P-51 crash that killed my flight instructor

FYI, Shouling Barnes is Chinese.

Steve hasn't worked much for the business Andy her other son is the manager of the office.


Ps. Andy is my dad and Shouling is my amazing grandma.

Thanks rock!

Shouling Barnes is an amazing person!!!!!!!!! She has done so much for so many in aviation and in life. She has helped so many start off in aviation, and start off in life, she always helped everyone no matter even if it meant it was at a loss to her. For me personally I owe her so so much, she has always helped my family through hard hard times as I was growing up, and she is an inspiration to me as a person. Her energy in aviation is amazing, I love aviation, and aerospace, and Barnes Aviation and Shouling Barnes have played a very important role in that love of aviation for me, and I'm forever grateful!

I supposedly met Bill Barnes as a child, but being so young at the time its difficult to remember. I supposedly sat in Bill Barnes F4U-4 Corsair when he and my father were working on restoring it. I also sat in Pancho Barnes Travel Air years ago at Barnes Aviation Fox Field when it was there for an Anniversary I believe, it was just the assembled frame and the engine, but It was neat to actually see it.

Here is a link to the Corsair Bill Barnes actually restored warbirdregistry.org - A Warbirds Resource Group Site - Chance-Vought Corsair , looks like its been through a lot, but she is airworthy again .

P.S. B-2 ship AV4 was Christine, she was a pill sometimes.

Thanks Gizmo - did you work on her? I remember not only problems during check out but during assembly when several Seattle trainees butchered up several plumbing installations within the wings.

I'll continue to swear on a stack of bibles that I'm the one who named her!

Sad news folks. Shouling passed away yesterday.

I never met or knew her but it sounds like she was quite a woman. I am very sorry to hear this.

Was doing research and came upon this Thread. Billy Barnes taught me to fly in 1953. Later, in 1956 I worked at Edwards [GE test center] and flew again with Billy [he worked for GE at the time], he took me over the "hump" to LA to get my learner's permit since I was too young in '53, though he let me solo in his Aeronca 55 HP in '53. I met Pancho twice. I must admit I really had no idea who Billy was nor who Pancho was in '53. Then in '54 I was sent off to private school in Kansas and one of my classmates was Bill Beech, Maude's only nephew. She visited Bill at the school a few times and I met her. I don't recall how it came about, but I told her I learned to fly from Billy Barnes and she asked if he was Pancho Barnes' son. It was then I realized there was more to this than I ever thought. She had raced against Pancho several times, among her many exploits, and really lit up when she talked about it. I saw Billy once again in 1958, when I again worked at Edwards. I never saw him again. I eventually hired on with TWA and flew 727s, 707s and 747s and did a 4 year contract stint with KLM flying the north Atlantic, 747s. Retired after that with a bit over 20000 hours. Started in an Aeronca on a sand strip and ended with a landing in Amsterdam on the 747.

Bill taught me to fly in 1967. Was at an FAA safety meeting in October, 1980, when the speaker announced his death. Totally shocked, Bill was a great person and an excellent pilot/instructor. Below is a photo I took of him in 1967 along with the Cessna 150 we used for flight training. Ray; CFII ASMEL AIGI

Just a few comments on the Bill Barnes story. I did not know Bill or his mother
but I took my first flying lesson at Barnes aviation around 1994. Most of my
subsequent lessons were private lessons with Dick Rutan, maybe some of you
have heard of him. I was sorry to hear of Shouling's death from a post above.
I was also privileged to know Helogirl, Cathy Hansen, and
perhaps you will remember me Cathy as we showed up at Al's hanger some
years ago with my dad, an F-86 pilot and my two sons making that a 3 generation
visitation. You wrote that up in your "Keep em flying" column and I still have that.
Dad got to climb up to the Sabre cockpit and considered that a real treat. Dad
claimed that Al's Sabre had similar markings to Dad's squadron in Korea.
I was just looking for information on how Billy died and this forum seemed to
clear that up pretty well. I lived in AV for about 18 years and now am retired and
living in Missouri. No I am not a pilot.
We recently visited Southern California and spent a night in Mojave, then drove out
to the Jawbone Station to visit our old friend Mr. Bob the tortoise. The Jawbone store
was at one time owned by Bonk, called Bonk's store. He was the son of Mac Mckendry
who lived just behind the store. Mac was Pancho's 4th husband and the only one that
she stayed with for very long, they had divorced also, however.
Mac and I were good friends and he talked a lot
about Pancho and their days at the "Ranch". My wife and I attended the Pancho
Barnes party out at that ranch on Edwards AFB for many years. I hope they still
have it. We met a niece of Pancho's at that party some years ago, a lady named
Vicki.. It appears that Pancho has no actual living descendants any longer.
Have any of you heard of DOC the B-29. I helped with restoration efforts out at
the Inyokern airport back in 98-99', and guess what? She is flying again. Doc took off
on July 17, 2016 in Wichita, for her first flight since 1956. Check it out on youtube. We visited the
old restoration site in Inyokern two weeks ago and it is now total junk and trash. Hey
Cathy, how's that for "keepin em flying".?
A most interesting forum! (unlike many others I have seen)
But hey, since when does a P-51 have a back seat?
Chuck

skyking435 said:

Bill taught me to fly in 1967. Was at an FAA safety meeting in October, 1980, when the speaker announced his death. Totally shocked, Bill was a great person and an excellent pilot/instructor. Below is a photo I took of him in 1967 along with the Cessna 150 we used for flight training. Ray; CFII ASMEL AIGI

View attachment 452498

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That's Bill. And that's the first plane I took flying lessons in. My instructor was Dutch Meyerholtz.

Bill had a passenger on that fateful day. Our scoutmaster for Troop 68, Cliff Hellwig, was in the back seat of the Mustang. There's speculation that coolant leaked into the cockpit. I'll stick with the heart attack theory. According to his wife, Shu Ling, he was complaining of back pain and other symptoms.

I know this is an old thread, but in Post #23 there is a link to F4U-4 Corsair BuNo. 97330.

I'm posting in this thread over a decade old because my grandfather is Clifton Hellwig who passed away in this crash. Cliff had 2 boys and a daughter and a wife and was a mechanic who worked on some of Bills planes.

I learned that the plane or what was left was salvaged and rebuilt in 1991 using another airframe and crashed again in Sweden in 1998 killing a father and son.

Thanks for all the info on this moment in history.

Also our family also are pretty confident about the theory of Bill having a heart attack as thats what was suspected at the time.

Here's the plane a few months before the crash that I found online