Service Is Planned for O.C. Couple Killed in Air Crash

A memorial service will take place Saturday for a Rancho Santa Margarita couple who died on Sept. 3 when the small custom plane they had built crashed at an airport near Tahoe City.

Bob and Cherie Floyd, longtime residents of Orange County, were taking off in their Lancair 200 plane from Georgetown Airport when it experienced a mechanical failure, ran off the runway and crashed, officials with the U.S. Forest Service said.

The pair had flown into Georgetown that weekend to participate in the annual airplane festival called the “Gathering of Tail Draggers.”

Barbara Nash, a friend of Bob Floyd since the fourth grade, said the couple loved flying. Floyd, 59, had served as a pilot in the Air Force, Nash said. Earlier this year, the couple had flown their Lancair to Naples, Fla., where they bought property for their retirement.

They also belonged to the Experimental Aircraft Assn., based in Orange County. Cherie Floyd, 50, served as the president and Bob Floyd as treasurer.

He had worked as an insurance agent with Allstate for 27 years. She was employed by Hair International in El Toro, Nash said.

They are survived by her parents, Peggy Herbert and Fred Miller; her sisters, Martye Miller and Tricia Norton; her brother, Matt Miller; their daughters Cindy Adams, Kelly Drouin and Kim Floyd; and one grandson, Taylor Adams.

The memorial service will be at Heisler Park in Laguna Beach at 10 a.m. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Bob and Cherie Floyd Young Eagles Memorial Fund, an aviation program for youths, at: P.O. Box 30211, Santa Ana, CA 92735.

For further information about the service, call (714) 770-6274.