Air show flying is a great deal more complicated than simply showing off. Those who have approached it with this attitude are mostly gone now.

Even for those of us who have treated it professionally, there has been a price; a real price. My wife and I can count thirty two pilots, most of them personal friends, who have been killed , through either a mechanical failure or pilot error of some kind.

I'm still here!

Sometimes I wonder if I really was good, or just plain lucky to have survived it all. I can't really say for sure at this point in my life. I do know that I always considered the business to be a constant challenge in a search for excellence that I might never really have achieved. I burned up thousands of gallons of fuel and oil sharpening myself like a razor on a strap. I stood and watched as friends were killed.

READ ON

Back to Dudley Henriques in profile