Seven-time Reno Unlimited air race champion Lyle Shelton passed away on Thursday, April 8. Lyle still holds the 3KM record for piston-powered aircraft (529mph) and the time to climb record to 10,000', all set with his restored F8F Bearcat "Rare Bear".
Many Aces High flyers are unaware that Lyle regularly flew Aces High during the early days of the combat simulation. He was a member of the Dickweed Heavy Bomber Group, but he preferred to fly fighters, as you can imagine. If you were shot down by callsign "RareBr" or you walked away the victor from the match, you have the distinction of have been in a dogfight with none other than the Reno champ himself.
Lyle came into Aces High initially to get simulated engine failure practice. He found that of all the Aces High planes, the FW-190 came the closest to simulating his bearcat. For combat missions, though, he preferred to fly the P-51. He also enjoyed formation aerobatics, and spent several sessions flying a routine with Papafox, Thunder, and Hitech.
I had the good fortune to work with Lyle as a TWA pilot and later spent time with his team during the Reno Air Races. He gave Papafox a cockpit checkout in Rare Bear, which is something I'll never forget. My favorite Lyle story happened one year when we could see a stream of smoke starting to flow from the bearcat. Usually, when a race pilot declares "Mayday!" he does so with a voice that is about three octaves too high and with no shortage of anxiety. Lyle eased Rare Bear up several thousand feet but continued around the course. When asked by race control if he was declaring an emergency, Lyle replied in a rather bored tone, "Well, yeah, I guess so." He then managed to make a nice deadstick landing with a severely-compromised engine.
Fair winds, old friend.
