"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...
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

Not sure if he's flown the Mosquito, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if
he had :-))))
Dudley Henriques