Bob Hoover passed away this morning.

I just went to an air show this past Sunday. It was held at the beach where I live and was mostly civilian solo pilots or teams. I thought about Mr Hoover and wondered if he was still out there somewhere is his yellow     P-51. I never did have the pleasure of seeing him fly. 

Not to sidetrack, but I thought he passed a couple of days ago.  I saw posts on Facebook and elsewhere online, but only heard it on the news today.  I thought that was odd.

I agree, he is someone every kid should learn about.  It was reading about flyers like him, when I was a kid, that helped spark my interest in history, and in building models.

Saw him many times at the Cleveland Air Show over the years.  He was an incredible pilot.

Mike

Saw him at Reno back around '70.  Was just amazing the way he could make an airframe walk and talk. That Aero Commander rotine has stuck with me ever since, and I still see it duck walking down the runway, and the loop/deadstick greaser landing.   Even more so since we had to brreak down and load a crashed Shrike from our local airport as part of our A&P class at school.

It was said then it took him two days to fly from LA to Reno, since he couldn't fly a straight and level course for more than a couple of minutes

Everyone should read about Bob Hoover at least on Wikipedia for a quick brief. Met and photographed Bob at an Airshow waving his straw hat while exiting a P-51 after an amazing demos in the P-51 and a civil twin engined Aero Commander. What an incredible pilot and adventurous person. He was shot down in WW2 and escaped in a stolen FW-190! The list of his acomplishments goes on and on. Check it out!

Max

I had seen his act in the Mustang a number of times before the first time I saw him with the Aero Commander.  That routine eclipsed the Mustang!  One sort of expected a P-51 to be capable of amazing things, but to see a general av light twin do that stuff- especially the dead stick stuff- that was really awesome!  It was a way to make the term energy management real and understandable.

He was an incredible pilot!

I've had the pleasure of seeing him perform several times and was always impressed by his skill, especially the precision that he brought to complex aerobatics.

RIP Bob & thanks for the memories!

Oh that's really too bad. I haven't been to Reno since 2010, but I met him and remember him well.