Oh, ye of little faith...

I'm with PraedSt on Robin Olds. There was much wrong with the Air Force back then, as there is much wrong with the Air Force today. Too many otherwise well-intentioned people making wrong decisions by refusing to make the right ones. Their politically correct lack of involvement and homage to perception over reality results, long term, in going down many roads on which the Air Force should never have been side-tracked in the first place.

Folks like BGen Olds, much as his outspoken predecessor, Billy Mitchell, stood up for what's right, stood up against what's wrong, and received flak from both throughout his career. The only reason Olds made it as far as he did was that he almost never made a mistake. If he had, they'd have taken him down for it long ago. Mitchell was taken down because of a scathing, but correct comment he made, in writing, after a lighter-than-air accident.

From his entry in Wikipedia: "Olds toured USAF bases in Thailand (flying several unauthorized combat missions in the process) and brought back a blunt assessment. Air Force pilots, he said, "couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag." To the surprise of nearly everyone else in the room, Air Force Chief of Staff John D. Ryan (another former SAC general and often at odds with the tactical fighter community), agreed with Olds. Olds later offered to take a voluntary reduction in rank to colonel so he could return to operational command and straighten out the situation. Olds decided to leave the Air Force when the offer was refused and retired on June 1, 1973."

Put simply, Olds earned three Air Medals with 39 oak leave clusters. He was a triple ace, with a total of 16 victories in WWII and Vietnam, the latter while the USAF kill ratio was around 1:1.

By contrast, Fosset was a thrill-seeking glory-hound. True, he was exceptionally great at amassing world records in many fields.

That doesn't make one a great aviator.

1. He didn't file a flight plan. This isn't required, but it's highly encouraged, and something most folks do when they're travelling any further than the local traffic pattern. Even average aviators file flight plans for all off-station flights. His only reported destination was "heading south to Highway 395, which runs north-south through Owns Valley."

2. An employee of the club which loaned him the airplane stated that he saw the airplane at "about 0825 or 0835 approximately 8 nautical miles (nm) south of the departure strip ... he saw it flying south at about 150 to 200 feet above the ground." Great aviators don't fly 150 to 200 feet above the ground, except: 1) during landing and takeoff, 2) when flying low-level military operations, as a way to both radar as well as spoil certain airborne weapons locks, 3) crop-dusting, 4) momentary loss of judgment, i.e., they were being "stupid." Thrill-seekers, on the other hand may very well go blitzing around power-line country willy-nilly.

3. He took off with enough fuel for 4-5 hrs or flight.

4. He flew into mountain at 10,100 feet, 600 feet lower than the top of the ridge. Sectional charts (mandatory for non-instrument rated flights) clearly depict min sectoring altitudes (MSAs) which even average aviators do not violate without exceptionally good cause (like either landing, or engine out). He wasn't near where he'd stated he was going to be. Despite having fully operational radios, he never filed a flight-plan while airborne (piece of cake) to let anyone know of his modified intentions, particularly vital when flying over mountainous terrain.

Fosset was a daring aviator. He set many world records, dozens of which remain unbroken. But he was a hot-dogging thrill seeker who's life was taken as a consequence of the very behavior he, and no one else, chose to take.

He wasn't a great aviator.