Eddie Andrieni estate settles with airforce

[thinwing]

Back in 2010 when I had the G500 installed in the Bravo ,my wife found a retired U2 pilot to train me on glass and complete an IPC.His name was Tim Decker and he was also breaking into the air show business .He was being mentored by Eddie and we flew into half moon bay for full stop instrument approachs when airport was IFR.Than we taxi over to Eddies hangar and debrief in Eddies loft .A couple times ,Eddie was arround and we had lunch down by the harbor.Eddie always took us through the back by the kitchen greeting everybody in his loud Italian way.I usually paid for everybody's lunch...later when I heard about Eddies death at Travis AFB I was haunted by another incident years before.A model club in Modesto I think put on a jetfly (radio controlled fast moving jet models)The city has us station a fire truck cause the surrounding grasslands were bone dry.The club was serving hot dogs and stuff off the grill and the fire crew was enjoying them selves .My buddy ,Alaska Bob lost control of his jet and it hit and exploded in bright orange ball about hundred yards away.It was windy,maybe 10 knots.I was spotting for AKB and called over to the fire crew...they look up and go oh sh##!Than they start suiting up and they can't find the fire truck keys!They are running arround watching a little grass fire xplode to 50 acres in minutes.They ended up calling in an air tanker to stop the fire before it hit houses.If you read the full Kathryn's report ,you will see why I relate these two stories together..