RIP - Brian A. Smith

[fantom]

Brian was a long time Mooney lover and the former owner of a 1966 M20E named Ms Obsession. He was a dear friend to many and this decent, kind and honest man will be missed. Brian Allen Smith of Carrollton, Texas, passed away on Monday, April 21, 2014 after a courageous battle with lung cancer. He was 63 years old. Brian is survived by his loving wife, Melany; brother, Barry and his wife, Audrey and his twin sister, Barb. He is also survived by wonderful family members and dear friends. He graduated from Dartmouth College, followed by Boston Law School, where he earned his law degree. Brian was President of Aerospace Insurance Managers for over 15 years. He enjoyed the challenge of solving very complicated insurance claims. He also was the owner of Wings Design which created custom paint schemes for aircraft, including mine and many others at MooneySpace. It was a labor of love for him. He was passionate about and spent many hours dedicated to his love of aviation. Visitation will be on Friday, April 25, 2014 from 4:30 until 5:30 pm with the funeral service beginning at 5:30 pm all in the Brooks Family Chapel of the North Dallas Funeral Home, 2710 Valley View Lane, Farmers Branch, Texas 75234. It was a privilege to know you Brian.

[tsuttles]

RIP Brian. Sorry for the families loss. He will get to Heaven fast since us Mooney guys love to fly fast and may his journey be CAVU to the gates. 

[kortopates]

Sad to hear. I met Brian and his wife some years ago when they flew Ms Obsession out to Lake Tahoe for a popular Mooney fly-in while they were doing vacation flying trip out west. Very nice folks.

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[scottfromiowa]

Great tribute Fantom. Sorry to hear of your-"Our-Mooney Family" Loss. God's speed Brian

[carusoam]

God Bless....

-a-

[Marauder]

Always sad to hear about the passing of someone with our passion... My deepest condolences.

[Ellioth]

Perhaps this was Brian's last creation.

 

The design was completed in December and due to some "production problems" only recently took possession of the airplane.

 

I sent a note to Brian a few weeks ago with all of the pictures; he replied "I’m glad I could be a small part of it. I’m in the process of shutting down WINGS due to my cancer progression but sincerely appreciated the opportunity to work with you. All the best, Brian"

 

 

[KSMooniac]

Beautiful plane, Elliot.  A little bit of Brian will continue to fly on with many of our planes.

 

Cancer sucks.

[jetdriven]

There will be at least one more Mooney.  Ours.   Brian has finalized the design of our 201 but we wont recieve the drawings.  Thats OK, we can make it work.    It was a pleasure to work with Brian over the past 9 months. It is sad he is gone, he was good at what he did and really enjoyed it.

[robert7467]

Sorry to hear about your loss..

[fantom]

A little bit of Brian will continue to fly on with many of our planes.

 

Cancer sucks.

 

Amen to that.... Parker's old plane, and mine, both a testament to Brian.

[fantom]

But it's red  . Would be interesting to see all the Brian Mooney designs on MS planes.

 

 

http://mooneyspace.com/gallery/image/35487-garyparkeravonpark/

[mooneygirl]

So sorry to hear this news. I remember that airplane from Tahoe.

[KSMooniac]

He did a nice job with jgreen's new Aerostar as well.  Like the Mooney, the Aerostar in my opinion is very challenging to create a flattering scheme and he did it.

[fantom]

He did a nice job with jgreen's new Aerostar as well.  

 

For sure, and Lew's (231Pilot) 231:

 

[johnggreen]

Someone on this forum referred me to Brian last summer for a scheme for my Aerostar.  Working with Brian was incredible in that you could describe your idea and 24 hours later, your mind's eye was on your computer from Brian.  After some delays, I finally got the Aerostar to the paint shop in March and picked it up a couple of weeks ago.

 

I sent Brian pictures of his completed work and got a short note back about 10 days ago.  I, of course, had no idea of his physical condition.  I posted pictures of the Aerostar on another thread but am doing it again as a respectful testament to the man.

 

Jgreen

[jkhirsch]

The Aerostar looks terrific, when I opened the thread I didn't realize that's who Brian was. I have heard him mentioned multiple, multiple times for designs. Definitely sorry for him family and those of you who knew him personally.