If you haven't seen it, 'Bob Hoover: Flying the Feathered Edge' is a must-see.

In addition I just watched another Hoover film that was every bit as impressive.

To this day, he was the only act I've ever seen at Oshkosh where the entire crowd simply stopped what they were doing to watch - almost like everyone knew they were watching history in the making.

It won't allow embedding, but here's the link:

https://vimeo.com/152663476

I ordered it as well. Just arrived and watched it on Saturday. Very well done film. I had the privilege to meet Bob in 1991. Class act, in the air and in person.

UpNorth

That was a great 45 min spent. : )

bigrenna wrote:That was a great 45 min spent. : )

Sure was!

I had the pleasure of meeting Bob Hoover right after one of his presentations at OSH several years ago. He gave quite a talk. After walking on stage, he said, "You know, I'm 87 years old, and I'm a little tired. Would you mind if I sat while I talked?" Then during the Q&A, someone asked if he was still flying (he hadn't said he was during his presentation). He said, "Well, I do still get into the Extra a couple of times a week to see if I still know how!"

I came up to him after he left the stage, and along with several other fans, I put out my hand and told him my name. He said, "I'm so very glad to meet you!" The way he said it, you would have thought I was somebody important!

What he and others of his generation did for aviation is hard to measure, especially for those of us who fly such benign airplanes as we do. Truly a great man.

Cary

Thanks for the link! Kind of a sad state of affairs when some fame seeker in SA can garner more attention from the general population/media than someone like Bob Hoover can.

Every year at Reno I try to get my son a little face time with Mr. Hoover, knowing that opportunities like that are getting rarer and rarer every day. He just celebrated his 94th birthday a week and a half ago

One of the things I really appreciate about the aviation community is that it seems so easy to meet our heros and the airshow performers, and how willing they are to discuss their craft.

I don't think they get any better than Bob Hoover, glad to see he is still around, Hats off to him

I've been flying an Aero Commander for over three years now just like the one Bob flew in his air shows, I'd love to have him fly it with me just one time.

I saw Bob Hoover's "Energy Management" routine at an airshow in Salinas, CA back in the early 80's. It was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen. He did all the maneuvers in his Shrike Commander (a non-aerobatic twin-engine airplane). The finale to his act was an engine-stopped / props-feathered very low-level loop, following which he landed the plane, and taxied back to his original staring position (without ever restarting the engines). He rolled to a stop with the airplane's nose touching his crew-chief's hand. If he used the brakes, it was so subtle that the nose never dipped. As I said, just incredible...

Then I saw the video online showing him doing a slow roll in the Shrike Commander while pouring a glass of tea - back-handed, no less - without spilling a drop! Everything he does is so smooth, it's just amazing. The precision he flies with is unbelievable. In the movie, he tells the story of how / why he did the "pouring tea" thing... I won't spoil it for you, but it's pretty funny.

It's easy to see why so many of the great pilots - those of his own generation and those who've come up since then - consider him the greatest pilot of all time. But as others have pointed out, it's his way of dealing with people that really makes him truly special. I got a chance to see him at OSH in the mid-80's. I was hesitant to bother him, because there was always a crowd around him, but finally worked up my nerve and went up to him. I introduced myself, and his response was "I'm so glad to meet you!" - like I was someone famous instead of him... But then he asked if I was a pilot, what I flew, and upon hearing I flew helicopters for the Army, he started asking all kinds of questions about it - just like a kid. He was just such a genuine person, and so deeply immersed in all aspects of aviation... He was incredibly gracious, and seemed to feel that he'd just been pretty lucky to get to do all the things he did in his lifetime. I told him I didn't think luck had anything to do with it, and that it couldn't have happened to a nicer, more deserving man.

Bob Hoover is an incredible man, with an incredible life story. I bought the movie as soon as it came out. It does a good job of capturing him, I think. Here's the link http://www.thebobhooverproject.com/.