Roll Call Tribute

Knight-Confer Funeral Home, Inc. obituary
(Williamsport PA)

James Stidfole II
James L. Stidfole II YORKTOWN - James L. Stidfole II, 45, of the 400 block of Holmes Blvd., died Sunday, April 3, 2011, in a plane crash with his sister, Teresa M. Stidfole-Hill, in Chesapeake.

Jimmy was a 28-year veteran of the U.S. Army where he joined after high school and currently was a chief warrant officer 4. He flew Kiowa helicopters, was a flight instructor and a test pilot for the Army. Flying was his passion. He was a private pilot, a graduate of Texas A. & M. University with a degree in engineering and loved spending time with his family.

Born July 1, 1965 in Williamsport [Pa.], he was the son of James L. and Sharon J. Confer Stidfole.

Surviving are his wife, the former Sharron McKinsey; a son, Gavin James, at home; daughters, Taylor J. Stidfole and Callie L. Stidfole, both of Temple, Tex.; a step-son Brendyn of PA; his mother Sharon Stidfole of Virginia Beach, VA and brothers, Erich W. Stidfole and Jeffery A. Stidfole, both of Jacksonville, Fla.

Jimmy was predeceased by a son, Dominick Stidfole in 1999.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 13, 2011, at Knight-Confer’s, 1914 Memorial Avenue, with Pastor Harry R. (Bud) Yoder officiating. Burial will be in Twin Hills Memorial Park. Visitation will be from 9 to 10 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.

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Pilot killed in Chesapeake plane crash loved to fly

By Veronica Gonzalez
The Virginian-Pilot
© April 5, 2011
CHESAPEAKE
Whether he was flying an Army helicopter or his private plane, James L. Stidfole II was happiest when he was airborne.

His private aircraft was a Lancair IV, built from a kit.

A retired Navy admiral spent years building it, flew it and then sold it to Stidfole, who constantly coaxed family members to fly with him. His younger sister,Teresa Marie Hill, had agreed to join him on a clear, sunny Sunday. It was her first trip in that plane.

At 4:30 p.m., Stidfole's single-engine plane crashed after takeoff at the Chesapeake Regional Airport, killing him and Hill, a 42-year-old retail manager who lived in Virginia Beach.

Witnesses told state police the plane took off, began to backfire several times and crashed in an adjacent field as the pilot apparently tried to turn back.

The aircraft was destroyed, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, but an investigator could not be reached for comment Monday. Since 1984, 12 people have died in six crashes at the airport, according to NTSB data. The airport is near the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and is uncontrolled, meaning there is no control tower. Roughly 130 small airplanes are based there.

Rich Carmichael said he was trying to land at the airport when he saw the fuselage and wings from Stidfole's airplane against the tree line just off the northeast side of the airport's single runway.

"I could tell it was beat up pretty bad," he said.

Stidfole was an experienced pilot who was licensed to fly single-engine sea and land airplanes, multi-engine planes, helicopters and gliders.

He was the oldest of four children who grew up in Pennsylvania and became a chief warrant officer 4 in the Army, said his former wife, Melissa Stidfole-Anderson. He joined the Army after graduating from high school and then got his private pilot's license. He hoped to become an astronaut one day.

He graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in aerospace engineering, Stidfole-Anderson said.

"Flying was his passion in every sense of the word," she said.

Stidfole, known to family and friends as Jimmy, had flown with his 2-year-old son, Gavin, and he was always trying to get family members to fly with him, said Adam Simmons, a relative.

"He loved being in the air," Simmons said. "It was the one place he was always trying to get everybody to go."

Simmons said Stidfole was based at Joint Base Langley-Eustis.

Stidfole was a test pilot for the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate.

He joined in 1989; in 1993 he became a chief warrant officer, according to an Army news release issued Tuesday. Previously, Stidfole served in Fort Rucker, Ala., where he was an instructor pilot for the 14th Aviation Regiment and an experimental test pilot for the Aviation Technology Test Center.

His military awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement  Medal, Joint Services Achievement Medal, Air Assault Badge and Parachutist Badge, according to the Army.

Stidfole met the plane's former owner, Tom Replogle, a retired Navy admiral, at the Williamsburg Jamestown Airport in Williamsburg.

Replogle bought the airplane kit in 1997 and built it in Texas before flying it to Virginia, said his daughter, Tiffany Henshaw of Virginia Beach.

Stidfole "found out my dad was selling his plane, so they became friends," she said. "It stayed in the same hangar. It had my dad's old insignia on it from the first squadron he ever flew in."

The symbol, which included a picture of a dog, read: "The puking dogs."

Replogle sold the plane to Stidfole about 2-1/2 years ago, Henshaw said.

"He can't imagine what could've happened," she said. "It's a mystery."

Stidfole cared deeply for his family, including his 14-year-old daughter, Taylor; 9-year-old daughter, Callie; and Gavin, from his second marriage.

He is survived by his wife, Sharron; his mother, Sharon; and two younger brothers, Erich and Jeff.

Hill was a retail manager for Casual Male in Virginia Beach who was "the life of the party," Simmons said.

Hill lived with her mother and her dog, Buddy, who was like her second child, Simmons said. She is survived by her son, Todd, he added.

Simmons described Hill as upbeat, outgoing and an adventurous woman who could bring a smile to anyone's face with her loud, contagious laugh.

"She's the one you could hear laughing from a block away," he said.

Pilot writer Lauren King and Pilot researcher Jakon Hays contributed to this report.