My all time favourite American GA journalist has died. Gordon was a long time feature writer for FLYING magazine in the USA and his Texan “good ole boy” style of writing was just my cup of java. His Bax seat column was the one I always first turned to and I will miss his down to earth enthusiasm for general aviation and its characters of whom he was one of the greatest. Here is the piece from Avweb –
“Gordon Baxter Dies At 81”
While his hometown media in southeast Texas remembered Gordon Baxter as a “local icon” and “legendary radio talk-show host,” he was known to aviators around the world as the author of “Bax Seat,” his well-loved column that ran on the back page of Flying Magazine from 1971 to 1998. Baxter wrote about airplanes, the people who fly them, the airports where they live, the romance and adventure of it all. “We’ll all miss him,” Flying Senior Editor Tom Benenson told AVweb on Tuesday. “He was always a gentleman and always knew how to tell a story. … I enjoyed his work from almost the time I could read.” Baxter died Saturday in Beaumont, at age 81, leaving behind his wife, nine children, 16 grandkids, and 11 books. Since 1998, at Oshkosh the Bax Seat Award is given every year to the EAA member “who perpetuates the Gordon Baxter tradition of communicating the excitement and romance of flight.” A ceremony is held for the winner. Flying Magazine featured a tribute to Baxter in its June 2004 issue, and this week posted his funeral arrangements on their Web site. The September issue will feature much more about Baxter’s life and legacy.
May he rest in peace and fly with the angels.
Cheers from a sad,
Trapper 69
🙁 🙁 🙁
By: GASML - 13th August 2005 at 19:37
A great writer, right up there with Saint Ex, Ernest Gann, Cecil Lewis and Richard Bach.
I’m sure I’m not the only person here who was inspired by Bax Seat and his many other articles.
Anybody got those wonderful reports he wrote of Reno Air Races in the 1970s, and riding with Bob Hoover?
He’s thankfully left a lot for us to rmember him by. Nuff said.
By: met24 - 13th August 2005 at 13:00
This month’s Flying magazine includes a Bax Seat article that Gordon wrote back in 1989. The editor at the time recognised that it was the best possible obituary anybody could have written for him and it’s been kept back until now. It’s a wonderful piece, and I’m not ashamed to admit that my eyes were rather moist at the end.
By: J Boyle - 17th June 2005 at 03:54
A fine writer who was able to capture the thrill of flight…and the poeple he met on his travels. He reminded us that there is more to aviation than just airplanes, it’s the people that make it special.
RIP Bax.
By: Chipmunk Carol - 17th June 2005 at 00:04
Truly sad.
It was his Bax Seat that inspired me to go to Oshkosh 11 years ago and almost every year since. He spoke of aviation with such passion, with a style somewhat like Alastair Cook really.
That will be a tough gap in Flying magazine to fill.
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June 16, 2005 at 11:27 pm