Good Finish XX

[Hank Nixon]

I have heard that George Moffat went west last Thursday.

George was 97 years old and made good use of those years.

He was an accomplished sailor in addition to his soaring career.

George was a many time National Champion in Open, 15M and Standard classes.

He was a 2 time World Champion in the Open class and earned the honor of virtually award there is in our sport, including the Lilienthal Medal and the US Soaring Hall of Fame.

George was an active writer and shared much of what he knew with us. His books were the text of how to start contest flying.

Geoge was quiet and kind of shy but would always provide good advice when asked.

I have been honored to know and compete with George and missed when he retired from contest flying.

With respect,

UH       

[John DeRosa]

I met George in 2005 when he came to Chicago to talk to the Chicago Glider Council.  

We all met him.in "Sun Ship Games".

Surly, a pre-eminent glider pilot in our pantheon of greats. 

John (OHM)

[Paul Remde]

I'm sorry to hear of the passing of George.  He was a gentleman.  I enjoyed hanging-out with him at a few soaring contests and at the Chicago Glider Council get-together in 2005.  He did a fantastic job of sharing his soaring tips and love of the sport.

Best Regards,

Paul Remde

[Frank Whiteley]

I met George at an SSA Convention and had an opportunity to chat with him a couple of times about the Open Cirrus XX from Sunship Game which I exported to the UK in 1990 and flew until I left in 1995.  I was supposed to have first right of refusal if the syndicate I formed around it ever wanted to sell, but they sold it to someone else who landed it between some trees.  There were actually drawings of the tip extensions labeled "Cirrus B" with the glider records, but it's not clear who created those drawings.  He donated funds to the SSA which helped fund the SSA Junior Flight Training Scholarship for a spell.

Frank Whiteley

[Chip Bearden]

I've been flogging my book here occasionally, "Goodbye, Papa Golf." But I don’t believe I ever mentioned the original title: "Flying with Superheroes," referring to the pilots I knew best and respected most as I was coming up in soaring: my father, Joe Bearden (PG), of course; my best friend Robert "Robbie" Robertson (XT); A.J. Smith (2); and...George Moffat (XX). I agree with those who said George lived an enviably full life. But I still find myself melancholy over the recent passing of this, the last of these four.

My family began cheering for George in 1965 (the year I soloed), when we visited the Adrian Nationals for a few days. Relatively new to gliding, he was climbing the ladder fast and already a threat. We followed his career like other fans track their favorite baseball or football stars, from his competitive near miss at Reno in 1966, to his appearance the following year in a Diamant similar to ours, to his 4th in the worlds in 1968 when A.J. became world champion, and [finally] his first national championship in 1969 at Marfa when he was featured in “The Sunship Game.” We were vicariously jubilant over his first world championship in 1970 in Marfa and again when he repeated in Australia in 1974. And we felt outrage and disbelief at his omission from the U.S. Team in 1976, denying him the chance to defend his title.

This was before the Internet and the SSA Web site. But we tracked scores anyway from daily bulletins mailed out to subscribers and frequent telephone calls to scoring offices by my father on Procter & Gamble's WATS line (bonus points to those who know what those were). XX's battles and triumphs were literally the subject of dinner table conversation at our house.  

When I met him years later, it felt like meeting a star athlete. I'd love to say my awe and hero worship abated with time but the truth is that at the 1980 nationals, when I found myself at age 29 flying almost 70 miles over the Ohio landscape with George and my father (an experience I detail in my book), I was thrilled to be in The Big Game with the pilot I had most wanted to emulate for so long. That day ended in tragedy for my father but sharing the experience with XX was the other reason I will never forget it.

I had continued to fly with my father out of the Caesar Creek Soaring Club for years after moving to the East Coast. But following his death, I finally moved my soaring base closer to home, to Wurtsboro, NY in 1983.

It was at Wurtsboro that I developed friendships with Robert and George and Doug Jacobs. Over Saturday night post-flying and off-season dinners, Tanya and I got to know George and Suzanne. George was a curious contrast: quiet, perhaps even a bit shy, but possessing strong, well-reasoned opinions about tasking, competition rules, speed flying, sailplanes, soaring tech, and the personalities in our sport. Anyone who read his myriad articles in Soaring magazine or heard him at various speaking engagements knew precisely where he stood on issues such as the old free distance task, for example.

Early on, George recognized Robert's talent and mentored him. But I also learned much indirectly from this country's only two-time world champion, though never enough to fly as well as George, alas. We shared happy times (e.g., windsurfing at the Cordele nationals); joys (e.g., Doug's world championship in Italy in 1985); and sorrows (e.g., Robert's fatal crash following his own national championship the following year).

George and I mostly lost touch when, as he got older, he stopped competing and moved up to Massachusetts to focus on sailing again. One of the last times we interacted was when he reviewed an early draft of what would become "Goodbye, Papa Golf."

One of the frustrations of an eloquent eulogy is that the recently deceased never gets to hear all the wonderful things said about him or her. Not so in this case! I'm gratified that nearly all of the passages about George that appear in my book were in the manuscript I sent him. He was the one who first suggested turning what I still thought of as a long article into a book. In his quiet, clear, matter-of-fact way, he detailed what he liked (in startlingly flattering terms). And, in what I suspect was his traditional English teacher fashion, he also listed the many ways I needed to improve!

Learning of George's passing brought back these and many other memories.

To many of today’s glider pilots, I suspect George B. Moffat Jr. might just be a name, like America’s first world champion, Paul MacCready, was to me. But to those who were privileged to fly with and know George, he will forever be remembered as the quiet, enigmatic, fiercely competitive man in the cockpit, banked up steeply across the thermal in XX.

Chip Bearden
JB 

[marc schneider]

I shared a beer with George during a 2005 contest, I remembered 3 things from that time

1.  He signed a copy of his book 'Winning".

2.  When I asked about winning the World Championship, his comment was that any one of the top 10 pilots could have won the cup, their abilities/glider were       pretty well the same so it came  down luck and frame of mind.

3.  He said  "work less, fly more", I quit my job soon after.

mas

My next thermal will have your name on it (give me an extra Kt, George)