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Sad report

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Marl

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Fellers----


I know that we have a lot of crossover from the Starduster Forum, but I've not seen anything here about this---


This past week, we lost a fellow Biplane guy, and a great friend to aviation (especially the aerobatic end of things) in the South East. Kevin Gorham died in an accident while giving an aerobatic ride in "The Gold Duster" AcroDuster Too. He was able to get his passenger to bail, but wasn't able to get out himself.


Very sad.


Here's the original report from his Dad, Frank, on the Starduster board:


"Guys and Gals,

I am very sad to report that Acroduster 363J crashed this afternoon here in Bay County FL. My son Kevin, who holds a low altitude FAA airshow waiver card in this airplane, was giving a normal acro ride to a business associate and student of mine in our usual practice area. I spoke with the passenger, who credits Kevin with saving his life, and examined the crash.

They had a serious problem recovering from a tailslide and Kevin instructed the passenger to bail. That was successful but Kevin did not have time to get out himself. Impact was inverted flat in a wooded area. We were not allowed to disturb the crash scene but there were some indications that the elevator pushrod may have failed. If the investigation reveals such a failure I will post it here.

We are all devastated

So sadly, Frank
"


Kevin was laid to rest yesterday in Panama City.


Preliminary reports seem to point to a failure in the ailerons---Frank is going to follow-up with any information he can to help prevent this from happening again.
 

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