In the Cockpit with Bob Hoover

By Di Freeze

In the Cockpit with Bob Hoover is the second volume in a series of short biographies (20,000 words or less) regarding notable pilots whose passion for flight inspires young and old alike to take to the skies.

Bob Hoover became infatuated with aviation when Charles Lindbergh made his historic transatlantic flight in 1927. Years later, he would meet Lindbergh and inspire people with his own aviation feats.

Bob joined the Tennessee Air National Guard on his 18th birthday, and was eventually assigned to the 4th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group. He was shot down on Feb. 9, 1944, and spent 15 months as a prisoner of war. After several escape attempts from Stalag Luft 1, he finally succeeded, eventually making his way to an abandoned Luftwaffe air base and stealing a Focke-Wulf 190, which he flew to Holland.

Hoover was later assigned to Wright Field and served as backup pilot to Chuck Yeager on the Bell X-1. He left the military in December 1948, joined General Motor’s Allison Division as a test pilot, and later tested and demonstrated airplanes for North American Aviation/Rockwell International and flew its aircraft at air shows. He served as the official starter for the first Reno National Championship Air Races and Air Show, and continued that role for more than three decades. He also flew popular aerobatic demonstrations in airplanes including a Shrike Commander 500S and well-known P-51. In more than 50 years of flying, Hoover performed aerobatics in more airplane types, events and countries, and before more people, than anyone in the history of aviation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Di Freeze
• Release date: Apr 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301579853

Di Freeze

Di Freeze is the founder of Freeze Time Media, which offers writing, editing, formatting and publishing services for print and ebooks. Over the past few years she has edited and published books in the categories of self-help, children's, fiction (including historical), short stories, and commentaries.Her aviation features are the basis for a series, Passion For Flight (In the Cockpit with...), geared towards inspiring young adults to fly. The first ten biographies are available as ebooks on Amazon and B&N. Volumes one through three — featuring Chuck Yeager, Bob Hoover and Cliff Robertson — are available on Amazon. Volumes four and five, featuring Barron Hilton and Clay Lacy, will be available in the near future.Di co-wrote "From the Ground Up: From the Tractor to the Sabre," with Talmage E. Miller, a Colorado aviation sales pioneer.In 2009 she wrote briefly for A Time To Love, an online relationship magazine. Her interviews included astronaut Charlie Duke, the Love Boat's Gavin MacCleod, and professional BMX racer Donny Robinson.From 2000 to 2008, she was editor-in-chief for Airport Journals. She interviewed well-known aviators regularly for feature biographies for our print and online publications. Those interviews included Chuck Yeager, Bob Hoover, Tex Hill, Barron Hilton, Clay Lacy, Burt and Dick Rutan, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, John Travolta, Patty Wagstaff, Sean Tucker, Gene Cernan, Bill Anders, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, Steve Fossett, AL Ueltschi and many others.

Book preview

In the Cockpit with Bob Hoover

Di Freeze

In the Cockpit with Bob Hoover

Published by Di Freeze at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com

Copyright © 2013 Di Freeze

All rights reserved.

Freeze Time Media

In the Cockpit with Bob Hoover and other books in the Passion for Flight series are dedicated to the many pilots such as Bob Hoover who have allowed me and others to glimpse the beauty of flight through their eyes. This series is also dedicated to those pilots I had the pleasure of interviewing who have flown west, including Brig. Gen. Robin Olds, Brig. Gen. David Lee Tex Hill, Steve Fossett, and Cliff Robertson. My hope is that these stories will inspire future pilots, young and old alike, to experience that beauty and passion for flight.

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VOL 3 PREVIEW

Introduction

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SEEING BOB HOOVER FLY

Bob Hoover Photo

Bob Hoover in the Shrike Commander.

In 1984, the Abbotsford Air Show, held east of Vancouver, drew so much attention that traffic was bumper-to-bumper from the freeway to the airfield. In that traffic sat a popular performer who was behind schedule.

He watched the sky, judging his launch time by who was in the air. Suddenly, he rammed the car ahead of him. The other driver leaped from his car and raced to the pilot’s window.

Damn it! I just bought this brand-new Lincoln for my wife, he exclaimed. Worse than that, now I’m gonna miss seeing Bob Hoover fly!

Embarrassed, Bob Hoover introduced himself, apologized for the inconvenience and invited the couple to ride in his car. Soon, they were traveling through the VIP gate, towards the P-51 and Shrike Commander the legendary air show pilot would be flying that day. Hoover thrilled spectators that day, and continued to do so for years to come.

In more than 50 years of flying, Bob Hoover performed aerobatics in more airplane types, in more events, in more countries and before more people, than anyone in the history of aviation.

In Forever Flying, by Bob Hoover with Mark Shaw, Chuck Yeager refers to Hoover as the greatest pilot he’s ever seen and a magician in the cockpit. Astronaut Wally Schirra says Hoover’s the finest acrobatic pilot we’ve seen in our lifetime.

Fellow acrobatic giant Leo Loudenslager says Hoover set the standard of excellence, and Barron Hilton describes the pilot in flight as poetry in motion. Jimmy Doolittle called Hoover the greatest stick-and-rudder man who ever lived. You're about to find out why.

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AEROBATICS INSTRUCTION

Bob Hoover Photo

Hoover joined the Tennessee Air National Guard on his eighteenth birthday.

Robert A. Hoover was born on Jan. 24, 1922, in Nashville, Tenn. The youngest of Leroy and Bessie Hoover’s three children became infatuated with aviation when Charles Lindbergh made his historic transatlantic flight in 1927. I was just five years old, he recalled. I saw pictures and started building models.

By high school, his love for aviation had grown to the point where he read everything he could about aviation, including newspaper clippings on Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbacker and other aviation heroes of the day. "Jimmy Doolittle was my idol. I wanted to be just