New Mira Slovak book coming:

Cool! Thanks!

 

I was in several airshows with Slovak and I mentioned the the incident of one them in my book where he toyed with another egomaniacal aerobatic performer who tried to out-do Slovak by trying to do 5 snap rolls at 100 ft. altitude in a modified Great Lakes. He survived the crash but the airplane didn't. I saw Slovak land the P-39 racer, "Mr. Mennon" on the ramp at Reno one year that got him in trouble. He was flat out wild when he was competing. He was also a friend of my airline pilot buddy and I got to chat with Slovak once or twice. I saw him crash the race boat, "Wahoo" on Lake Washington that busted his face up pretty bad. Ernie Gann bought Slovak's Bucker biplane and did aero stuff in it. Behind the cockpit, Slovak had a logo, " The Poor Refugee" painted on it. Ernie had a sign painter paint a line through it and had, "RICH REFUGEE" painted above it.

 

Had another incident pop up. I flew to the Stock Plane Races in Bakersfield sometime around 1965 and spent some time at the airport to help with a friend's airplane the day before the races. I met a cute little blonde who had been sort of hanging around. When I approached her to ask if I could help with anything, I noticed that it was film actress, Susan Oliver. She wasn't mixing with anybody, just standing in the dark corner of the hangar chain smoking. She told me that she was okay and was waiting for her boyfriend. Mira Slovak arrived a short time later and off they went. A strikingly pretty girl with big blue eyes.

 

Susan Oliver was a pilot, had a license.
Flew her own Aero Commander 200 across the atlantic - NYC to Denmark. Only a couple other women had flown a single engine over the Atlantic.

Was rated in a LearJet, flew some charters.
Won Powder Puff Derby in a Piper.
Had a glider license also.

And was on 'Star Trek' several times.
And Gorgeous. Read about her when I was a kid.

 

Jim, I hope that I'm not coming across as a name dropper. I have never been known to sit around and watch other people so I got to see a few things and do a few things. The first time I saw Slovak was in the 50's when he landed at the Bellevue Airport (now gone) in a yellow Ryan ST. I have a photo that I took of him somewhere but at the time I was more interested in recording the airplane and realized later who he was. He was a fierce competitor to the point of recklessness and never seemed to consider his own well being or life. The "competition" with the late Jim Moss happened at Abottsford Airshow in 1967 when Slovak walked up to Moss's beautiful model girl friend and planted a long kiss on her. ..which she didn't seem to mind. That's when Moss tried to out do Slovak (who had just put on a great act with the Bucker that finished with a handkerchief pick up with the wing tip) and did the snap roll display in a borrowed Great Lakes that ended up in a ball. Slovak's hydroplane crash was the result of a wild attempt to get in a competitive position in the Gold Cup Race and it flipped in the North turn. He couldn't get the engine started when everybody else did and he was probably 1/2 a lap behind . We never saw a boat run faster in a race competition than his. He had his foot through the firewall and didn't let up enough in the turn, which was pretty rough, so the boat flipped and he was seriously hurt. He kept the place place hopping around here when he was active. I can see a passing parade of faces of guys and gals with whom we performed at Abottsford and elsewhere.

 

I only saw Slovak fly at Abbotsford so I don't know what other air shows he performed in. I saw him race at Reno several times, though. Bellevue Airport closed in 1983. Now there is a large Boeing facility there. Good memories from the old airport.