Dick Johnson

Dick Johnson was lost yesterday in a glider accident near Midlothian, Texas. Among glider pilots, worldwide, Dick was well known for being a World Champion and multiple National Champion as well as for being a gentlemen who was as willing to talk to a 14 year old as he was to associate with others at the top of the sport.

Dick had a varied background including airline pilot and engineer. Outside of his professional accomplishments he was best known as the person that brought systematic procedures to the difficult task of glider performance testing. His performance testing became the gold standard. Whenever a new design would come out there was sort of a wait-and-see attitude until Dick was able to test it. Often the manufacturers were disappointed that he did not find the performance that they claimed.

For me, one of the delights of a soaring convention or contest has been to see Dick and his delightful wife Alice and to spend some time talking about the latest innovations with Dick and the latest books with Alice.

I'm going to miss Dick a lot and hope that Alice and the rest of the family make it through this hard time as well as possible.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa080723_mo_pilotdeath.864bf882.html

Larry,

I was very saddened this morning when I learned that it was Dick Johnson.
We saw the short video on local news yesterday afternoon.
He was all that you reported and then some!
Godspeed Mr. Johnson!

My condolences to you, Larry, and to all his family and many friends. The aviation community will certainly miss him.

Don