Dale Snodgrass crash in Idaho

I saw that elsewhere. Very sad, and as you say, sobering.
 
Never heard of the guy, but it sounds like a big loss to the community. Sad to read this! :(
 
Doc Holliday said:
Never heard of him.
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He’s the guy in the front seat.

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Snodgrass was one of those guys that was a fighter pilot to the bone. Like a friend of mine who flys for Drakken. Had no interest in transports, went from active duty fighters to civilian.

RIP “Snort.”

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Fearless Tower said:
Snort was probably the most well known F-14 Demo pilot on the airshow circuit.
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Yeah. I've seen the videos of him flying the airshows. That pic out at the boat still don't look good to me. It's of that pic I'm wondering if there is a story
 
Dang. I met him at a party he and Patty Wagstaff hosted. Very gracious, both of them. Always loved that iconic photo. May he R.I.P.:(
 
Amazing the he mastered the F-14 Tomcat and other rather complex aircraft and bought the farm in a SIAI-Marchetti 260. Probably a mechanical failure or physical incapacitation. RIP
 
luvflyin said:
Yeah. I've seen the videos of him flying the airshows. That pic out at the boat still don't look good to me. It's of that pic I'm wondering if there is a story
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As the story that flightwriter posted above, the camera lens makes it look a lot closer/more dangerous than it really was. I've seen the video of the same low pass and he does not look that close.

Edit - actually, the video is included in that link.
 
luvflyin said:
Yeah. I've seen the videos of him flying the airshows. That pic out at the boat still don't look good to me. It's of that pic I'm wondering if there is a story
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Long lens effect, nothing more. Note that the people seem in scale with the plane. A wide angle lens, close to the action, would look entirely "normal" to your eyes.
 
Some neat footage of Snort flying Paris Jets. I think they were hoping to compete in the VLJ market but the MS760 never really caught on.

 
luvflyin said:
Yeah. I've seen the videos of him flying the airshows. That pic out at the boat still don't look good to me. It's of that pic I'm wondering if there is a story
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It always blows my mind how huge fighter jets are, particularly the f-14. It’s nearly 10 feet between the tips of the vertical stabilizer. The horizontal stab is only a couple feet short of a 182s entire wingspan…. Makes it look a lot closer to the ship than it is.
 
Velocity173 said:
Some neat footage of Snort flying Paris Jets. I think they were hoping to compete in the VLJ market but the MS760 never really caught on.

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So that’s a Paris Jet. There used to be one that flew around in the Burbank area. I think it was based at Van Nuys, but don’t remember for sure. Loved his 57 Chevy analogy
 
Dan the man quotes local pilots describing a departure stall due to reasons unknown.
 
That was the scuttle I heard, short takeoff roll, very steep climb, stall, crash, fire.
 
sourdough44 said:
Almost like when the seat slides back?? Not saying it happened here, just saying.
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That’s the scuttle I heard, that plane might have had the seat rail issue. Hard to believe he would have flown a plane that had that issue unfixed. I’m not saying that’s what happened either, just what I heard speculation about.
 
skyking3286 said:
Dan the man quotes local pilots describing a departure stall due to reasons unknown.
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Is it even possible these days that there’s not a video? One would think that the airport security would have some video camera somewhere that caught it.
 
Seat rails are a Cessna issue but I don't know enough about his plane. Apparently the plane was a newer purchase, so Time in Type to do a max performance takeoff could also be a factor, but no one knows at this point. Old bold pilots sort of thing. Or gust locks or something else. NTSB will have its hands full given the status of the pilot. Just two or three degrees less angle of attack and . . .
 
I sincerely hope this wasn’t an early rotation incident. Personally I had my first take-off scare a month ago. Summer high DAs need to keep the plane on the runway for some additional flying speed. Rotated at book numbers and it wasn’t interested in flying yet. Led to some interesting (read that as me cussing) repercussions before the plane finally decided to fly. Ironically this was on a flight review. CFI comments “nice save”. Add 5 kts minimum to your takeoff speed as needed.
 
So sad to read about this. RIP Captain.

I attended a Pilot's Assoc meeting at KSGJ a while back when he gave a little talk. Sadly I didn't actually meet him then but he seemed like decent gracious guy. Fun stories for sure.

To those that had never heard of him....you've almost certainly seen him fly..at least in the Film Top Gun. He was also part of that little dog fight with the Libyans back in the 1980's. Apparently the highest time pilot ever in the F-14 Tomcat.

The speculation about the seats...I had a seat come off the rail in the front in a rental 172N a long time ago. My habit was always to roll the seat all the way to the forward stop then back I think it was two clicks. Well I suppose the stop had failed or was misplaced and the front legs were sitting on top of the rail. Didn't discover the problem till the seat tipped back when flaring for touch and go. I only just barely managed to grab the glare shield with one hand to hold myself forward. Don't know how it managed to stay down for the initial takeoff and in the air. I'd suppose something like that could be one of very many possibilities here. So sad.
 
Flew with another very high time F-14 pilot, Spook Yakely. He was an USN acceptance Test Pilot at The Iron Works and later VF-124 Skipper when he took me for a couple flights. He had a lot of respect for Snort.

R.I.P.
 
woodchucker said:
I sincerely hope this wasn’t an early rotation incident. Personally I had my first take-off scare a month ago. Summer high DAs need to keep the plane on the runway for some additional flying speed. Rotated at book numbers and it wasn’t interested in flying yet. Led to some interesting (read that as me cussing) repercussions before the plane finally decided to fly. Ironically this was on a flight review. CFI comments “nice save”. Add 5 kts minimum to your takeoff speed as needed.
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One nice (and sometimes not nice) thing about the Mooney is it begins to dance around on the gear when it's time to fly. It's an unmistakable sensation.
 
We sometimes can’t believe that our hero’s can screw up. Just saying that he was human and not infallible. Not saying that he did screw up, but that it is a possibility the investigators will pursue. Until then we can blame seat tracks, gust locks, physical impairment and other non-skill related issues. RIP
 
Kinda wonder if it was a CG issue. The SM-1019 is a good little hauler and I heard Snort was building a cabin in Idaho. Curious as to what his loading was.
 
Looks like he was finishing up on his Idaho dream cabin on a private strip. 72 I believe, probably getting ready to retire. Sad.


 
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