AVIATION: The Final Tragic Flight of Steve O'berg Jun 27, 2015 Cameron, MO Air Show

VIDEO DESCRIPTION:

0:00 - Preparation and fueling - Fri. June 26, 2015
1:38 - Start practice session - Fri. June 26, 2015
8:30 - Practice session successful Lomcevak maneuver
11:25 - Start of Final Flight - Sat. June 27, 2015
17:25 - Fatal Lomcevak maneuver
17:47 - Rescue operations
19:20 - Helicopter rescue flight
20:05 - Flag half-staff, missing man formation - Sun. June 28, 2015
It is with considerable difficulty that I share this video with you. It has been 4-1/2 years since the tragic last flight of Steve O’berg, and I have emotionally wrestled about not sharing this video yet at the same time troubled about posting this record of the event and expressing my feelings. Little did I know how much Steve’s loss would affect me emotionally, both at the time of his accident and even now after all this time. Although I am at an age where I have lost close family members, friends, former classmates, and coworkers, I was particularly affected by Steve’s crash and loss of life. As happens with major events in life, my emotions have been affected on multiple levels.

As with any spectator, I went to the Cameron Air Show to admire the skill, confidence, and bravery of those special pilots who dare to perform amazing, dangerous aerobatic feats. Although I am a former pilot, I would be lying to suggest that I’ve ever had what it takes to fly such maneuvers. My intention was to document the incredible aerobatic performances and then share the sights and sounds with other aviation enthusiasts. At no time did it cross my mind that I’d be witnessing and documenting the tragic death of one of the pilots.

I got there on Friday evening, June 26, 2015, and found out it was the Cameron Air Show’s practice session day prior to the main shows on Saturday and Sunday. I was told that a wealthy aviation enthusiast put on this spectacular show so people could enjoy his passion and that the show was free. I was astounded there weren’t ten thousand people gazing into the sky, all the more reason for me to video the event so I could let others know what they were missing and perhaps they’d attend future Cameron Air Shows.

I parked in a farm field adjacent to the airport. When I entered the airport, ironically, the very first person I saw and videoed was Steve O’berg, the very first scene in this video. He was standing next to his red and white Pitts Special recording some data. I decided to hang around and took more video of Steve, and another pilot named Brian Correll, gassing up their planes. Even though Brian Correll is from my hometown, I didn’t know either pilot and didn’t want to interfere with their work, so I kept my distance and wandered out to the flight line to enjoy the practice sessions. It was 4:25 p.m.

At 6:07 p.m. Steve O’berg was at the north end of the runway doing an unconventional take-off with the wind at his back. At the 8:30 minute mark in this video, Steve performed the Lomcevak maneuver that failed the next afternoon. Oddly, he did the Lomcevak maneuver earlier in his practice performance, not at the end, plus he performed it at a higher altitude after climbing into an inverted loop. In his fatal performance on Saturday, Steve didn’t go into the Lomcevak maneuver until the end of his show when he was returning to the south end of the airport to land and was at a much lower altitude. It proved to be too low for the Lomcevak maneuver.

As you watch this video, admire the skill, confidence, and sheer guts of Steve as he performs aerobatic feats in his Pitts S-2B biplane. Why he chose to perform the Lomcevak maneuver at such a low altitude at the end of his performance, we’ll never know and can only speculate. Sadly, it underscores the dangers of aerobatic flying. Steve O’berg, rest in peace.

The Lomcevak is a family of aerobatic flight maneuvers where the aircraft, with almost no forward airspeed, rotates on chosen axes due to gyroscopic precession and torque of the rotating propeller. One type of Lomcevak is when the pilot follows a knife-edge roll by flipping the airplane end-over-end and into a spin, from which the pilot then recovers control of the airplane.

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/search?q=Steve+O%27Berg+2015

Видео AVIATION: The Final Tragic Flight of Steve O'berg Jun 27, 2015 Cameron, MO Air Show канала MrFreshbreeze50