Bush Pilot James Simpson Loved Flying

James Simpson loved airplanes and motorcycles.

The Decatur, Neb., man, who celebrated his 50th anniversary with his wife, Mary Ellen, last June, died when his small plane crashed Monday afternoon a few miles southeast of Decatur.

Simpson, 69, was the pilot and lone occupant of the plane, a 1994 RV-6 single engine aircraft. He died from injuries suffered in the crash, the Burt County Sheriff’s Office said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

“He was a good pilot,” his wife said Tuesday afternoon.

He had worked 25 years as a bush pilot, most of the time for Rainbow King Lodge in northern Alaska.

“He just went up there every summer and would fly people in to fish. He loved flying and fishing,” Mary Ellen Simpson said.

As a crop duster and bush pilot, Simpson had many brushes with danger, his wife said. In one incident while crop-dusting, a dog jumped high enough to knock a wheel off the plane as it dipped low for a spraying pass.

“His partner (the late Harold Dye of Decatur) got the pickup and he drove it down the runway, and Jim landed by putting his wing on the back of the pickup,” she said.

Lloyd Olson, a longtime friend who also was a pilot, witnessed the emergency landing.

“He kept dropping notes out of the airplane,” Olson said. “He said ‘get the pickup going 40 miles per hour,’” and he and Dye coordinated the successful landing.

“He was fantastic, one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen. He flew ever since he got out of the Air Force,” Olson said.

One of the joys for the Simpsons and their three sons was vacationing. Long trips to Washington, D.C., California and Canada were made on motorcycles.

Only one of his sons, Jimmy Joe Simpson of Lyons, Neb., survives him.

Funeral services will be 10 a.m. Saturday at First Baptist Church in Tekamah with burial in the Tekamah Cemetery.

Omaha World Herald 26 Jan 2006

SIMPSON-Jim, 69 years, of rural Decatur, NE. Died 1/23/06.

Funeral Service: Saturday, January 28, 2006, 10:00 am, First Baptist Church, Tekamah. BURIAL: Tekamah Cemetery, Tekamah, Nebraska with Military Honors by Tekamah VFW Bataan Post No. 3304 and American Legion LaFrenz Post No. 15. Memorials may be directed to the Donor’s choice.

HAMEL-PECK-PELAN FUENRAL HOME Tekamah, Nebraska 402-374-1551

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~

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