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View Full Version : Bob hoover reno mayday



Bill Greenwood
04-10-2013, 10:20 AM
In past years at the Reno Air Races, Bob Hoover was the starter for the unlimited class. He flew his yellow P-51 and the race planes would take off and form up on Bob and he would lead them to the start line.
After the start Bob would circle over the field and keep an eye on the planes below.

His sharp eyes and cool attention may have well saved a friend's life one day.

David Price was an ex Navy pilot who owned warbirds and a museum at Santa Monica, which now sadly is closed, but it was a beautiful and classy thing while it lasted. I was lucky enough to fly in one of their events back about 10 years ago, then go and fly at Chino the next week.
The course at Reno is somewhat like triangle, with the long east west runway being the front part at the grandstands.

David was racing and somewhere on the course he had an engine failure. He pulled up and radioed Mayday and turned to land,coming anti-clockwise around the course and from the west to east.
Best glide in a Mustang is 175 mph and it glides pretty flat, if the prop is working and can be pulled back to high pitch, low rpm.
Anyway, David has enough altitude to make the main runway, coming in from the west. He gets the gear down and crosses the numbers.
But he is really moving, nowhere nearly slowed down enough to land and stop. He can't really flare, touches down flat on the main wheels, tail high in the air, and is probably doing 150 mph, twice as fast as he needs. He is quickly running out of runway, and short of praying hard, he is running out of options. It is too fast for the brakes to do much good, and as he tries to pull back on the stick to get the tail down there is too much lift and the wheels come off the ground. David is good enough to get the wheels back on the runway, but he is perhaps 500 feet from running off the end.
The major problem is that this runway ends at a cliff on the east end , it is not flat at all. If he goes off he may well flip upside down. His life expectancy may be down to about 20 seconds. And as good a pilot as David is, I am sure that things are happening very fast and his thinking seems like slow motion. He is likely feeling very mortal, and some of the thrill of racing is now gone, and panic is trying to replace competence.

But, there is one other thing on his side, from the time he had the mayday Bob Hoover has been right overhead.
Bob comes on the radio in a calm, but firm voice, no delay, but no hysteria and says. "David,when I tell you, I want you to ground loop it to the left. Stick back and full left rudder and full brake. Get ready"
And at about 200 feet from the end, Bob called "Now, full left rudder and brake".

David did what he was told, the plane went off into the grass, and slid to a stop on the belly and David climbed out alive and unhurt.

Steve Hinton now flies overhead in, I think a T-33 and does the same job Bob did. I would trust either one of these guys if I ever raced at Reno.

Floatsflyer
04-10-2013, 11:27 AM
Good story, well told. Hope I'm never in a position to execute the procedure but I will remember it.

WeaverJ3Cub
04-14-2013, 04:17 PM
Great story. Thanks for sharing Bill.


Steve Hinton now flies overhead in, I think a T-33 and does the same job Bob did. I would trust either one of these guys if I ever raced at Reno.

Couldn't agree more.

CDS
04-18-2013, 04:12 PM
Bill,

Thanks for the memory; I witnessed that event. Many years later, Sherm Smoot intentionally ground looped Czech Mate at the SE end of 14 to avoid dropping off the edge and our whole grouped remarked on the similarity to David Price's event.

I've had the chance to speak with Mr. Hoover a few times, he seems to be a true gentlemen to everyone.

Blue skies,
Chris

Tim Adams
05-03-2013, 06:10 PM
Actually there are only two active runways at Stead, 8/26 and 14/32. 14/32 is actually the longer runway. There is an abandoned 18/36 on the west side of the field that can be used for mayday's, and the Army uses it for helicopter launches. It only has a very narrow strip of good asphalt that was added a couple of years ago, the rest is filled with massive holes.