman, the type he loved so much. Took out the book tonight and read a few pages. Will probably have a lot more appreciation for it.

What do you think?
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Gordon Baxter was my favorite. He also flew a Mooney and wrote about it a lot. The one that stays in my head was the article that he wrote about the hurricane coming ashore. He was driving home after dark and it caught him around Houston. He was northbound about 100 MPH. The wind was out of the south about the same speed. He wrote that that he rolled his window down and rested his arm on the sill. In a dead calm.
 
Early seventies year book picture of me asleep in my HS library, chin down on a copy of Flying magazine - Peter Garrison and Gordon Baxter put me in aviation. . .
 
I remember a column about a new airplane he had taken for a ride. He commented on the number of switches and stuff on the new airplane's control wheel. "The only thing my old Mooney's wheel has is a big crack," he wrote.
 
Pilaut said.....

Bax was a wise, observant soul with a reverence for aviation history. His columns and articles were sometimes a little corny, but always a welcome respite from the golly-gee of the latest high-performance airplanes and avionics, that characterized the magazine in those days.

Look for his column "Garbage", from the March 1976 issue, page 96.


I read that little bit on the salvage of old airliners, today, and half a century ago. A fine example of aviation prose, then and now.

Today, i am disappointed that he did not get a hand drill, and remove that plate with the serial number 5, and place it on his desk. The BaxSeat was a favorite for me, I was in a low enough income status in those day that "His kinds of airplanes" appealed to me. I was flying Pipers and Cessnas with the third wheel at either end, did not care which.

I never have been in too big a rush to arrive at a destination, watching the world pass under me has continued to be a huge part of the lure of flying, and preferably, land that I have not seen before. We, live in a beautiful country to fly over, and when flying airline, a window seat is something to fight for. Turboprops down low over the Australian Outback, for a couple of thousand kilometers was special.

Baxter never lost the joy of his early flying.
 
I always loved his writing.

He also wrote for Car and Driver magazine. With some HILARIOUS columns. One about how to safely and cleanly pee in a moving car using aerodynamics. :D
 
Pilawt said:
Bax was a wise, observant soul with a reverence for aviation history. His columns and articles were sometimes a little corny, but always a welcome respite from the golly-gee of the latest high-performance airplanes and avionics, that characterized the magazine in those days.

Look for his column "Garbage", from the March 1976 issue, page 96.
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Thank you.
 
Him and Lane Wallace were my favorite two aviation writers. I stopped getting Flying magazine because they were gone and the rest of the articles were about expensive, complex planes that I'd never be able to afford or fly. AOPA's magazine is going the same way...

Flying is not just about machines; it's about people, adventures, and just the sheer joy of accomplishing and seeing things that few people do. Meeting and talking to funny, smart people at Oshkosh, nailing a landing or approach and knowing you did it perfectly, seeing the patchwork of farms, the glistening of sun off the rivers and the overwhelming beauty of our planet. That's the aviation writing that motivates and encourages us and there needs to be more of it.
 
Pinecone said:
I always loved his writing.

He also wrote for Car and Driver magazine. With some HILARIOUS columns. One about how to safely and cleanly pee in a moving car using aerodynamics. :D
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Does anyone have a link to that article?
 
woxof said:
I gotta admit, he was not my favourite back in the days as I focused on the airline stuff first and his last. Was always talking about those taildraggers. Sort of a artsy kind of writing rather than technical. But I bought both his books and I think I read them, They were put them away in the ever-expanding aviation library long ago.

Of course, since then, I have flown a bunch of taildraggers, including the Stearman, the type he loved so much. Took out the book tonight and read a few pages. Will probably have a lot more appreciation for it.

What do you think?
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I enjoyed Bax' writing. He was an awkward neighbor (Beaumont TX), not particularly confined by the truth, and often displayed puzzling judgement... even early in life. (Not just a dementia thing toward the end.)

Paul
 
PaulMillner said:
I enjoyed Bax' writing. He was an awkward neighbor (Beaumont TX), not particularly confined by the truth, and often displayed puzzling judgement... even early in life. (Not just a dementia thing toward the end.)

Paul
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sad to hear about Bax’s youngest daughter. Did you know her?
 
Always enjoyed the Bax articles. I enjoyed his sharing of his perceptions.
 
A signed copy of "Box Seat" is one of the prizes of my aviation library. I might just have to reread it.
 
Thanks for the heads-up. I’m an avid reader of this sort of stuff and will now look him up. Cheers.
 
PaulMillner said:
I enjoyed Bax' writing. He was an awkward neighbor (Beaumont TX), not particularly confined by the truth, and often displayed puzzling judgement... even early in life. (Not just a dementia thing toward the end.)

Paul
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I feel like we're missing some information here, or deleted posts.
 
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Piperonca said:
I feel like we're missing some information here, or deleted posts.
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I see Bax' Wikipedia article has been sanitized from any of the controversy. Perhaps we should leave the public record at that.

From a story about his death in 2005:
Gordon "Bax" Baxter, radio personality, newspaper columnist, pilot and writer whose *unorthodox views and madcap style* often got him fired, died of respiratory problems Saturday in a Beaumont hospital. He was 81.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...lumnist-Gordon-Bax-Baxter-dead-at-1475868.php

Paul
 
PaulMillner said:
I see Bax' Wikipedia article has been sanitized from any of the controversy. Perhaps we should leave the public record at that.
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What controversy needs to be sanitized? Did Bax commit a crime or did he paint his toenails?
 
I used to sit in the "Science Reading Room" at the University of Washington, reading EVERY issue of "Flying" magazine.

Bax had great humor.

My wife and I went back there a few years ago. The SRR was GONE!!
image_preview
 
Piperonca said:
What controversy needs to be sanitized? Did Bax commit a crime or did he paint his toenails?
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I didn't see anyone say that it needed to be sanitized... just that it was omitted. Bax' online obituary alludes to a bit more of it. In his mid-thirties, Bax was an online radio personality in the Golden Triangle, Jefferson and Orange Counties Texas, 90 miles east of Houston (and 40 years in the past as we like to say). The county exhibits the classic cultural/religious tension evident in much of Louisiana... the south is Cajun/Catholic, the north is white/Baptist.

Anyway, Port Arthur, in south Jefferson County, was a properous refining/chemicals/railroad port. With that prosperity came illegal gambling, houses of ill repute, and all the rest. The Cajun community there was OK with that. But, the Baptist majority in the county seat, Beaumont, 20 miles to the north, found this objectionable. In 1960, the Smith Commission was launched to "clean up" Port Arthur. They were ultimately effective, but Port Arthur declined rapidly afterwards from a combination of containerization of shipping and integration of the schools, causing white flight. All through this campaign, Bax lobbied on air for the status quo, live and let live. The Baptists (who had the money) made him persona non grata, and pressured advertisers to stop supporting his show. 25 years later when we arrived in the Golden Triangle, Bax was still consigned to marginal radio stations far outside the Triangle, in addition to one non-profit hour a week on the PBS station.

In addition, Bax then supported himself through a variety of questionable business deals, and in the '70's, left his wife and mother of his 8 children to take up with a younger woman. Moralistic people were outraged. Bax continued to have a loose relationship with credibility... he begged off his weekly PBS show "for having the flu" only to be seen by many, including contributors to his non-profit show, having dinner with his family at a prominent restaurant when he was supposed to be on the air.

Even his flying stories show some lack of judgement. Did you read about how he decided to stop flying? He'd been having unexplained blackouts, but kept driving and flying. Then he blacked out while flying his Mooney, and woke up as the Mooney was bouncing along in a field that it had descended on to. Bax pulled up, flew to the airport, and THEN quit flying. I always wondered, though, when I saw his white Chrysler convertible with the blacked out windows on the road... is he going to black out today?

A character... but not one who made you feel safe to be around.

Paul
 
Piperonca said:
What controversy needs to be sanitized? Did Bax commit a crime or did he paint his toenails?
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I remember his wife requesting that reporters not demand a cause of death. Most were decent enough to respect that. Sometimes the public is just too nosy.
 
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Dan Thomas said:
I remember his wife requesting that reporters not demand a cause of death. Most were decent enough to respect that. Sometimes the public is just too nosy.
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Agree, and mea culpa. None of my business, except to the extent Bax was a public figure and drew interest in his community.

Regardless of Bax’s foibles and eccentricity, he was an inspiring writer and speaker, especially for us pilots. His legacy will long endure. I wish I had read more of his works.

Best wishes for his family and loved ones. That includes many.
 
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Pilawt said:
Bax was a wise, observant soul with a reverence for aviation history. His columns and articles were sometimes a little corny, but always a welcome respite from the golly-gee of the latest high-performance airplanes and avionics, that characterized the magazine in those days.

Look for his column "Garbage", from the March 1976 issue, page 96.
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Ironically, @Pilawt's passing indirectly led me to this post of his, and I went and read this column and remembered Baxter's "Pilot Heaven" column that was published as "The Last Bax Seat" shortly after he died.

It was published in the September 2005 issue of Flying which is available for free here: https://books.google.com/books?id=Y...Q6AF6BAgIEAI#v=onepage&q=pilot heaven&f=false
 
I saw his name in the news some time back and was shocked to read his daughter Jenny, named after the early bi-plane the Curtis Jenny, was found dead and her live in boyfriend has been arrested. He wrote about Jenny a lot. And it's merciful he didn't live to see this happen.

I'll always remember the way he described his first ride in the right seat of a B-25. Owned by an old crop duster who lived long enough to get rich, Baxter wrote. “I closed the window and it slid shut easily and locked with a loud click. It was right then I decided to trust those fifty year old engines. Any man who keeps his window tracks greased looks after everything else.”

Rest in peace Jenny Baxter, 1978 – 2023.

Photo: Gordon Baxter, his wife Diane, and Jenny.

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