Dudley Henriques wrote:

Bob is absolutely one of the world's finest pilots, and probably the
smoothest aerobatic pilot I have ever known.
You are correct about the Shrike routine. It was indeed a study in EM
(energy management).
It's interesting to note for the group at large, that 500RA (Bob's Shrike)
was maintained by Byerly Aviation in Florida for the 20 years Bob had the
airplane.
Byerly made several modifications to the bird that made Bob's wonderful
routine possible.
500RA had an accumulator that stored hydraulic pressure that allowed Bob to
lower the gear inverted with both fans feathered, and also a special setup
for unfeathering both props. Bob would pull both fans back into feather
without having to idle back the throttles and mixtures. The restart was made
possible by micro-switches that triggered electric pumps that unfeathered
the props for him.
The accumulator also stored enough pressure to give Bob nosewheel steering
for his "dead stick landings".
Bob, by his very survival in the low altitude aerobatic environment for as
long as he was in it, and flying a variety of airplanes to boot, has
established himself as truly one of the world's all time best in the
business.
Bob was one of the initial charter members of the International Fighter
Pilots Fellowship that I founded in 1971. In every contact I have had with
him through the years, he has always been a gracious friend and a quiet
force in our community.
Dudley Henriques

Yes, I'd love to have the chance to fly with him, but know that will
never happen. I got to shake has hand and chat VERY briefly with him
after an airshow at ELM, probably in the late 70s. I likely will never
get closer to him that that, but watching him fly was simply awesome.
He obtained every bit of performance that was available from the
airplane while remaining within its structural envelope.


Matt