John Crocker

[jarrodeu]

Re: John Crocker

Thank you Neal, not only for the pictures but also the stories that go with them.

Jarrod

[ignomini]

Re: John Crocker

Thank you Neal, not only for the pictures but also the stories that go with them.

Jarrod

Dittos. For those of us newer to the sport it's great to see a visual history of all the names we hear about, but weren't there to witness live.

RG

[Leo]

Re: John Crocker

And for those of us that were there for some of this, thanks to all for the memory jog. Please keep it coming!

[Hawkeye]

Re: John Crocker

Willie just told me about this John Crocker posting and looking it has brought back a flood of memories. I started going to Reno in 72 and sitting in the grandstands wondering what it would be like to crew an unlimited. Race 6 was kept at Mike Bogue's Power Pac Engineering company at Oakland airport. I started hanging around Mike's hanger and fianally he put me to work on some of the warbirds there. In 85, I was asked to join the crew on Race 6 "Sumthin Else" My dream had come true and the "icing on the cake" was the to be able to work besides the likes of Kerch, Mike Bogue, Ted, and Willie. The friendships I've made through air racing are priceless to me. I have have never had so much fun working so hard. Luckily our crew has stayed together when Race 6 was damaged in Washington in 1990. Tom Camp was in need of a crew for his Yak-11 and we've been with Tom for 20 years and counting. Race 6 was sold after John's death and was restored back to a TF-51D and now flies as Crazy Horse 2. It is great to see some of the race mods off Race 6 still gracing the skies

Thank you for walking us down Memory Lane. Post some more picture's

Wayne

[wingman]

Re: John Crocker

As several have noted here, John Crocker liked kids -- including his own.

This shot with Skip Holm and the great Dave Zeuschel was taken one evening at the 1982 Reno Race.

Whatever was being said by the guy on the left certainly had the attention of all four listeners...

[wingman]

Re: John Crocker

One huge problem with Races away from Reno is trying to figure out the course, and crucially the Race start. At Reno everybody knows the landmarks and can find the pylons (well -- most of the time, anyway). Get to a place like Minter Field North of Bakersfield California where everything is flat and everything looks the same from the air and you have a very limited time to get it straight -- well, you get the idea...

Here we have Frank Sanders trying to explain his idea about how to start the race to John Crocker, Ron Hevle, and Bob Love. This is real important to Bob Love, as he's gonna be the Pace Pilot, and if things get screwed up everybody's obviously going to blame him...

[Warbird5]

Re: John Crocker

I see Neal has posted more great stuff and Wayne has provided some welcome input. Keep it going. I'm a big grin from ear to ear.

Willie

[Leo]

Re: John Crocker

Not to digress but does anyone remember the argument Bob Love and Bob Hoover had over race freq one year concerning clouds on the chute?
Hoover was pace and balling out Love for being low and out of position. Love was saying he was in bad vis higher up and it wasn't safe. Went on all through the start. I can't remember if he called him a DNS or let it go.
It was fun to watch Love fly, he was so smooth.
He was also one of the few I saw 3-point a mustang. When he landed it was done flying.

[wingman]

Re: John Crocker

Well, in this case the tables were turned on Bob. This time he had to be the pace, and he had everybody muttering at him. He decided to start the Race a very long way out -- presumably to have some spacing as the Racers hit the course. What they got, however, was some absolutely unholy speeds as they passed Home and tried to bank into pylon 1.

Pace pilot tends to be a no-win situation...

Back to the above discussion, Bob ended up looking quite perplexed. Ron just continued to look like a movie director's idea of what a Race Pilot should look like.

Neal

[wingman]

Re: John Crocker

What a lovely Racer that was...

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: John Crocker

What a lovely Racer that was...

Absolutely mechanical art! Nice shot Neal, I've been busy lately, but want to thank all of you who are making the site so fun to visit!

[wingman]

Re: John Crocker

Elegant shapes...

and you're welcome, Wayne -- though I think you have to thank Willie for this thread.

Neal

[Randy Haskin]

Re: John Crocker

restored back to a TF-51D

A bit of an oxymoron!

IMHO, it is no more 'restored' in it's current state than it was as a racer.

[Hawkeye]

Re: John Crocker

A bit of an oxymoron!

IMHO, it is no more 'restored' in it's current state than it was as a racer.

Well it does look a lot better that it did after the accident in Washington. John did not have the funds to fix the aircraft. So, it just sat. The crew thought about tearing into it, but the crew chief, Mike Bogue did not want to have the aircraft scattered about the hanger in pieces until we had the funds to finish it. Of course, our wish would have been for her to stay as a racer. But at least, she's back in the air where she belongs.

[jarrodeu]

Re: John Crocker

A bit of an oxymoron!

IMHO, it is no more 'restored' in it's current state than it was as a racer.

I guess modified to a TF-51 would be more accurate.

Jarrod