The aviation community has lost another great pilot.   Bob Odegaard has lost his life in a practice run at the Valley City airport.

I used to work with both Bob and his son Casey.  Bob was a quiet man with some great stories and a hell of a lot of character.  

I am sitting here stunned and speechless.   Fuck!  
Pray for his family please.

From the sound of it he knew he was going in and was trying to climb out of the plane.  

News story



R.I.P. Bob you will be missed.  

Very sad.


 

Sad news

Prayers going out...

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Fuck....Fuck

It was his F2G that he was killed in.  

Race 74.
Google's page has not been updated yet.

Sad on both accounts.

Here's another little story about Bob being run in the local paper.   http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/373752/

I'm not sure how many people know,  Bob also took over Bob Hoovers shows flying the Shrike and doing powerless loops and rolls.  Such an amazing thing to watch.  

I have a lot of pictures of his aircraft.   I'll have to see if i can dig them up.

Again,  Please say a prayer for Bob and his family.  His son was there when he was killed.    


This man was the life of the airshows here.  

Sorry to keep dragging this thread to the top all the time guys and gals.  I want to add a video of Bob Odegaard doing a tribute to Bob Hoover.  



This was filmed here at KFAR in Fargo.  I have pictures of him performing this.

R.I.P.  Sorry to all who knew him.


TC

Bummer....

Here's some pics of the plane he lost his life in.  







Sorry I just have to vent.

 I am heart broken.  This man was the kindest man.  One hell of a good pilot,  very good at what he did.   I loved sitting at the table and talking with him,  the stories he had were absolutely fascinating.  He had about 17,000 hrs in many many different aircraft.  You couldn't have met a nicer person.  


ETA:  Video of the F2G.

 

RIP

I wish people wouldn't do low level aerobatics in planes not designed for that purpose, and especially in this case where the wings were shortened for racing.



He was 66 and didn't pull out of a loop - too old for that stuff?








 

Another elevator trim tab failure?

Damn.

His entire family is a gift to the industry. Ill look a bit longer next time I fly over VC

Man that sucks

I'm glad I got to see his tribute to Bob Hoover at Oshkosh.

Prayers sent to the family.

The wings were not chopped on the super corsair.  As far as aerobatics,  What he was doing was routine basic loops and barrel rolls.  All basic stuff.  From the sounds of it something went very wrong and he knew it.  Rumor has it he was trying to escape when it went in.  

ETA:  Here's a very cool photo album with pictures from inside the C47 that Bob and his son Casey fly to airshows.  https://picasaweb.google.com/114679961332899611512/Duggy2Oshkosh2010?feat=flashalbum#5768471347462044786

That is just sad, I talked to him at an airshow when he flew in that beautiful red and white Super Corsair.

This plane was not shortened or chopped, it was a complete historical rebuild.

The only thing even slightly considered as a mod on that plane was that there were no flaps on the plane.  

I hope,  after the investigation they decide to rebuild the plane.  I will volunteer many hours of building and buck riveting to it.  I would love to see it in the museum again,  even more so back in the air.

RIP

Very sad news.

RIP

From the description of the crash and the pictures that have come out, there isn't much left to rebuild.

Met him a few years ago with my brother in law. He talked with us for a few hours and was a really nice guy. Sad to hear he has passed on. Prayers sent

 

RIP and fair skies.
 

I'm also heart broken over this as a long time Reno race fan. I've been going to Reno since 1987. Last couple years we've lost some big names.

Art Vance
Al Goss
Jimmy Leeward
Howard Pardue
and now Bob.

Very sad.

RIP.  Was that the airframe that had that huge radial that was in the test cell video a couple months ago?

Yep.  That plane had a Wasp Major R-4360-4, 28CYL,  3500 HP.

Welp,  I went to the funeral.

Met with Brady and Casey.  They seem to still have a good sense of humor,  Much like Bob.  It was a very laid back funeral as far as funerals go,  lots of friends and family there,  and of course some great stories.  Honor guard was there and there was a very nice missing man formation fly by at the grave site.  There were also some big names that popped in to visit.  The restoration shop is geared up to restore f4 corsairs as well as P-51's now.  So hopefully in a few years we may see the ole "super" corsair get rebuilt  (fingers crossed).  The plane did not belong to Bob,  It was owned by one of his good friends.  That is all I will say about that.  


Robert saw the world in the eyes of a child,  He would literally spend hours showing kids his planes and his hangar.  He always said the kids are the future.  

One good story about Bob was when a customer and his young son came to get info on restoring his fathers plane and said "I want a first class restoration",  Bob walked them around the shop showing them around when the child asked to see a plane, Bob showed the kid every thing for hours,  when asked why he is showing the child every thing and not the father,  he said  "The man said he wants a first class restoration.  Where else is he going to go?  The children are the future".  

I have never seen so many planes at Hamry field. I will post some pics later.  

Every time I went to the airport on my motorcycle I would get razzed by bob,  He would say  "do you know how dangerous those things are?!  Those things will kill you!"  And I would reply  "says the guy that goes to airshows and does loops and rolls!"  

So what I did was dawned my spiffiest 3 piece suit and my nicest tie and a brand new pair of dress shoes and hopped on my crotch rocket and headed to the funeral!  Casey and Brady were amused.  



Missing man formation:


Bike at Odegaard wings:


Ramp at Hamry field:


Shrike:


Shrike cockpit:


Cripes 'Amighty:


Boomer:


Cripes again:


RIP Robert "Bob" Odegaard.  You will be sorely missed.