Warbird Information Exchange

All I can say is wow, can anyone else fly like this? He sure does love to do rolls too!

He's the greatest stick and rudder pilot I've seen (on video) I wish I could have seen his performances first-hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRt6UnNzR6I

Hope you enjoy!

Trey

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"There are two types of people here; airshow whores and airshow prostitutes. The whores, like you and I, do airshow stuff for free, whereas the prostitutes are paid" - Reg Urschler

No. No one else can or may ever be able to fly like Bob Hoover.

In the 80's he would fly each day at the Reno Air Races, his Saberliner, Shrike, P-51 and his T-28.......

Lynn

Thanks for that -- it really brought back some memories. There were two performers I would always stop whatever I was doing to watch -- Lefty Gardner in his P-38 and Bob in anything. I wonder if Bob ever met an airplane he wouldn't roll on takeoff?

One of the great tragedies of my life -- one year I was scheduled for a pace plane photo ride with Bob, which was cancelled at the last moment when his ground crew found a rag in his oil tank. There were rumours of sabotage, and talk of an irate husband. All I know is that I never got another chance....

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

Hoov always said the 86 was his favorite airplane. I regret never having gotten to see him perform in it; only the Shrike and Mustang. I agree with Neal that Lefty was the only other solo warbird act, in the US at least, worth dropping everything to watch. I am afraid that now that their generation is out of the cockpit, we will never see flying quite like that again.

August

Beautiful!

What was the background music?

I never did see Bob Hoover fly the F86 demo so watching the video is a real treat.

Back in 1984, I was working as a volunteer hangar rat at the Gimli Manitoba Airshow when on Sunday morning Bob Hoover came in to check over the Shrike Commander. You could not meet a nicer man.

Then he says well there is time for a check ride, who wants to come, so I jumped in and was fortunate to be a passenger as he flew and narrated the full shrike demo - what a thrill from a very special person.

A fw weeks later Mr. Hoover later sent me this photo!

I spent alot of time with Bob as he was supposed to be our demo pilot for our modified Citation jets.

You cannot imagine what he can do with an airplane he has never been in.

He reads the book, jumps in and starts it up and then makes it do things you cannot imagine in your life can ever be done.

He is also alot of fun after hours!!!! My lips are sealed from that point forward.

Does anyone have an idea if Hoover's attending the Mustangs & Legends gathering in Ohio this fall? If anyone ought to be there, he's the one!

T J

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Make my day, punk!

I saw him perform an amazing routine at Oshkosh one of the last years her was flying after the whole FAA deal, and he did his routine in the Shrike (which is now in the NASM), he then landed, and did the exact same routine in a twin beech.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

So where is Bob these days?
I saw him perform years ago at an airshow in Everett wa.
Scott Crossfield and Bob are my favorites. I would have loved to fly with both of them.

Mr Hoover is in the latest Flight Journal in three different articles.
1) celebrating his 85th birthday with Yeager, Aldrin, Lacy and a bunch of other aviation celebrities 2) in an article about early F-86 teething problems 3) the great story of him demonstrating a new pipper sight in Korea.

I saw him do an F-86 demo at Oshkosh in '73 or '74. It included an amazingly low spin. I think a very young Steve Hinton ferried the F-86 to Oshkosh for him.

Steve G

Mine too ...amazing how he kept up after air-show hours with a bunch of young hooligan Navy and AF pilots!!

Hmm and Steve Hinton just said in Pacific Flyer in the new issue that the F86 is also his favorite airplane, interesting.

JH

Nice video clip - I enjoyed watching Bob Hoover put that Sabre though its paces.

I saw Bob fly a number of times years ago in the Shrike Commander, the Sabreliner and the Mustang. I never had the privilege of seeing him fly the Sabre in person.