Worlds Best Pilot?

[Race 29]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

I've got to agree with most everyone here. It's got to be Hoover!

Although I loved Michelle's refrence to the Waldo Pepper gang. I just watched that on DVD a few days ago!

Race 29

[CoastieAux]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

I would like to change the question to: Who has performed the most amazing feat of aviation skill you have ever personally witnessed? I think that would be a MUCH better thread.

The best act of piloting I have ever witnessed first hand was Lyle Shelton at Mojave. He had a total engine failure on the back stretch while qualifying. His aircraft had a glide path of a 10 ton bag of crap before the length was taken off the wings and the bigger motor and prop were added. He acted fast, traded airspeed for altitude, went around the airport, lined up perfectly with the runway and landed on two of his propeller blades and the tailwheel. That was the most amazing display of skill, control, immediate action, survival instinct and aircraft preservation I have ever seen with my own eyes.

Who is the absolute best? We can argue that forever. There is no one who rates any better in my mind than anyone else. With possibly the exception of all of the pilots who have had to deal with a catastrophic failue, with almost no chance of survival, who has landed safely, and preserved the airframe.

Who has displayed the best feat of piloting skill you have ever seen?

[Shawn Aro]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

I would say Howie Keefe who first own Miss america Shawn

[First time Juke]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

Here is quite dramatic conversation between Capt Al Haynes and ATC in Sioux City ( ? ).

http://www.clear-prop.org/aviation/haynes.html

[flyingjibus]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


Orville Wright??

heh heh

[Leo]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

My uncle, Lee Smiley, who as a young pilot, brought his B-25 "She's Engaged" back with an engine out,(almost shot from the aircraft) and a vertical stab missing, saving the surviving crew.
He then went on to fly for the airlines until retirement without a single incident. 30 some years of safe flight in everything from Cessna's to 747's.

Leo Smiley

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

My uncle, Lee Smiley, who as a young pilot, brought his B-25 "She's Engaged" back with an engine out,(almost shot from the aircraft) and a vertical stab missing, saving the surviving crew.
He then went on to fly for the airlines until retirement without a single incident. 30 some years of safe flight in everything from Cessna's to 747's.

Leo Smiley

Leo, I think you just made a good point. ALL of those young men who flew in the war were the BEST pilots!

Many had very few hours and were away from home for the first time in their lives... they were just kids in-other-words..

Yet, day after day, they went out and risked it all against the worst of conditions and kept at it without a whimper...

We can only imagine what it took to do what they did!

Leo, I think you've nailed it here....

Wayne

[Leo]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

They lived in tents, flew from primitive airfelds in well used machines wth very little time in their logbooks.
He always said that the movie "Catch-22" showed the conditions well. I have his misson list and unit history somewhere (and some photo's) and it was all done within very few months of intense effort and strain.
The stories he told...
Along that line, I was at Madera in 93, Tiger had his P-47 out for one of it's early showings (we ended up out near the runway with him watching passes early in the morning, so I have the distinction of getting kicked off the runway with him). My friend and I were discussing the plane when a man beind us corrected ome minor point. I asked him if he knew the P-47 and his answer was "Last time I saw one up close it was diving into the Burma jungle after I left it"
He had'nt seen one since and allowed how he'd give his left *** to sit in one again. I pointed out Tiger and suggested he tell I story.
Ten minutes later I took a quick video of an old, teary-eyed pilot re-living his past.

[Unregistered]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

Sir Douglas Bader WW 11 Ace and Wing commander and leg less to boot and as Doolittle discribed one of the Finest Pilots he had ever seen
and in his log book rated as exceptional a rating never given to pilots of the RAF before WW2

[Apteryx]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

Leo, I think you just made a good point. ALL of those young men who flew in the war were the BEST pilots!

Many had very few hours and were away from home for the first time in their lives... they were just kids in-other-words..

Yet, day after day, they went out and risked it all against the worst of conditions and kept at it without a whimper...

We can only imagine what it took to do what they did!

Leo, I think you've nailed it here....

Wayne

Adding to that thought, my utmost respect to the Tuskegee Airmen. They were fighting a war on two fronts, (most of us can't imagine), and, if memory serves, without losing one of the bombers they escorted.

Paul

[laminar]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

I think the best flying I ever witnessed was Jimmy franklin, before and after the turbine, that guy could make that ole airplane sing

[Leo]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

I agree laminar.
I admire so many, each for a unique reason. Art Scholl was so graceful, Bob Hoover so smooth in so many different aircraft, Sean Tucker, Leo, Wayne Handley so violent. I've always had a soft spot for the skill required in a "drunken farmer" act.
All of the race pilots, anybody that's flown the Bear, Hinton and Skip because I've seen him save so many BAD situations.
But Jimmy Franklin, first time I saw him he was picking up ribbons held at waist height, with that beautiful positive stagger Waco.
He was slow, smoky, noisy, graceful and a heck of a showman. OH YEA!

They're skills are all better than mine. If I tried any of what they do, I would'nt survive long.

[deepsky]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

I think that Ira Kepford from VF-17, was one of the greatest and bravest pilots ever. I am also a huge fan of Steve Hinton!

Also, who can forget our own Randy Haskin! Thanks for keeping us safe bro!

[Randy Haskin]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

Also, who can forget our own Randy Haskin! Thanks for keeping us safe bro!

I'd hardly put myself in the same category as *any* of the guys mentioned thus far, but thanks for the compliment.

This is such an amazingly subjective topic, and it's impossible to really quantify what is meant by 'best pilot'. There are certainly a lot of aviators whose abilities and experiences I highly respect, though. Some of them are famous names, and some of them are not. There are some guys I fly with in the military who have absolutely phenomenal skills in a jet, but the public will never know their name because they're not airshow/air race performers.

The airshow performers / racers who have made me stop and say 'wow' are (off the top of my head):

Bob Hoover
Wayne Handley
Sean Tucker
Steve Hinton
Bud Granley
Jimmy Franklin

Military pilots whom I wanna be like when I grow up:

Robin Olds
Bob Pardo
John Boyd

[speeddemon]

Re: Worlds Best Pilot?

Military pilots whom I wanna be like when I grow up:

Robin Olds
Bob Pardo
John Boyd

Dude....I'm crushed. What about your big bro??????