Mike mangold crashed his jet in California. Sad to hear that he died as well as his passenger. Not backcountry related but he was a great pilot in the red bull races.
Ron

Oh wow. That sucks.
I love the air races

Damn. Very sad news.

That guy had an impressive flying career! wow!

According to his jam-packed aero-bio, Mangold, call sign 'Mongo', led a full life. "After graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1978, he went on to fly F-4 Phantoms for 10 years, accumulating over 2500 hours including one successful high speed ejection. His missions ranged from Nuclear Weapons Delivery to Air Superiority to Wild Weasel at bases in South Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Thailand, and Egypt. Mike has flown all models of the F-4 and was the Outstanding Graduate of the Air Force’s “Top Gun” Fighter Weapons School in 1983.



Leaving active military duty in 1989, Mike began his airline career, first with USAir then American Airlines in 1991. He has over 11,000 airliner hours flying the B-727, MD-80, BAE-146, and presently, the B-767, based in LAX. In 1990 Mike started flying Airshows and competition aerobatics in a Super Decathlon.

He has worked his way to the Top flying a Pitts S-1, S-2, Extra 300, Sukhoi-26, and now the Edge 540. Mike has more Red Bull Air Race podium finishes and race wins than any other pilot; he was the 2004, 05 & 07 World Champion. He has won Gold, Sliver, and Bronze at the US National Aerobatic Championships. In 2002 Mike received the “L. Paul Soucy Award” for the highest scoring unlimited aerobatic pilot for the year. Mike was a member of the US Unlimited Aerobatic Team from 2000-04 and a 5 time California Unlimited Aerobatic Champion. His precise and spectacular flying has amazed millions at numerous Airshows around the globe. Mike has over 5000 skydives and is a National Champion in Accuracy and Para-Skiing. He was a US Parachute Team member from 1981-85 and a participant in the World Record Largest Formation Skydive of 300 jumpers over Anapa, Russia in 1996."


Sad news

I watched Mangold's career from afar. I got the chance to see him fly in the Red Bull air races in Budapest in 2006. Those races went over and under the bridges across the Danube in front of the Hungarian Parliament building. Spectacular was an understatement. It stuns me that someone with this level of skill would die in a plane crash. I wonder if enough of the jet was left to do a detailed structural examination? An aside is that "Manglod" is what they call Swiss Chard in most of Europe and I got really tired of seeing "Mangold" as the only vegetable option on a lot of menus.

Ive known Mike for 20+ years. He was a frequent jumper at my Dads dropzone. He was very generous to me, giving me my first real aerobatic training in his Super Decathlon, Skydiving Coaching, and Formation Flying Training. I have a lot of jumps with him out of the DC-3 and Otters along with quite a bit of formation with him in the Twin Otters during large formation attempts over Perris Valley. If he wasnt jumping or flying the Otters he would come and join up with me on the way to altitude and preform an aerobatic airshow off my wing tip. I saw him at the last Las Vegas Airrace and we talked about my Dad. His last words to me were "Fly Smart". He was a good champion of aviation and a loss to us all.