Bob Hoover

[mshunter]

I was thinking the same thing, only other name I could think of was Sean Tucker. I was just watching an interview by him on youtube last night, he was talking about the incident at Sun n Fun when he had to bail out of the Oracle plane and he got caught on the tail briefly!

What about Kirby Chambliss? I'm sure there is other's.

 

[MikeD]

Wow.. what a bummer. I had no idea. I do like that he talked the whole way down and never stopped fighting for recovery. "Rage, rage, against the dying of the light" and all that. RIP Art Scholl

Is it just me or does it seem like the icons of the aviation world are slowly dying out? And that most were mainly part of a past generation as well?

I mean.. the only 'present day' big name I can think off the top of my head are Patty Wagstaff. There are some other notable names, I guess.. but it would seem like true innovators are a dying breed.

I was thinking the same thing, only other name I could think of was Sean Tucker. I was just watching an interview by him on youtube last night, he was talking about the incident at the Riverside airshow when he had to bail out of the Oracle plane and he got caught on the tail briefly!

Don't remember Art Scholl's death? You two youngin's....

There are number of icons I remember from the past decades. Got to see legendary Walt Tubb in an airshow at FFZ in the 1980 timeframe, and his son Terry performing following in his footsteps following the elder Tubb's death. Great Pitts S-1 pilot. Other notable airshow performers I remember include Marion Cole and his older brother Duane Cole....who had the famous Taylorcraft with his name written on the side upside down (since he spent most of his time that way). Gene Soucy is another I remember, seeing him when the former Red Devils aerobatic team had switched from the Pitts to the Christian Eagle aircraft.

Many guys that have set the path of aerobatics long before the Sean Tucker's and the Patty Wagstaff's.

 

[ctab5060X]

Gene Soucy is another I remember, seeing him when the former Red Devils aerobatic team had switched from the Pitts to the Christian Eagle aircraft.

Gene is still doing shows. He is flying a modified Grumman Ag Cat (the Showcat)

 

[Muff3n]

Bob Hoover is a legend, I would have loved to watch him fly.

 

[Firebird2XC]

Don't remember Art Scholl's death? You two youngin's....

There are number of icons I remember from the past decades. Got to see legendary Walt Tubb in an airshow at FFZ in the 1980 timeframe, and his son Terry performing following in his footsteps following the elder Tubb's death. Great Pitts S-1 pilot. Other notable airshow performers I remember include Marion Cole and his older brother Duane Cole....who had the famous Taylorcraft with his name written on the side upside down (since he spent most of his time that way). Gene Soucy is another I remember, seeing him when the former Red Devils aerobatic team had switched from the Pitts to the Christian Eagle aircraft.

Many guys that have set the path of aerobatics long before the Sean Tucker's and the Patty Wagstaff's.

I'm not debating that there weren't plenty of notable, stand out pilots before. I just saying that it seems odd that there aren't any notable standout pilots coming around from present day.

Consider this- in recent days, the closest things we have to pilots notable for their skills are crash survivors, like Sully, for example.

We don't really seem to hear about pilots that do extraordinary things on a regular, non-emergency basis.

I was just lamenting the point.

 

[mikecweb]

Just making sure I got this right Charlie. In the same thread you post a story from a prof. stating that Bob Hoover was dangerous and something to consider before calling him a great pilot. And now you are saying it's too bad there aren't a lot of current pilots like him.
My answer to the latter would be probably guys like you that would say they are unsafe in one second and safe in the other. Before, they were recognized for their skill and no one cared.

 

[Firebird2XC]

Just making sure I got this right Charlie. In the same thread you post a story from a prof. stating that Bob Hoover was dangerous and something to consider before calling him a great pilot. And now you are saying it's too bad there aren't a lot of current pilots like him.
My answer to the latter would be probably guys like you that would say they are unsafe in one second and safe in the other. Before, they were recognized for their skill and no one cared.

My point in the first post was that Bob Hoover was controversial enough to have his detractors. The latter post about Hoover was concessionary- while yes, he does have his detractors, his track record has proven him right over time. The first post suggested that my prof might have noticed something that saved Bob Hoover's life. The second suggested that Hoover probably didn't need it after all, and therefore I was agreeing that Bob's probably as good as everyone believes him to be.

The point made after that was not necessarily that aren't a lot of pilots like Bob Hoover in his nature, but his notoriety. Days of old included notable names like Hoover, Scott Crossfield, Chuck Yeager, John Glenn, Jacqueline Cochrane, Charles Lindbergh, Howard Hughes, et al..

I was wondering where those types have gone since. You don't hear about them like you used to.

Did that clear things up?