Chuck Berthe Has Flown West

[Terry Lutz]

I received a note last evening from Tom Berthe that his father Chuck Berthe had passed. After a career in the Navy, Chuck became Chief Research Pilot at Calspan Corp in Buffalo, NY. They are the Skunk Works for flight control research. Chuck built an RV-3 and an RV-4. He built them in his basement the old-fashioned way by laying out all the rivet locations and drilling the holes. The airplanes were painted yellow with a green stripe down the side and a green John Deere deer logo on the vertical fin. He painted the airplanes in his driveway with the overspray to prove it. I was privileged to fly both airplanes and Chuck was the inspiration for me to built my RV-8.

He flew a lot of interesting airplanes, including the Goodyear Inflatoplane (which he called the Inflatusplane). The test he was assigned to do was reduce the inflation pressure inflight until flying qualities began to degrade. Other airplanes he flew were the X-22 4-engine, 4-ducted fan VTOL airplane, the NC-131H Total Inflight Simulator, the NT-33 and the variable stability Learjet. it is worth your time to google those airplanes. He trained many test pilots in them and helped develop flight control systems and handling qualities for a number of military airplanes before they ever flew. Too many to mention here.

He was a good friend of Van's, and often did flight evaluations for Van and for KitPlanes magazine. He looked like Bruce Willis and had Bruce's on-screen personna most of the time. A great pilot, and one of those people we know will never pass our way again. RIP Chuck.

 

[Ironflight]

Sorry to hear this. I never met Chuck in person, but we traded notes in my early days as Editor in Chief at Kitplanes, talking about potential projects. He was enthusiastic and full of ideas - always enjoyed his writing!

 

[penguin]

That's really sad news. When I first became involved with RVs anything Chuck wrote was very worthwhile reading because he knew exactly what he was talking about and wrote in an engaging way. Like Iron I never managed to meet the man in person but I had huge respect for him.
Pete

 

[JonJay]

Sounds like a very interesting man. I saw an Inflatoplane in a Montana Museum and thought, “wow” would anybody even consider flying in that? Now I know!

 

[noelf]

US Navy "Commander" Chuck Berthe was my C.O. in VAW-123 during the late '60s flying off of the USS Forrestal. He had the reputation of one incredible pilot of the Grumman E-2A aircraft. He also assisted with the Navy's qualification and acceptance of the E2 while assigned to Pax River in Maryland.

Several times during fleet maneuvers / at-sea airshow prep he would call back to the guys in the back and tell them to "strap in". He would then proceed to barrel roll the big E2. Impressive!

Another demonstration of his mastery of flight was to challenge an F4 pilot to a climb to 5,000ft. The F4 would launch first from the catapult. The E2 would launch 2nd. The E-2 would always win.

I salute you Chuck Berthy. Thank you for your long service to our country and your dedication to NAVAIR.