chuteless 1 #1 June 27, 2012 For any of you aviation/W.W. II fans, you might be interested in knowing my dear friend, Oscar Boesch, who flew Fock-Wolfe 190 fighters in the war has died at age 88. Oscar downed about 28 aircraft, mostly American bombers, but a few fighters like a British Spitfire, Russian Yak-19, etc, as well. Oscar performed at over 600 air shows in Canada and the USA, and he put on a dazzling display with his sailplane. He is the only person ever to have flown a non-powered glider/sailplane non stop from Toronto to Montreal, Quebec, a distance of about 350 miles. He was a real fine gentleman, a great pilot, and we shared many great moments in our homes, and at the air shows. A few years ago, he told me he would like to meet the family of a Spitfire pilot he shot down on Jan 1st 1945. I told him I would try to track his family down, and found the Spitfire pilot has two nephews living in Toronto. I contacted one of them ( a lawyer) and he asked to meet Oscar. He assured me he had no animosity towards the man who shot his uncle down. We met in a hotel restaurant near Pearson Intnl Airport, and we talked for over 3 hours. I decided to leave, and the two gentlemen agreed, but Oscar took Grant Doak ( Joe Doak's nephew ) out to where his car was parked. He opened the trunk and took out a 2 1/2 foot long piece of Joe Doak's wooden Spitfire propeller. He also had some other mementos of the war. Oscar was shot down 4 times and used his parachute to survive, and he crash landed 4 times. He had a head on collision with a Russian Yak-19, and the Russian pilot was killed, and Oscar was taken prisoner by some Russians. He later escaped and walked all the way back to Austria ( except for a ride on a found bicycle ), and walked into his home on his 21st birthday. The war was over. He was a fine man, and a great pilot, and a great friend. I will miss his familiar greeting " Awe Beel , how is my friend today? " Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
airtwardo 6 #2 June 27, 2012 I knew Oscar as well and watched him perform at countless airshows...listened to his stories at some hotel bar time and again. I loved hearing his bailing out stories, as funny as they were fascinating. And yes 'BEEL' I can hear him now... I always got the: "Hello Jeem you look well, vare is your lovely wife today?" Amazing man and as gracious and genuine a person you could ever hope to meet. He will be missed. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piisfish 135 #3 June 28, 2012 sorry for the loss of your friend, and apparently a very good person. The gesture of returning the remains of the plane to the family of the Spitfire pilot is just beautiful. I do not pretend to know anything about him or trying to be a wiseass, but are you sure they were Yak19's ?? More probably Yak9's. As 19's first flight was in 1947... We do have a beautiful Yak9 flying around where I live, and I am the rigger who takes care of the owner/pilot's parachutes a couple of pics HERE HERE and HERE scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pchapman 261 #4 June 28, 2012 I am glad to have flown aerobatics a couple times with Oscar at his glider club 20 years ago. It is interesting to see what people accomplished, who were lucky enough to survive the war. Skill helps, but luck & fate are better. A lot of German aces got second chances and more because they ended up fighting defensively, near the front lines, while American fighter pilots escorting bombers on long range missions would end up as POW's if they got hit just once. Oscar also flew the glider used in an early IMAX film -- the glide ratio apparently was rather poor with a giant IMAX camera strapped on top of the low drag glider. While Oscar did some parachute jumps out of necessity, he never got into sport parachuting, did he? I know that another glider aerobatic airshow pilot, Manfred Radius, was a skydiver, although I'm not sure that he's jumped in ages. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chuteless 1 #5 June 28, 2012 You are correct. He took down a Yak 3 and later a Yak 9, which was a head on collision. The Russian Pilot was killed, and Oscar's chute opened seconds before his feet hit the ground. He hurt his knee when it wacked the vertical stabilizer of his FW-190. There is a list of his victoires if you google his name, and then click on the top thread that comes up. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skypuppy 1 #6 July 2, 2012 Manfred died a couple of years ago.If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
