Tweet
I don't know how many of you know this, but last Friday my flight instructor had a heart attack and died inflight heading toward Midland for an airshow in a Mooney M20 N201R. He was a pilot of the B-25 "Yellow Rose" based in San Marcos, Texas. There was a funeral service today in the CAF hangar here at Burnet Municipal.
I've only known him since last January when I started taking lessons after we moved here, so it hasn't been that long. Howard was never a man who lost his temper, shoot, I've never seen him even get a little mad. Whenever I didn't do something right at first, either he would take control of the plane and show me again, or he would tell me to go level for a few seconds and told me what to do again.
The guy that he was flying with told the story of what happened last Friday. This is kinda how it goes.
About 8am, him and another guy were flying from Burnet to Midland for a CAF air show. Howard started was having a little bit of breathing trouble when they took off, and gradually worsened as they climbed to their assigned altitude. A few minutes later Howard realized it was too late to do anything so he gave control to Rusty (the guy he was flying with) and operated the GPS, since Rusty didn't know how to work it. Rusty then called for an immediate vector to a nearby airport with EMS services, so he got cleared to land at Llano Municipal. It was about 8:15 or so by this time, and as they were getting ready to land, the last thing Howard did was remove his hands and feet from the proximity of the controls so he wouldn't interfere and make sure Rusty would land safely.
Howard died doing what he loved to do; flying and helping others.
His uniform, 3 hats, headphones, and his plane that he spent his last moments in.
The CAF hangar the service was held in and the CAF DC-3 "Bluebonnet Belle" out front
You never know how much you will affect someone's life. From what I've heard from just about everyone that spoke to me after the service, he always spoke highly of me of how I was such a good pilot and caught on pretty fast.
RIP Howard Martin
November 10, 1943-February 18, 2005.....only 61 and never showed it.
I've only known him since last January when I started taking lessons after we moved here, so it hasn't been that long. Howard was never a man who lost his temper, shoot, I've never seen him even get a little mad. Whenever I didn't do something right at first, either he would take control of the plane and show me again, or he would tell me to go level for a few seconds and told me what to do again.
The guy that he was flying with told the story of what happened last Friday. This is kinda how it goes.
About 8am, him and another guy were flying from Burnet to Midland for a CAF air show. Howard started was having a little bit of breathing trouble when they took off, and gradually worsened as they climbed to their assigned altitude. A few minutes later Howard realized it was too late to do anything so he gave control to Rusty (the guy he was flying with) and operated the GPS, since Rusty didn't know how to work it. Rusty then called for an immediate vector to a nearby airport with EMS services, so he got cleared to land at Llano Municipal. It was about 8:15 or so by this time, and as they were getting ready to land, the last thing Howard did was remove his hands and feet from the proximity of the controls so he wouldn't interfere and make sure Rusty would land safely.
Howard died doing what he loved to do; flying and helping others.
His uniform, 3 hats, headphones, and his plane that he spent his last moments in.
The CAF hangar the service was held in and the CAF DC-3 "Bluebonnet Belle" out front
You never know how much you will affect someone's life. From what I've heard from just about everyone that spoke to me after the service, he always spoke highly of me of how I was such a good pilot and caught on pretty fast.
RIP Howard Martin
November 10, 1943-February 18, 2005.....only 61 and never showed it.
Comment