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Show Wild Blue Yondei S beckons Hosking; He'll fly again 300 so. jt cin, Utah sun - ui -rryi : "-tv-!! A VA- By GARY R. BLODGETT Editor BOUNTIFUL Only three days after escaping serious injury in the crash of his bi-wing plane during an air show, Craig Hosking is back in the cockpit and airborne again. Having barely enough time to shake the cobwebs from his head since the tragic mishap last Sunday afternoon, Craig borrowed another bi-wing craft and took off for the wild blue yonder. He made a few loops and aerials, then softly settled to earth. He had proved to himself, his family and all others that he had overcome the physical and emotional problems and was ready to fly again. And Craig will fly again. , "We're not definite in our future the accident from beginning to end. The plane was just coming out of a low roll and hit extra hard on approach to the runway. After a couple of bounces down the runway, run-way, the plane careened to the right and flipped over at least twice, coming to rest against a fence. "If I had been down in the crowd and not seen everything that hap-pened, hap-pened, I might have paniced," said Nikki. "But I didn't panic. In fact, I was calm. Without really knowing, know-ing, I felt that he was not seriously hurt." Nikki said she did not see Craig being removed from the plane because be-cause as soon as the plane stopped, she handed her microphone to someone and began running toward to-ward the crash site. "A couple of security guards THIS IS CRAIG Hosking's Pitt S-2-B bi-wing plane, specially designed for upside-down landings. The plane crashed last month during aerobatic show, but Craig escaped without serious injury. He plans to build a new plane and fly again. plans at this time, but we are leaning lean-ing towards having Craig continue to perform his aerobatics," said Craig's pretty wife, Nikki. Craig has always been involved in-volved with aircraft, helicopters and planes, and it would be foolish for him not to remain flying in some capacity. We haven't decided yet if he will continue to perform in air shows, but we are certainly leaning in thit direction," she said. Craig is the only person in the world to perform in air shows by plans at this time, but we are leaning lean-ing towards having Craig continue mm """ to perform his aerobatics," said Craig's pretty wife, Nikki. f X Craig has always been in- i volved with aircraft, helicopters I and planes, and it would be foolish f for him not to remain flying in some ;s : w,-- I capacity. We haven't decided yet if J he. will continue to perform in air VZSSA tm shows, but we are certainly leaning : I : in thit direction," she said. -" Craig is the only person in the v world to perform in air shows by "T" f PHOTOSGARY BLODGETT CRAIG HOSKING SHOWS dent in his very sturdy crash helmet caused when his head slammed into plane's panel. flying a bi-wing Pitts S-2-B with specially designed wheels on both wings and who lands his plane upside-down. Nikki comes from a family of pilots, and she knows what it means to Craig to climb back into the cockpit and get airborne again. "It's just like a cowboy being thrown from a bronco; he has to get up and get in the saddle immediately immediate-ly so that he has control of the situation." The crash of Craig's plane was a horrifying sight for Nikki. And she had a "bird's-eye view of the entire mishap. "I was in the upper stands announcing the show by loud speaker to the large crowd of spectators," spec-tators," she said. "So my view of the accident was probably the best of any one, and it's a good thing that it was." She explained that she could see tried to stop me, but I outran them," she said. "I tried to catch a ride out to the crash site in a pickup but at first they refused to take me. When I finally convinced them that I was Craig's wife, one driver did give me a lift." But before getting the ride in the pickup, Nikki was grabbed by a security guard who at first attempted attemp-ted to stop her from going to the scene. "We had a few words and I finally final-ly persuaded him to go along with me, if he had to, but that I was going to see my husband," Nikki remembers. "After that, everyone treated me just fine." Asked what her first words to Craig were, Nikki paused before answering. "I really don't remember. I do remember giving him a big hug and Continued on page two Hosking to fly again Continued from page one thinking how wonderful it was that he was not seriously hurt. But seeing the sad look on his face as we stared at his crumpled plane made me feel like crying." Nikki is quick to praise the safety safe-ty design of the plane and the safety equipment Craig was wearing for saving his life. She described his clothing as being the same life-support equipment equip-ment worn by Indy 500 racers --right --right down to the heavy, reinforced helmet that undoubtedly saved his life, or at least more serious injury. "That helmet took some hard knocks," she said. "And the roll-bar roll-bar design of the plane's wings helped to prevent the cockpit from being smashed." Craig was only slightly hurt some sore back and neck muscles and bruises where the helmet apparently appa-rently pressed hard against his head. He was taken to University of Utah Medical Center by ambulance ambu-lance where he was treated and released. re-leased. "His father, Bob, was at the air show with a family-owned helicopter helicop-ter but we thought the flight to the hospital might be a little choppy in the helicopter and a friend persuaded per-suaded us to have Craig lie on a stretcher and ride in the ambulance to reduce the jolt on his back. It turned out to be a good choice," she said. The mishap is under investigation investiga-tion by the FAA, but Craig said earlier that (the plane) apparently lost power temporarily just as it was coming out of the loop. "We're certain that it was a mechanical malfunction and not pilot error," says Craig. Despite the tragedy, Craig said he "still feels that the plane is safe and that he would like to continue in the aerobatics business." "This is a perfect example of how you can walk away from a tremendous crash with only a few sore muscles -- if your plane is designed de-signed with added safety features and if you wear the proper protective protec-tive clothing," said Craig as he surveyed sur-veyed the crumpled wreckage of the plane. He noted that the plane is reinforced rein-forced for safety in the event of a crash. "And it held up real well," he smiled. |