Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: PapaFox on April 09, 2010, 01:52:28 PM

Title: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: PapaFox on April 09, 2010, 01:52:28 PM: 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.
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: ACE on April 09, 2010, 02:00:45 PM: :salute
:angel:
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: redwing7 on April 09, 2010, 03:46:02 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: tapakeg on April 09, 2010, 04:15:06 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: 007Rusty on April 09, 2010, 05:34:49 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Tordon22 on April 09, 2010, 05:40:29 PM: Was lucky enough to meet this man and shake his hand.

You will be missed Lyle!

:salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: oboe on April 09, 2010, 05:41:25 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Waldo on April 09, 2010, 05:58:19 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: steely07 on April 09, 2010, 06:48:30 PM: Thank you for posting PapaFox, he will be sorely missed.

<Salute>

Steely
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: infowars on April 09, 2010, 06:51:21 PM: Thank you sharing. That is a very happy story... :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: HighTone on April 09, 2010, 06:52:43 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: mbailey on April 09, 2010, 07:07:05 PM: Thoughts and prayers

:salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: xNOVAx on April 09, 2010, 08:10:50 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: USRanger on April 09, 2010, 08:13:56 PM: :salute RareBr
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: crazyivan on April 09, 2010, 08:28:05 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: doc1kelley on April 09, 2010, 08:46:22 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Wax on April 09, 2010, 08:52:14 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Hamltnblue on April 09, 2010, 09:19:34 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: SHawk on April 09, 2010, 09:49:23 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: morfiend on April 10, 2010, 01:11:48 AM: :salute

Papa,rarebear is an all time favourite of mine,I keep a wave file of the engine sound just to listen to it every once in a while. Now seems an appropriate time to do so!

:pray
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Wmaker on April 10, 2010, 01:40:54 AM: (http://www.rarebear.com/pilots-crew/images/pilotl1.jpg)
http://www.rarebear.com/pilots-crew/shelton.htm (http://www.rarebear.com/pilots-crew/shelton.htm)

:salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Nutzoid on April 10, 2010, 11:31:59 AM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: crazierthanu on April 10, 2010, 01:42:50 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Barrett on April 10, 2010, 01:45:42 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: qcarech on April 10, 2010, 02:46:42 PM: :salute :airplane: :cheers: :angel:
R.I.P and my best wishes to the family, sorry for your loss.
<<S>> Rich (QcareCH)
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: froger on April 10, 2010, 06:03:47 PM: I do believe I was in Reno with an all access pass in 1988.
there was a lot of beer n whiskey the weekend but if i remember right RB won gold unlimited that year.

Those were the days gents :salute

froger
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: BushLT1 on April 10, 2010, 09:15:49 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Kazaa on April 11, 2010, 07:33:30 AM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: mike8318 on April 11, 2010, 09:25:18 PM: :salute I got to see him run in 1990 at Reno when he had the 3 blade prop. Truely an awesome experence.
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Zoney on April 12, 2010, 11:06:42 AM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Dadsguns on April 12, 2010, 11:19:59 AM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: daddog on April 14, 2010, 03:07:06 PM: Thanks for sharing Papafox.
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: IrishOne on April 15, 2010, 05:19:49 PM: :salute
Title: Re: Lyle Shelton Passes Away
Post by: Tom5572 on April 16, 2010, 12:51:29 PM: :salute

Great story sir