Hod Taylor

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

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.

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."

TV segment is still available from his 94th birthday:

http://mynews4.com/news/local/wwii-p...t-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

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.

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

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