Hod Taylor

[[email protected]]

I just received word a couple of days ago that Hod Taylor passed on August 19, one day shy of his 97th birthday. Hod was a fixture around the old Black Forest Glider Port for many years until it closed, then became a permanent resident of the operations at Minden. I would like to gather some stories and anecdotes for an article for Soaring magazine. He never wanted to be in the spotlight, yet he was always there to share a story or make a comment, and in so doing has affected hundreds, if not thousands who have passed through the glider operations over the years. I think it only fitting that he be memorialized in some way.

Thanks.

bob2nd at aol dot com

[bumper[_4_]]

I stopped by Soar Minden one day just to kill some time and see who was there. Hod was the lone occupant of the office that day so we shot the breeze for maybe 20 minutes. Hod tended to be a little on the curmudgeonly side, but in a normally good spirited way. When I was getting ready to leave I told Hod, I had to get some work done in my hangar. He said something like, "Doors open, don't let me slow you down." To which I responded, "I'm not leaving until you smile!" He looked straight at me and I at him . . . and after a short delay he gave me a quick smile that must have lasted just a few milliseconds. I said, "Good enough!" and headed out :c)

There was a lot to love about the guy.

Years ago, Fred LaSor learned that after Hod bailed out of his WWII P-38 Lightning in the pattern with a smoke filled cockpit, he never did his membership pin and certificate in the Caterpillar Club. So Fred set about doing the research and obtaining the military records to get things set straight. And then Fred organized a surprise gathering at SoaringNV for ol' Hod to present him with the award he "earned" over 60 years before.

I wasn't the only person in the room with tears welling in my eyes. It was great to see the joy in Hod's face and a great way to say thanks to Hod as well. I let Fred know what a great idea and good job he'd done putting it all together.

There are sure to be lots of Hod stories I know. You couldn't know the man without having a memorable moment or more. Everyone who knew him must have several! Sad to see good guys go.

bumper

[[email protected]]

Thanks, Bumper. That's the kind of stories I'm looking for. Spread the word!

[[email protected]]

Minden experienced 100 knot winds during a storm, next morning found 2 gliders had pulled loose from there tie-downs, but the carnage didn't stop there. The loose ships flew/slid into other sailplanes. Hod Taylor's ASW-15 being one of them! Hod filed a claim against the owner of the offending ships liability insurance, claiming the owner had been negligent in not securing his ship properly. Hod told me, "watch this, I'm going to turn my old 15 into a 20". The court proceedings were short and sweet, Hot stated his position, the Insurance guy stated it was an act of God. The Judge said it was an act of God, cort adjourned!
So much for Hod's upgrade to an ASW-20.
JJ

[RL]

One day I show up at Soar Minden hoping to fly, but it’s kind of a nasty day with wave, but lots of moisture, primary moving around, just not conditions that were appealing. I’m hanging out just killing time and in Tony’s never-ending quest to put butts in seats, he says you should go fly with Hod… I said, why? Hod says, we’ll go play in the rotor. I said, you want to do what!? He says, all those *%$# pansy pilots are afraid of rotor, but if you know what you’re doing it’s no big deal.

So we fly. After getting thrashed on tow we get to the rotor and we’re getting even more thrashed. I’m thinking, well at least I’ll die doing what I love… right? Hod says, here I’ll show you, and he proceeds to accelerate to the front of the rotor and descend, then slow down and climb up the back of the roll and across the top. The whole time we’re doing this he’s using full control deflections to keep us upright while I’m cutting off my blood supply tightening my belts. He hands the stick back and says that’s enough for me… you do it. We spent an hour in that rotor in what became the most confidence building time I’ve ever spent in a glider. I actually relaxed while getting hammered and using full control deflections, even to the point of adding rudder when I ran out of aileron. Hod sat in the back seat, humming, telling me about all the dysfunctions of the operation, and describing his travels like he was talking across a coffee table.

To this day, I don’t know whether he was crazy or good, but I had a transformative experience.

Bob Lacovara

[Dan Marotta]

Never met the man but he sounds like my kind of guy!

On 9/18/2016 8:01 AM, RL wrote:
> <snip> He says, all those *%$# pansy pilots are afraid of rotor, but if you know what you’re doing it’s no big deal.
>
> So we fly. <more snippage>
>
> To this day, I don’t know whether he was crazy or good, but I had a transformative experience.
>
> Bob Lacovara

--
Dan, 5J

[[email protected]]

Dan,
Ask Billy about him.... he will remember him from Black Forest

[Dan Marotta]

I will.

He had already left Black Forest when I arrived there in 1990. One of
my flying buddies had a G-102 with the call sign HDO and I recall him
being asked if he was Hod. He wasn't, and he later became my partner in
an LS-6a.

On 9/18/2016 10:51 AM, wrote:
> Dan,
> Ask Billy about him.... he will remember him from Black Forest

--
Dan, 5J

[[email protected]]

On Friday, September 16, 2016 at 1:08:50 AM UTC-4, wrote:
> I just received word a couple of days ago that Hod Taylor passed on August 19, one day shy of his 97th birthday. Hod was a fixture around the old Black Forest Glider Port for many years until it closed, then became a permanent resident of the operations at Minden. I would like to gather some stories and anecdotes for an article for Soaring magazine. He never wanted to be in the spotlight, yet he was always there to share a story or make a comment, and in so doing has affected hundreds, if not thousands who have passed through the glider operations over the years. I think it only fitting that he be memorialized in some way.
>
> Thanks.
>
> bob2nd at aol dot com

[Mark Palmer]

I'm sorry, I just saw this thread.

I worked at the old Black Forest during Hod's years there. He was definitely a curmudgeon. He was also an excellent pilot. A few things I remember:

Hod would get bored and fly the landing pattern inverted in his ASW-15. He'd roll upright on base to final.

I would be giving wave orientations over Pike's Peak and he'd call "at your three o'clock". I'd look over and he'd be flying formation in his '15 - inverted.

When Alice and I were married in '83, he left the reception early. It was being held at my in-laws house just north of the old BFGP. About twenty minutes later we all looked up and Hod was doing an impromptu airshow over the house.

He lived in a mobile home behind the hangars. So he would usually be up and around by the time we arrived at work. He had a cat, Charles Taylor, that would walk up and down the flightline and watch the proceedings. There was even a club award for a time, the "Charles Taylor Award" for volunteer service.

Besides flying P-38s in WWII, he also flew relief transports for the U.N. into the Congo in the '60's. He flew for a major airline for awhile but you can imagine he didn't fit in very well there.

Mark

[Frank Whiteley]

On Friday, November 10, 2017 at 8:17:34 AM UTC-7, Mark Palmer wrote:
> I'm sorry, I just saw this thread.
>
> I worked at the old Black Forest during Hod's years there. He was definitely a curmudgeon. He was also an excellent pilot. A few things I remember:
>
> Hod would get bored and fly the landing pattern inverted in his ASW-15. He'd roll upright on base to final.
>
> I would be giving wave orientations over Pike's Peak and he'd call "at your three o'clock". I'd look over and he'd be flying formation in his '15 - inverted.
>
> When Alice and I were married in '83, he left the reception early. It was being held at my in-laws house just north of the old BFGP. About twenty minutes later we all looked up and Hod was doing an impromptu airshow over the house.
>
> He lived in a mobile home behind the hangars. So he would usually be up and around by the time we arrived at work. He had a cat, Charles Taylor, that would walk up and down the flightline and watch the proceedings. There was even a club award for a time, the "Charles Taylor Award" for volunteer service.
>
> Besides flying P-38s in WWII, he also flew relief transports for the U.N. into the Congo in the '60's. He flew for a major airline for awhile but you can imagine he didn't fit in very well there.
>
> Mark

The "Charles Taylor Award" is still made annually by Colorado Soaring Association.

Frank Whiteley

[[email protected]]

Nice to hear from you Mark. I'm glad you're getting back into soaring. I put about everything you said into the article, which was submitted a year ago, but no one has seen fit to publish it. We had a great send off party for Hod last year in Minden. He was certainly known far and wide!
Bob V.

[[email protected]]

Well I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner, as I worked with Hod for several years at Soar Minden. As Bumper already recounted, I was able to find his service records regarding bailing out on a training mission at the (then) Murok AAF base (now Edwards). I obviously had the date of his fire, but how do you get military records from 60 years ago? I contacted a National War College colleague, who contacted a friend at the Pentagon, who combed through records and several weeks later sent me a package of records including newspaper clippings of his bailout, and numerous military records -- more than enough to prove he had used a parachute to save his life. He wore his caterpillar pin proudly on his beret from the day it was awarded.

He flew the last decade or so with a pretty withered left arm that made it impossible for him to use the spoilers and stick simultaneously, so his passenger had to pull the spoilers when he called for them.

BTW, there might be some who don't know where the name "Hod" came from. He told me that he was originally Howard, but hated war, so removed "war" from his name. Like everything else about his history, we'll never know the truth.

Finally, someone mentioned his commercial air experience. He told me he had worked for Pan Am, but had to leave because of a navigation problem. "You got lost?" I asked. "No, I was sleeping with the navigator's wife."

[kinsell]

TV segment is still available from his 94th birthday:

http://mynews4.com/news/local/wwii-pilot-still-flying-high-at-94-years-old


On 11/05/2017 07:04 PM, wrote:
> On Friday, September 16, 2016 at 1:08:50 AM UTC-4, wrote:
>> I just received word a couple of days ago that Hod Taylor passed on August 19, one day shy of his 97th birthday. Hod was a fixture around the old Black Forest Glider Port for many years until it closed, then became a permanent resident of the operations at Minden. I would like to gather some stories and anecdotes for an article for Soaring magazine. He never wanted to be in the spotlight, yet he was always there to share a story or make a comment, and in so doing has affected hundreds, if not thousands who have passed through the glider operations over the years. I think it only fitting that he be memorialized in some way.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> bob2nd at aol dot com
>

[[email protected]]

I had the good fortune to have flown out of BFGP from late 1970 through 1978. Then again from 1982 until 1986. Of course one could not spend any time at BFGP and not run into Hod...on a very regular basis. Hod (along with Dave Johnson) was instrumental in my becoming somewhat proficient in wave flying. Hod summed up wave flying in one word, "patience."
After a day's flying Hod would imbibe which at times seemed, well, a bit excessive. During the course of a party at the club house one evening, Hod; who was in his cups, made a somewhat untoward remark to my then wife Julie who in turn dumped the contents of her wine glass, which was quite full by the way, over Hod's head. He didn't bat an eye. Just turned around and walked away.

[[email protected]]

I spent a year or so teaching wave soaring at the Black Forest Gliderport in the early 1970's. Had a few chats with Hod in that time. Sometimes he would come park his ASW 15 off your wing when you had a student and on a few occasions he would come in 'off your six' and barrel roll as he passed always giving a little start to your student. OH, that's just Hod Taylor you might say. Miss him and miss those days. Also ran Owl Creek in Fort Collins for a few months when Fred Herr another character out of soaring legend took a trip out of town. Miss them all. They are watching over us somehow

[JS[_5_]]

On Thursday, December 28, 2017 at 6:30:36 PM UTC-8, wrote:
> I spent a year or so teaching wave soaring at the Black Forest Gliderport in the early 1970's. Had a few chats with Hod in that time. Sometimes he would come park his ASW 15 off your wing when you had a student and on a few occasions he would come in 'off your six' and barrel roll as he passed always giving a little start to your student. OH, that's just Hod Taylor you might say. Miss him and miss those days. Also ran Owl Creek in Fort Collins for a few months when Fred Herr another character out of soaring legend took a trip out of town. Miss them all. They are watching over us somehow

Many threads resurface that don't need to. This one needs to hang in there.

Recently, a local girl bought Sabrina Jackintell's Astir CS "Sierra Whiskey". Jamie is really proud of the history of the glider and it's former owner..
This brought up everyone's memories of Sabrina and BFGP. Of course this would include Hod.
....Inverted low passes over Pikes Peak, etc.
In the list of soaring "characters", Hod is definitely up there.
Last saw Hod in Minden. Not as lively, but still a character.
He was on the very short list of "old and bold" pilots.
Jim