
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 15, 1993                   TAG: 9307150035
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOUNT AIRY, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

INSTRUCTOR SAYS ALLISON A GOOD HELICOPTER PILOT

The man who taught Davey Allison to fly a helicopter says the former NASCAR driver was as good a pilot as he was a race car driver.

Allison, 32, died Tuesday from injuries sustained in a helicopter crash a day earlier at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.

"Davey was a good, safe pilot and he was in a good, safe aircraft. I guess that's what's so surprising about this whole thing," said Glen Wenzel, who taught Allison to fly a helicopter last year. "I don't have the slightest idea what could have happened."

Allison began taking lessons at Mount Airy-Surry County Airport in early 1992 and earned his license about a year ago, having accumulated the needed 55 hours of flight time, Wenzel said.

Wenzel said inexperience could have played a role in the fatal crash, based on reports that Allison had only about 60 or 65 hours of flight time. That would have put him in the air only about 10 hours in the past year.

Wenzel said Allison was very excitement about learning to pilot a helicopter.

"He was like a kid in a candy store," Wenzel said.

Keywords:
AUTO RACING

by CNB