Favorite Aerobatic pilot

[Dash]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

John Mohr is a definate top, Sean D Tucker, and Lee Lauderback.

[T. Adams]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Still one of the coolest vids on the net. Hoover, 1961 in an F-86.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRt6UnNzR6I

[Shawn Aro]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

I was really young to remember parts of this but Dick Hunt in the super pinto and Bob Bishop and Corcky Fornoff in the BD5 jets. shawn

[Ken from PG]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Still one of the coolest vids on the net. Hoover, 1961 in an F-86.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRt6UnNzR6I

Funny thing Tim, as I watched this video I see Hoover as all business even though the plane is smooth as can be. A true Master of his trade.

Here's a couple of pix of the BD-5's with Kathy Gray (raced IF1's at Reno) and Eliot Cross (dueling Wacos with Jim Franklin). A very nice show.

[steak_pilot]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Bob Hoover in the shrike and Delmar Benjamin in the GeeBee!!!

[stuntflyr]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Bob Herendeen, S-1S. Charlie Hillard, S-1S.
Chris...

[austinstephens]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Harold Krier, Art Scholl, Jim Franklin, Bob Hoover, and Patty Wagstaff.

[austinstephens]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Harold Krier, Art Scholl, Jim Franklin, Duane Cole Bob Hoover, (in the F-86 and Shrike), and Patty Wagstaff.

Also Bob Love flew a great show in the P-51 back in the day...

[BUD_XXX]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Mr Hoover has always been my favorite. No one else even came close. Mr Hoover always showed us what a highly skilled professional he really was, and what he could do with a plane like the Shrike Commander...

Lefty was awesome too... Art was great as well... Art, Patty, and the rest are all great, But IMHO Hoover is Da Man!

A couple of years back he was Paraded up the flightline in a Fire Truck or something....And I felt like...half the crowd probably never saw his act and did not understand what they had missed.... and that this was this great man's... likely, last public harrah...and the quiet unspoken end of one of "Flight's" most storied Hero's, career ... I gave it up for the man, as tears came to my eyes...

I love you BOB!

[Sky Critter]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

No love for Kent Pietsch? Come on guys.... 3 separate acts each day has to be worth something. Just say'n...

[degroodtt]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Well I have been lurking too long on this. Favorite may or may not mean the best. I loved watching Hoover the 2 times I saw him. Unfortunately I was too young to know what I was watching. When I was ~ 12 my radio control mentor and I went to see Leo Laudenslager's plane in NJ, I think. The A&P had the wing apart and we got to see the wing spar delaminated because of the G's he was putting on the plane. My favorite acro pilot story though comes from working the Quad-City airshow in maybe 2000 or 2001. I was helping near Delmar Benjamin pit when Jim Franklin started his Waco w/jet routine. Delmar sceamed to anyone and everyone "Oh man here comes Jimmy, you need to watch this when he goes vertical and accelerates going straight up it looks like a cartoon". It did, not sure if I can pick a favorite, so many I haven't seen, but Franklin's show was serious entertainment. Ii will also alway treasure the picture I got with Mr Hoover in Reno 2010.

[Arctic Cat]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Absolute best, most amazing shows I have ever seen:

First time I saw Wayne Handley in the Turbo Raven! Fast paced, amazing and beautiful. I liked how Wayne would walk you through what he was doing and expalin it to you. Great showman.

Late 90's when Jimmy Franklin showed up at Reno with the Jet biplane. All manuevers performed at VNE, including climbs, just crazy. I first saw him in the 80's at Abbottsford in the 650hp Waco and I was also amazed then. Great showman and fun to watch.

In the mid 90's, my dad and I had somehow aquired VIP passes to one of the Chalets that they used for the locals who were displaced during the show. Every morning we would show up and watch the show for the whole day all the while gourging ourselves on the catered food. Each morning the had the Brietling aerobatic competition that had specific rules for height and flying inside the "box". The VIP Chalet was about show center for this box so most of the manuevers happend right above our heads. I have no idea who the guy performing was but he put on an incredable show and finished it of with a manuever that left him in an flat inverted slip, and then the engine quits! Well it was all part of the show but it sure scared us there for a second, then he restarted rolled level and landed, all right in front of us.

Lastly, I have to give it up for Kent in his interstate Cadet, drunk farmer routine. 65hp shouldn't be able to do that kind of stuff, and any show we go to my girls ask me if the "toilet paper guy" will be there

[Skyracer]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Bud Granley in anything with wings (don't ever get in a car if he is driving though).

[ShermB]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

A BIG amen to that, Jim!!!

[tow-3]

Re: Favorite Aerobatic pilot

Bud Granley in anything with wings (don't ever get in a car if he is driving though).

I don't know, I think lee oman was happy to get into a truck driven by bud one time.