PAF HISTORICAL PHOTOS: THE DEATH OF A PIONEER BULLDOG... The famous Blue Diamond Aerobatic Team made its maiden performance on November 1953, led by its founder the LT JOSE PEPOT GONZALES (A former Aviation Cadet of PAFACes Class of 1951A) utilizing North American F-51 Mustang fighters... By 1955-57 saw the PAF transition into the jet age, Filipino pilots soon flew Lockheed T-33 jets, then F-86F Sabrejets... Number of fighter pilots to include members of the Blue Diamond were made to undergo jet flying courses at Clark Air Base and in the US... The Flying Brothers Exercises also took much of the time of the pilots as they billeted at Clark Air Base... Meanwhile back Nichols (later Villamor) Air Base, the clamor for another Blue Diamond performance heightened, with the absence of the original team members who were undergoing jet training, a new team was formed to fly the Mustangs in order to maintain the growing air show tradition... Designated team leader of the six-plane Blue Diamond was LT LINO C ABADIA JR (A former Aviation Cadet of PAFACes Class of 1953A) from the 7th Tactical Fighter Bulldog Squadron... Unfortunately a day before the 1957 Aviation Week Show, LT ABADIA crashed while practicing solo acrobatics in preparation for the airshow, his plane hit the runway in the last leaf in what was to be a 4-leaf clover maneuver, he died instantly... His brother, LOVEN ABADIA (A member of Philippine Military Academy Class of 1960 and Commanding General of the PAF in the early 1990s) described him as a person who was like a shooting star who burned out too early. He was elementary school valedictorian. He was tall and good looking. He was a varsity swimmer and basketball player in high school. He played the guitar quite well. He had a way with ladies. In the PAF Flying School (PAFFS) he was for a time the First Captain of the Corps of Aviation Cadets and graduated number 2 of PAFFS Class 1953A. He was a hotshot fighter pilot. In other words he was a very gifted person. My brother Lisandro and I idolized him. GENERAL LOVEN ABADIA would later become a team leader of the Blue Diamond flying Northrop F-5A/B Freedom Fighters in 1974...
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 09:48:44 +0000
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