Tag Archives: Bob Hoover

UNCOMMON WISDOM – BOB HOOVER

Every pilot knows the name Bob Hoover.  He is a master at the controls of any airplane from fighter jet to a single engine prop personal bug smasher.  Bob is famous for his trick of pouring a cup of tea with one hand while putting the plane through a complete roll without spilling a drop.

Years ago piston and turbine aircraft had the same size fuel hoses and a young line boy accidentally filled Bob Hoover’s piston engine aircraft with jet fuel. The engine will run for a while but then it will die.

In Bob’s case, there was enough clean fuel in the lines to taxi out, depart and climb to about 100 feet when the jet fuel caused his engines to quit. The airport (Brown Field outside San Diego) is surrounded with mountains which are probably the worst emergency landing locations imaginable. Bob drew on his skills and landed uphill, stalling right at touchdown, and pilot and passengers emerged unhurt.

Later, Bob returned to the airport and found the extremely red-faced line boy. He looked at him and said “Tomorrow I’ll be back to fly and I’ll need fuel added to my aircraft. And when I do, I only want one person to do it. And that person is you.”

Bob knew that, of all the line men at Brown Field, only one was guaranteed to have learned the seriousness of putting the right fuel in an aircraft.  He also knew how to treat and train a young line boy.  And that’s uncommon wisdom.

IT IS TIME FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRY TO FIGHT BACK

Steve Wynn, developer, taken inside the Wynn R...

Image via Wikipedia

Corporate enterprises are favorite whipping boys for the Left.  Look how the anointed one is leading the liberal crowd in the chant — corporate jets! — corporate jets!  big fat cats in corporate jets!  Can anyone tell me why corporate jets are bad for the country?  The stockholders pay for corporate jets; not taxpayers.  Taxpayers benefit from corporate jets.  How?  Millions, yes, millions, not thousands or tens of thousands, but millions of workers are employed fully or partially in the production, operation, servicing, design and component manufacturing of corporate jets.

Obama doesn’t use a corporate jet.  He uses Air Force One which is the size of two corporate jets.  And there’s a second plane just for his wife when she and the kids go somewhere on their own.  There are no stockholders to pay for the bill.  It’s the taxpayers who pay for Obama’s jets.  And that’s precisely as it should be.  There is no reason why the President of the United States should have to risk being groped every time he wants to take a trip.  And there is no justification for denying the same benefit to industry leaders in the private sector.  While there is no justification, there is a reason.  Demagoguery wins votes.  And if it’s not demagoguery, then why is the cry always corporate jets, never celebrity jets.

One of the most popular jets in corporate use today is the Gulfstream line.  The Gulfstream Company has manufacturing and refurbishing plants in Georgia, Indiana, Texas, Minnesota and Massachusetts, and that’s not the full list to be sure.  Gulfstream and Boeing are significant players in what’s left of hard goods manufacturing in this country yet the President is fighting both of them.  Why don’t corporate leaders speak out?

One business man has.  During his quarterly business conference call, Las Vegas magnate Steve Wynn, a Democrat, laid into Barack Obama for obstructing job recovery.  Here’s what he had to say on his quarterly business conference.

And I’m saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime.  And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right.  A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution.  Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.  And it makes you slow down and not invest your money.

We need to hear from more business leaders like Wynn.  There is no question but that his sentiments are widely shared among business executives but far too many of these captains of industry are afraid to go on record with a public statement.  At one time, the major challenges in starting a new business or expanding an existing one were matters like finding capital, hiring the right employees and developing ways to deal successfully with the competition.  Now the primary challenge is the multitude of obstacles presented by a plethora of government commissions and regulatory agencies.  Crossing any one of them is at your peril.  One of the most skillful pilots ever, Bob Hoover, had his flying privileges taken a way by a bureaucrat to whom he denied a ride. 

Wynn, obviously frustrated in the extreme, later returned to his concern about the business policies of President Barack Obama and his administration.

The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don’t invest, their holding too much money.  We haven’t heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists.  Everybody’s afraid of the government and there’s no need soft peddling it, it’s the truth.  It is the truth.  And that’s true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid.

The Las Vegas entrepreneur’s support for Harry Reid is understandable.  Nevada is Reid’s state and Las Vegas is Reid’s city.  What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas… as long as Harry Reid wants it to.  Wynn’s companies owned five casino’s in the town at last count.  He wants them to stay in Vegas.  Nevertheless, we need more men like Wynn.  Where are they?