Connie Edwards Passes [Archive]

Bill Greenwood

05-06-2019, 10:19 AM

Connie was a giant of early warbird flying, and one of the foundations on which CAF rested and perhaps EAA as well. One day when my Son Charles was about 10 years old he sat in Connie's seaplane, amphib, Albtross? out in the grass parking area for an hour while Connie had him spellbound with aviation stories from the early days. Connie's stories were great and some of them may even have been true. I particularly like the one where he landed in the gulf near Galveston and many people who had never seen a seaplane reported it as a crash.
Connie and these old CAF guys could fly,and he flew the other dual cockpit Spitfire Mk IX in the filming of the Battle of Britain movie. They weren't just ipad pilots. The RAF attitude indiactor has an sort of inverted look with the numbers of bank angles at the bottom and Connie used to fly in marginal weather with the canopy open. He said if that indicator ever looked right side up that he was bailing out. How many guys to you know who live in a castle, in in their big hangar in west Texas, they have Mustangs, a Spitfire and a dual control two seat Me 109, ( CASA 111)?
A someone refined British owner went to visit Connie and by about 11 am they were already having something to cut the dust of the day.
I'm glad he was my friend and his Son Tex also