Born in Alexandria Township, Minnesota. [Freddie] Lund grew up on the family farm and attended school at Nelson, Minnesota. He left the farm to take up work as a mechanic, and when World War I was declared, joined the Air Service and trained at San Antonio. He was sent to the 4th Pursuit Squadron at Toul, France. Stricken with tuberculosis following the war, he returned to the states, not expected to live. He struggled back to strength and joined the Gates Flying Circus as a stunt flyer, working for a while in Hollywood, as a movie double, where he earned the nickname “Fearless Freddie.” Lund joined the Waco Aircraft Company as a test pilot and flew around the country performing stunt exhibitions, representing Waco. Fred performed the first outside loop ever done in a commercial airplane. He was World Aerobatic Champion in 1930. His wife, Betty Lund, was a well-known woman stunt pilot. Lund died in October, 1931, when his plane was cut in two in a mid-air collision during an air race in Kentucky.
Pic from Library of Congress.
Bonus pic from LoC.
This is the type of shit i try to think of when i’m amping myself up to take a new crazy jump or drop on my mtb. If those old fucks can do that then i can drop a few feet with shocks to cushion my fall.
They did learn how to properly take a fall, though. I’ve seen Dick Van Dyke talk about learning how to take falls being an important part of slapstick/pratfalls/physical comedy and doing it properly would prevent injury. He actually tried to reach out to Saturday Night Live in the early years because he saw Chevy Chase throwing himself down stairs for laughs but he was actually just falling, and Van Dyke was calling because Chase was going to get injured, either then or certainly feeling the effects when he got older.
All that to say, make sure you understand how to do it before you do it!
I agree with Dick Van Dyke. Learning to fall is the most important part of any extreme sport because you’re going to crash at some point. Luckily I learned how to fall in the army. Hand to hand combat training is great for that. I just learned downhill mtb during the pandemic so I don’t always have the best judgement for how big a feature is. A lot of times they are smaller than they look when you’re at the top looking down. Remembering these old guys helps to get me over that mental bump of “should i drop in or not?”.
