Bob Hoover (Wow)

Amazing what can be done when you're not afraid of the airplane and just go fly it.
 
That was really cool to watch. Thanks for sharing that!


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It's really sad to think that there is an entire generation of pilots who have never seen Mr. Hoover fly that routine. We saw him do it at Oshkosh for years.

He's an amazing pilot, and a great gentleman as well.
 
Here's a pic of Bob signing my daughter's hat at OSH 2000. That little girl will be 19 this year.

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Back in the 80's almost every major airshow I was at, there was Bob Hoover with his commander. What was even better was he is about 6 foot 5 inches tall and had a straw hat that he always had on, which made him real easy to spot in a crowd. You could just walk up to him and start talking to him, he was very easy going.

I guess on a funny note, at the 89 Reno air races, Bob Hoover was the designated pace pilot and was flying a P-51. Some moron had driven his nissan pick-up truck out in front of the grand stands and had gotten out of the truck and walked over to a few people to talk to them, when here comes Hoover taxing out in the P-51 and went right into the back of the truck. That big prop just completely demolished the truck.
 
I first saw BobH and his Shrike airshow at e Quonset RI airshow back in the late 70s. What was not seen in the video was the engine shut down loop to an eight point roll to a pattern and landing, rolling up to the chocks with out restarting.

Notice the rolls while pouring iced tea. The ball below the glass stays centered, no yaw, no negative G.

I did get to meet Sir Bob at the Reno Air Races in the late 90s.
 
Saw Mr. Hoover's show in person, only once.

It has been a reminder ever since that I can always learn to fly better.
 
Henning said:
Amazing what can be done when you're not afraid of the airplane and just go fly it.
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Bob's ability to do things with airplanes that most folks wouldn't consider involves a lot more than a simple lack of fear.
 
If anyone has difficulty understanding the concept of energy management, or what it looks like when perfectly applied, watching this guy operate should do the trick. If not, then there is no hope.
 
Wasn't there a long drawn out deal where the FAA had it in for him and wouldn't let him fly any more? They had some kind of personal vendetta against him.
 
kgruber said:
He sells those hats and gives the money to charity.
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I think you're thinking of Chuck Yeager. He does that whole "charge fifty bucks and give it to charity" thing. (Which is why neither of my kids ever got his signature.)

Bob signed my daughter's hat, and, yes, she still has it. She doesn't wear it anymore, cuz it's WAY too valuable as an heirloom.

My son has one just like it, but with even more amazing signatures on it, from all the Oshkosh's he's attended. He's got lots of great ones who have Gone West or retired, like Duane Cole, Jimmy Doolittle, Delmar Benjamin, and a host of others -- in addition to Bob Hoover.

When they were little, getting the signatures on their hats was a huge deal for them every year. Good memories, there.
 
BrianNC said:
Wasn't there a long drawn out deal where the FAA had it in for him and wouldn't let him fly any more? They had some kind of personal vendetta against him.
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Yes. A couple of Inspectors pulled his medical at a show.
 
gismo said:
Bob's ability to do things with airplanes that most folks wouldn't consider involves a lot more than a simple lack of fear.
Click to expand...

You know I wonder if there is something specific mentally and physically guys like him or Chuck Yeager have over normal pilots that sets them apart? In my mind it obviously takes some major "cajones" (AKA. Balls of steel) but what else do these guys possess?
 
Good hand-eye coordination and a crapload of training when they were military test pilots and fuel was essentially free, is a good start for anyone. Wartime flying for survival too. (You're going to learn real quick what your aircraft can and can't do when someone is shooting at you, and if you're smart, find every minuscule advantage you can... Or you'll end up dead.)

Surviving when their buddies died, also helped. Flight test wasn't the safest of jobs then, and still isn't today. Worse then, though. Lots of dead pilots. Lots of examples to learn from.

Lots of in-flight emergencies where they made the right decisions based on understanding their aircraft very well and the fundamentals, helped too. Built more knowledge of what a broken aircraft can and can't do and how to fly it. Confidence.

There's "balls" involved, but both guys are pretty darn focused on knowing one thing really well... airplanes. There's significant "brains" involved.

Especially with Hoover, you can see the wheels spinning when he answers questions. He's good at turning concepts he probably knows all the math behind, and the theory, into a easily-digestible and accurate answer for the layman and pilot alike.

Also with Hoover, his determination level is way off the scale compared to most. You can read about it in his WWII POW story. He wasn't content to sit in a prison waiting out the war. Not at all. I think he applied that determination level in studying and flying also.

There's folks out there who probably could do what they did today, right skills, right mentality... but they probably can't duplicate the raw stick and rudder experiences those guys had. And an era where they were "heroes" and the publicity machine was cranking for them continuously.
 
LJS1993 said:
You know I wonder if there is something specific mentally and physically guys like him or Chuck Yeager have over normal pilots that sets them apart? In my mind it obviously takes some major "cajones" (AKA. Balls of steel) but what else do these guys possess?
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I wouldn't put those two in the same league.....Hoover is truly one of the greatest pilots who ever lived and a true gentleman. Yeager was just a dude who happened to be in the right place at the right time.....and unlike Hoover, just about everyone who has ever met CY says the same thing- he's an A-hole.
 
gismo said:
Bob's ability to do things with airplanes that most folks wouldn't consider involves a lot more than a simple lack of fear.
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It all bases in it. The fact that he was pushed through that fear be machine guns trying to chew his ass off in combat may have some attribution, but in the end fear is the block to experience, learning, and eventual ability.
 
LJS1993 said:
You know I wonder if there is something specific mentally and physically guys like him or Chuck Yeager have over normal pilots that sets them apart? In my mind it obviously takes some major "cajones" (AKA. Balls of steel) but what else do these guys possess?
Click to expand...

Perception of state of energy and the rate of flux.
 
denverpilot said:
Good hand-eye coordination and a crapload of training when they were military test pilots and fuel was essentially free, is a good start for anyone. Wartime flying for survival too. (You're going to learn real quick what your aircraft can and can't do when someone is shooting at you, and if you're smart, find every minuscule advantage you can... Or you'll end up dead.)

Surviving when their buddies died, also helped. Flight test wasn't the safest of jobs then, and still isn't today. Worse then, though. Lots of dead pilots. Lots of examples to learn from.

Lots of in-flight emergencies where they made the right decisions based on understanding their aircraft very well and the fundamentals, helped too. Built more knowledge of what a broken aircraft can and can't do and how to fly it. Confidence.

There's "balls" involved, but both guys are pretty darn focused on knowing one thing really well... airplanes. There's significant "brains" involved.

Especially with Hoover, you can see the wheels spinning when he answers questions. He's good at turning concepts he probably knows all the math behind, and the theory, into a easily-digestible and accurate answer for the layman and pilot alike.

Also with Hoover, his determination level is way off the scale compared to most. You can read about it in his WWII POW story. He wasn't content to sit in a prison waiting out the war. Not at all. I think he applied that determination level in studying and flying also.

There's folks out there who probably could do what they did today, right skills, right mentality... but they probably can't duplicate the raw stick and rudder experiences those guys had. And an era where they were "heroes" and the publicity machine was cranking for them continuously.
Click to expand...
Couple of amazing things I learned about Bob recently in excerpts from an interview: for one, he really shouldn't have been an Air Force pilot- he couldn't pass the vision test, but a doc took pity on him and let him pass. Second, the reason he mastered aerobatics in the first place was his determination. Early in his flight training, he had airsickness problems and so he kept practicing maneuvers over and over again trying to get himself used to it and in the process, he learned a lot of maneuvers just figuring them out for himself.
 
Fearless Tower said:
I wouldn't put those two in the same league.....Hoover is truly one of the greatest pilots who ever lived and a true gentleman. Yeager was just a dude who happened to be in the right place at the right time.....and unlike Hoover, just about everyone who has ever met CY says the same thing- he's an A-hole.
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Yeager was very pleasant when we had lunch together at Osh in 99. I got him and Bud Anderson to sign my warbird pilot hat that I had gotten for flying in a T41 in to the show It was cool to hang out with the real warbird pilots for a week since I had only gotten my private about 4 months before. I passed on flying in the daily warbird in review flight as I thought it would be pushing my luck too far. I flew the T41 out there for the first 3 years I attended Osh and it was a blast. I now camp out in the North 40 with a large group of friends who get together from all over the country once a year at Osh.
 
I met Yeager almost 20 years ago at Napa in a non 'public' type setting and he was very nice to me and we had an interesting talk. Not many people get to fly around in an F-104....
 
Bob Hoover is definitely da' man.

Interesting reading the prior comments. If I remember from the book Forever Flying he learned to do an eight point roll prior to going into the military. It amazed his instructor when he showed him. He just kept playing with a roll until he could do it and then just took it from there.

Now the real question is if some young new pilot came on this board and said they were out teaching themselves to do an 8 point roll. How do you think everyone would react?

I think the server would explode.
 
I was fortunate to see Hoover's show back in the 70's. Watching the show on youtube in camera frame is nothing to the live performance. You watch the whole show with your stomach in a knot waiting for some fatal error. You think, damn, this guy is going to kill himself. What a great showman!

Yeager was suppose to be a great stick-and-rudder guy. Yet IIRC he was shot down after only a few combat missions during WWII.
 
Alexb2000 said:
Bob Hoover is definitely da' man.

Interesting reading the prior comments. If I remember from the book Forever Flying he learned to do an eight point roll prior to going into the military. It amazed his instructor when he showed him. He just kept playing with a roll until he could do it and then just took it from there.

Now the real question is if some young new pilot came on this board and said they were out teaching themselves to do an 8 point roll. How do you think everyone would react?

I think the server would explode.
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I hope Jessie would have a water cooled server at least...:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Found another picture of Bob, signing my son's hat at OSH 2000.

That young lad went on to earn his pilot's certificate in 2007, and is soon to be a 2nd Lt. in the Army. :thumbsup:

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LJS1993 said:
You know I wonder if there is something specific mentally and physically guys like him or Chuck Yeager have over normal pilots that sets them apart? In my mind it obviously takes some major "cajones" (AKA. Balls of steel) but what else do these guys possess?
Click to expand...
I'm very certain that if I had the exact same flying experience as Bob Hoover I still couldn't fly like him, so yes I'd say he's got something (physical and mental) that I lack.
 
Fearless Tower said:
I wouldn't put those two in the same league.....Hoover is truly one of the greatest pilots who ever lived and a true gentleman. Yeager was just a dude who happened to be in the right place at the right time.....and unlike Hoover, just about everyone who has ever met CY says the same thing- he's an A-hole.
Click to expand...

My impression of Bob Hoover is that he's very smart, Chuck, not so much. And FWIW, I got the impression (second hand) that Chuck acts like an arrogant rear orifice to other cocky pilots but to "normal" folks he's fairly pleasant.
 
I talked with Chuck Yeager for 15 minutes at Van Nuys about three years ago. It was only then that I realized who he was. He was very cordial and knowledgable.
 
Henning said:
Perception of state of energy and the rate of flux.
Click to expand...
And a certain attitude contributes to that... he once said something to the effect of "Any airplane will do whatever you want it to do... if you ask nicely".

What's also implied there, I think, is that you must be aware of what it can do. So many accidents are caused by trying to fly airplanes by force of will, wishful thinking, or by the pressure of the pilot's agenda. But once you know the envelope, you have to be gentle poking around in the corners. Just look at Hoover finessing a Sabre through some very slow, graceful maneuvers... not part of the intended mission for a high-speed interceptor/dogfighter, but he knew it could do it, and he just "whispered" the damn thing. One moment very precise, the next playful, but always apparently well ahead of it. One of my favorite airshow clips ever...

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



As for the "fearlessness" theory, I doubt that highly. I think one reason old-school fighter/test/show pilots like Hoover and Yeager have lived so long is because they have enough sense to be scared when they should be.
Courage can't exist without fear... it's about staying focused and doing what you need to do when you would rather curl up in a ball and cry for your mama.:D
 
I am a pilot today because of Bob. Back in the late 70's early 80's my dad worked at Pt. Mugu. At the air shows his job was to be at the base of the tower to be ready to fix any cummunacation issues that came up. There I was under 10 years old sitting at the base of the tower. I watched Bob do his bit. He walked by and I said I wanted to learn to fly to him, he smiled and said I should. The next year I sat at the same spot, watched Bob again, after he was done he walked by me and turned around and asked me " you still want to learn to fly?" , my reply was yes. He had done hundreds of shows and remembered me, that sank in so deep that I never lost the desire to fly, now I do. Thanks Bob for encouraging a young boy to follow his dream to fly.
 
Luvrv8 said:
I am a pilot today because of Bob. Back in the late 70's early 80's my dad worked at Pt. Mugu. At the air shows his job was to be at the base of the tower to be ready to fix any cummunacation issues that came up. There I was under 10 years old sitting at the base of the tower. I watched Bob do his bit. He walked by and I said I wanted to learn to fly to him, he smiled and said I should. The next year I sat at the same spot, watched Bob again, after he was done he walked by me and turned around and asked me " you still want to learn to fly?" , my reply was yes. He had done hundreds of shows and remembered me, that sank in so deep that I never lost the desire to fly, now I do. Thanks Bob for encouraging a young boy to follow his dream to fly.
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What a great story! He showed that same sort of encouragement to my kids, as shown in the pix.
 
FlySince9 said:
I was fortunate to see Hoover's show back in the 70's. Watching the show on youtube in camera frame is nothing to the live performance. You watch the whole show with your stomach in a knot waiting for some fatal error. You think, damn, this guy is going to kill himself. What a great showman!
Click to expand...

I still remember the eerie sound of the Commander going by with both engines shut down and the props feathered.

Kinda a mixture between what a traditional glider going by sounds like, with a bigger "whumpf".

Totally cool sound, assuming it's intentional. ;)
 
Jay Honeck said:
Luvrv8 said:
I am a pilot today because of Bob. Back in the late 70's early 80's my dad worked at Pt. Mugu. At the air shows his job was to be at the base of the tower to be ready to fix any cummunacation issues that came up. There I was under 10 years old sitting at the base of the tower. I watched Bob do his bit. He walked by and I said I wanted to learn to fly to him, he smiled and said I should. The next year I sat at the same spot, watched Bob again, after he was done he walked by me and turned around and asked me " you still want to learn to fly?" , my reply was yes. He had done hundreds of shows and remembered me, that sank in so deep that I never lost the desire to fly, now I do. Thanks Bob for encouraging a young boy to follow his dream to fly.
Click to expand...
What a great story!
Click to expand...
:yeahthat:
 
rottydaddy said:
And a certain attitude contributes to that... he once said something to the effect of "Any airplane will do whatever you want it to do... if you ask nicely".

What's also implied there, I think, is that you must be aware of what it can do. So many accidents are caused by trying to fly airplanes by force of will, wishful thinking, or by the pressure of the pilot's agenda. But once you know the envelope, you have to be gentle poking around in the corners. Just look at Hoover finessing a Sabre through some very slow, graceful maneuvers... not part of the intended mission for a high-speed interceptor/dogfighter, but he knew it could do it, and he just "whispered" the damn thing. One moment very precise, the next playful, but always apparently well ahead of it. One of my favorite airshow clips ever...

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



As for the "fearlessness" theory, I doubt that highly. I think one reason old-school fighter/test/show pilots like Hoover and Yeager have lived so long is because they have enough sense to be scared when they should be.
Courage can't exist without fear... it's about staying focused and doing what you need to do when you would rather curl up in a ball and cry for your mama.:D
Click to expand...

Correct on both points. The first is an understanding, a 'feel' for machines and their limitations which is linked directly to ones perception of energy and rate flux and understanding what the machine will not do.

As to the latter, I didn't mean 'fearlessness' as in never having any, rather that one can overcome fear through knowledge and practice and not be afraid.

Example, first time you fly under the phone wires it's scary, but with understanding you do it and it works as advertised. After 1000 times it doesn't even cross your mind as high risk and you do it with no more than a single glance at the wire.
 
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