Dudley Henriques wrote:

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...


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


The only thing I ever worried about with Bob's routines was his one wheel
landings. He did them as his "Tennessee Waltz" bit using a variety of
airplanes. He was extremely good at doing it. Performing this maneuver is a
combination of dead accurate drift correction married to a virtual symphony
of cross control flying. It ain't easy to do in any airplane without side
loading the main gear struts. Bob was smooth as butter doing this, but I
have to admit, he raised a lot of eyebrows from some of the P51 guys paying
for their own maintenance :-)
I remember down at Transpo in 1972 at Dulles. I was there taking care of
Miss America for the week when Bob had to make an emergency landing in his
own 51. He put it down on one foot and hardly dinged it, but it wasn't
flyable for the week and this was one HUGE airshow!
I offered Bob the use of Miss A for his demonstration and he gratefully
accepted, but not until I passed on to him a "fervent request" from Howie
Keefe who owned Miss A at the time, for Bob to NOT do any 1 wheel landings
in Miss America!!!
Bob of course complied without question, and I agreed with Howie on this, as
we had just finished a cross country record setting flight in the airplane
and the fuel load was not optimum for Bob's usual performance. The finesse
required to do the 1 wheel landings in a different P51 with a different fuel
load on board might have taxed even the talents of Bob Hoover.
Bob flew a perfect demonstration in Miss A without the 1 wheel landing. :-))
A wonderful guy, and one hell of a P51 driver!!
Dudley Henriques

I think Bob could fly a sheet of plywood. :-)


Matt