RIP, Bax....

wsuffa

wsuffa

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Bill S.
News is reporting the death of Gordon Baxter at 81. :(

I guess it was inevitable. Sure miss his columns.

Maybe Diana will take up the cause of the Pasture Pilot...
 
Boy, I remember reading his columns when I was just a little boy. His writings inspired me for many years.
 
wsuffa said:
News is reporting the death of Gordon Baxter at 81. :(

I guess it was inevitable. Sure miss his columns.

Maybe Diana will take up the cause of the Pasture Pilot...
Click to expand...

One of the few writers I enjoyed reading when I used to take FLYING.

Another eagle takes to the skies....
 
Flyboy said:
One of the few writers I enjoyed reading when I used to take FLYING.

Another eagle takes to the skies....
Click to expand...

Yeah, he was one of the greats, all right.

Apropos nothing, my parents turn 80 next month (they have the same birthday). "Inevitable sometime" starts looking awfully close when you're talking about someone dying at 81 and your parents are 80. Fortunately, they are both in excellent health (ludicrously good health, actually), but at that age, that can change so quickly. Sigh.

Judy
 
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judypilot said:
Yeah, he was one of the greats, all right.

Apropos nothing, my parents turn 80 next month (they have the same birthday). "Inevitable sometime" starts looking awfully close when you're talking about someone dying at 81 and your parents are 80. Fortunately, they are both in excellent health (ludicrously good health, actually), but at that age, that can change so quickly. Sigh.

Judy
Click to expand...

Sigh indeed.

Sorry to lose Bax.
 
Truly aviation has lost one of the great story tellers and a wonderful voice for the GA flying most of us know and love. Beth & I had dinner with Gordon & Diane in Beaumont, TX, in March '92. One story I remember from that night was his daughter, Jenny, asked him if he was famous. He told her that in a limited way, he was. As he described it to her, inside the perimeter of an airport fence he was indeed famous, but just a few feet outside of the airport fence he was totally unknown.

I never understood how the rest of the world failed to find the man's writings.

I offer my condolences and best wishes to Diane & Jenny, who must both miss Gordon terribly.
 
With no shame, I tell you: there are tears in my eyes.

Gordon Baxter's writing about flying resonated with me in a way no one else's could. He has made me laugh, and cry, and when I lived down that way, I always intended to get over his way and buy him a cup of coffee. Another regret. I feel as though I have lost a friend, and I never shook his hand.

In my view, he's up there, an equal, with St. Exupery and Gann.

God Speed, Bax.
 
wsuffa said:
News is reporting the death of Gordon Baxter at 81. :(

I guess it was inevitable. Sure miss his columns.

Maybe Diana will take up the cause of the Pasture Pilot...
Click to expand...

Oh, that's sad news indeed. I miss his writings... if I could buy a compilation of all his works, that would be something that would be on my shelf...
 
Troy Whistman said:
Oh, that's sad news indeed. I miss his writings... if I could buy a compilation of all his works, that would be something that would be on my shelf...
Click to expand...

Not all, true, but certainly some of the greats:

"Bax Seat"
"More Bax Seat"
 
I remember reading the first column he wrote after the seizure that cost him his medical -- like a dagger in the heart. The years since then have seen the physical decline of a giant of aviation writing and I can have only a vague sense of his anguish over the years. Last week, Curtis Pitts; this week, Bax -- I hope they're flying formation together across that bar.
 
wsuffa said:
News is reporting the death of Gordon Baxter at 81. :(

I guess it was inevitable. Sure miss his columns.

Maybe Diana will take up the cause of the Pasture Pilot...
Click to expand...

Bax defined an era that no contemporary pilots (none of us, I think) will ever see, and he shared it unselfishly for many years. Thanx, Bax. God speed.
 
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