Tehachapi News

Other crash victim was a record-setting B-1B test pilot

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The other person killed aboard the jet that crashed during July 4 flyovers in Tehachapi was a former production test pilot for B-1B bombers who set world records and had logged more than 18,600 hours of flight time.

Bob Chamberlain, 62, of Morrison, Colo. tested the B-1B bomber out of North American Rockwell’s manufacturing facilities at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale during the 1980s. He lived at Quartz Hill.

“We would fly the planes right off the assembly line,” said Joe Weinrich. Weinrich, from his headquarters in Albuquerque, provided test pilots for every military airplane that was being manufactured for the government.

When his pilots flew and approved the aircraft, the government knew they were safe and only then would pay the manufacturer, Weinrich said.

Chamberlain, who had been Weinrich’s assistant before taking the lead test pilot job for the B-1B, also flew the F-106 chase planes that accompanied B-1B flights.

At a memorable rollout event for the B-1B on July 4, 1987, Chamberlain and his crew set world records for distance, altitude, time, payload and speed in a course over the Pacific Ocean that began and ended at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Chamberlain's wife Huntley said 72 world records were set that day.

At least 10 of those records still stand, said Chamberlain’s friend Doug Gilliss.

Gilliss was flying No. 2 position in the July 4 Tehachapi flyover formation when the No. 3 aircraft carrying Chamberlain dropped away and struck a field, skidding onto Old Town Road.

The small jet that crashed belonged to Tehachapi Assistant City Manager Dave Zweigle, who also was killed on impact.

All three aircraft were Czech L-29 Delfin military trainers with two seats and two sets of controls.

A graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Chamberlain was an instructor pilot, examiner, aerospace and aeronautical engineer, test pilot and commander in the U.S. Air Force. He was one of the lead engineers on the F-15s and was a B-52 commander in Minot, N.D.

He retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel and subsequently worked for United Airlines for 16 years as a line pilot, instructor and a certified FAA examiner, retiring from that company in 2006.

He had traveled all over the world checking out pilots for United, Weinrich said.

“He knew the [United] crews killed on 9/11. He certified those guys. He was devastated by their death,” Weinrich said.

Several years ago, Weinrich said, “Bob began checking out a whole bunch of people who had never flown jets. He was one of the first in the United States to be qualified to fly that [L-29] airplane.

“He was one of the most skilled pilots in that particular aircraft and he was a good instructor.”

Chamberlain once told Weinrich that “Airplanes don’t scare me.”

“He felt totally comfortable and at home when he was in the cockpit,” Weinrich said.

Gilliss, who had known Chamberlain since 1970 when they trained and flew in the Air Force together, said when the radio on Zweigle’s jet went silent as they turned to make a second pass over Tehachapi’s Central Park, “I knew what it was. I felt like someone had hit me in the stomach.”

Chamberlain, he said, was a formation examiner and as one who rated pilots of such aircraft as Airbuses and 737s, was “without question one of the most skillful and trained in the United States.”

Chamberlain briefed the L-29 pilots prior to the July 4 flyovers in Tehachapi.

Chamberlain’s son-in-law Joe Morales of Lakewood, Colo., himself a pilot and airplane mechanic, said Chamberlain was a highly rated and competent pilot.

 “He was heavily involved in the jet war bird community,” said Morales, referring to pilots who fly old military jets.

Morales said there are several hundred L-29s in the United States. The aircraft has the reputation of being well built and reliable.

“Any type of mishap is rare,” he said.

HIS DREAM

“His only dream for his entire life was to fly,” said Chamberlain’s wife Huntley.

She said that her husband’s father, also a pilot and navigator, died in the cockpit at age 30 when he was flying a political figure to Washington, D.C. and crash-landed in the Potomac River.

Chamberlain was seven years old.

His mother was left with four children to raise and "they had a difficult childhood," Huntley Chamberlain said. "His dream of becoming a pilot kept him focused."

A benefactor named John Rollins put him through college, where he was in ROTC and went to Officer Training School. He became an instructor in T-38 trainers.

“He spent most of his life instructing,” she said. “He was a phenomenal teacher. He was so patient. So many men and women told me they couldn’t have passed without Bob.”

One of his students, Donna Knighton, aerospace engineer on the C-130 at Edwards Air Force Base and herself a fixed-wing instructor, said Chamberlain enabled her to achieve her dream of flying a jet.

“He brings out the best in you,” she said of his instruction technique.

“He appeared completely relaxed in the air, but in reality not a single detail of your performance escaped his attention.   He set high standards and didn’t settle for less.”

She said he did more than teach a person how to fly.

“He had wisdom about everything in life,” Knighton said.

Chamberlain's last entry in his flight log was May 10 when he flew his Cessna 172 to Nebraska to assist in a friend's wedding, his wife said.

Huntley Chamberlain said her husband could fix anything and was always on hand to help out their three daughters and their husbands.

“He would do every ‘honey-do’ in the world.”

Their three daughters – with eight children among them – are Tia Duplantier, 39, Brett Naperola, 38, and Virginia Morales, 37.

Her six-foot, 185-pound husband water-skied and snow-skied and “never got heavy,” Huntley Chamberlain said.

“I am sorry Bob could not enjoy his retirement longer,” said Huntley Chamberlain, who is an EMT in the local volunteer fire department and is trained to respond to accident scenes.

“I depended on Bob entirely. He really was the wind beneath my wings. He let me be carefree and play with my horses.”

With him, she said, she was able to be her own person.

“His language of love was to take care of you,” she said.

“That guy sitting in the back seat, he was one heck of a man,” said Weinrich, Chamberlain’s former boss. “He was a sterling example of how a real adult man runs his life."

Posted July 7, 2009; print edition Vol. 110, No, 14