A stunt pilot for Red Bull, Leusch was performing at the 1st Silk Road International General Aviation Convention at Danxia airport in China when he appeared to lose control of his XtremeAir XA-42 plane during a routine stunt dive.
The plane crashed into the Gobi desert about 100m from the airport runway.
Leusch was accepted as a permanent member of the Red Bull Firestars stunt team this year.
Durban born and educated (Northwood School), Leusch fell in love with aerobatics while flying model planes as a child. He later built model planes in a wooden hut at home and sold them from a shop in Pinetown.
Taught by his father Andre, he was flying full-size gliders by the age of 15, even before he could drive a car. He would bunk school so that he could watch planes flying at the local airport.
He competed for the first time in a plane he rebuilt from dusty pieces he found in the back of a hangar, and came third.
His performance in subsequent competitions earned him a place in the Springbok team and the right to participate in the Intermediate World Aerobatic Championships in Mossel Bay in 2014.
He was up against 60 competitors from 12 countries, and didn’t fancy his chances at all. When he found himself in the lead after the first round he thought it must be a mistake.
He was only the second South African to win the world aerobatic championship. The first, in 2004, was Glen Dell, a former South African Air Force pilot and senior SAA training captain who was killed in 2013 during an air show in Mpumalanga.
One of Leusch’s mentors, Durban flight director Kevin Woolacott, who controlled flight sequences during air shows around South Africa, was killed in 2011 when an Albatross in which he was returning as a passenger from an air show in Tzaneen crashed.
Leusch, who was said to understand the art of flight in a way that was almost mystical, believed that doing aerobatics was not dangerous. He said he was more nervous about flying to competition venues than about actually competing.
According to the statistics, he was right. In 65 years there has been only one fatality in the world in international competition aerobatics.
Stunt flying at air shows, however, is another matter. This is less tightly regulated than competitive aerobatics. In air shows the emphasis is on providing entertainment, and pilots are more likely to push the envelope in order to thrill the crowds.
Leusch got a great kick out of pleasing the crowds. While he was training near Durban, an old lady called the tower to express her gratitude for the pleasure she got from watching his aerobatics display. He was so pleased when he heard this that he contacted her and invited her and her grandchildren to come and see his plane.
1981 - 2016
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