Telescope Observations And Life Events

November 1965: My oldest brother Richard took me, my brother Phillip, and Charles Hicks to thedrive-in to see a Nascar movie, titled “Red Line 7000.” I was 12 years old, Phillip 16, and Charlie was 17.

It became really foggy on our trip back home.  When we turned off highway 226 and then up the hill heading toward Lawndale on Shelby Road, we saw spotlights and emergency vehicles on the left, just beyond the crest of the hill.

A yellow Piper Cub had crashed within ~100 yards of the highway.  We stopped and actually walked to the crash-site. The pilot was killed. I’ll never forget what I saw that night with almost perfect recollection and clarity to this day.

The pilot had to be flying visual flight rules, known as”VFR” which means the pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the airplane is going, definitely not a foggy night.

Charlie Hicks would later have a distinguished career in the Air Force; flying A-10’s, Stealth’s and other high-performance fighter planes. He would also successfully make 200 nighttime carrier landings with the Navy.I feel absolutely certain he had no idea while at the crash scene, he would one day become a true “Top-Gun” pilot.

If you look at the photo “as following” the plane crashed just beside the tree line at the edge of the field, and just to the right of the largest tree and behind the two outermost fence posts. The plane was in a vertical position on its nose. The yellow Piper-Cub was fully illuminated by spotlights.