Blue Skies, Bob Hoover

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My first airshow was Miramar in 1973. I was a senior in High School and brought my non-aviation friend with me. Miramar opened the show with a high speed pass by the brand new jet they were proud to show-off, the F-14.

Besides the Blue Angles several acrobatic pilots flew. Mira Slovac, Art Scholl, and of course Bob Hoover (they are all gone now). Quite the airshow for the newbie. Like most pilots I saw Bob many times though the years. The last time was last month at Reno when his golf cart parked next to our box to greet the Blue Angles.

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Photos by my friend Gordon Gates.
 
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Hacker15e said:
Word this morning that perhaps the greatest aviator of our times, Bob Hoover, has passed away.

Blue Skies, Bob. Proud to have met you and watched your masterpiece-level flying.
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Flew West... Inverted. RIP, my friend. You were the finest. I'll miss you fiercely.
 
Gregory Coyler posted this on Facebook:

On of my favorite Hoover memories: back in 1990 when I was a pretty new Controller at Oakland center, it was the week before Reno and I was working the sector coming up from SoCal, high Altitude, ( this is pre TCAS days ) I had one plane in my sector, an American MD80 at FL310 north bound, who asks me, "center, do I have traffic up here?" I replied "your the only one in my sector" he comes back with "well, we just passed a bright yellow mustang" I said "at what altitude and direction". His reply, " about 100 yards off our right wing at 310, northbound". I pushed the primary button and sure enough there was a primary target tracking along, I asked if he wanted to file anything and he said "nope, if it's who I think it is, we're all good!" I tracked up the primary and followed him into Stead. Told Reno approached to call me if the target called them, sure enough.. it was Mr. Hoover! That was the end of it. I did mention it to him that Sunday when I saw him at the races, said he should give us a call and we'd take care of him, both had a chuckle, he said yea I guess it's not 1950 anymore.​
 
I was lucky to have seen the man perform in the Shrike a few times. Amazing that anyone lived through a war and early test pilot work, especially as long as Mr. Hoover did.
 
Anyone else out at the Bob Hoover Celebration Of Life out in Van Nuys yesterday?

Hosted by Danny Clisham and Sean Tucker, it was the very image of a "celebration" rather than a "memorial". The guest list was a who's-who of the military, industry, warbird, racing, and airshow crowd (although there were some folks not there whom I very much expected to see....here's lookin' at you, Mr Yeager). It was surprisingly quite short and very understated for a man of Hoover's friendship and influence in the world. Finished off with taps, flag folding/presentation, and a couple poignant (but also understated) flybys. Most surprising, the evening at the bar down the street from Clay Lacy's was understated -- that's probably not how it would have been if Bob had been there other than in spirit, hehe.

I didn't take many snapshots; there were photogs there who took much better photos than I (Tyson Rinigner, for example) that are floating around FaceBook if you so desire.

Blue skies, Bob. I'm immensely humbled to have met you, and to have been there in your honor yesterday. There won't ever be another like you.
 
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