Famed ND pilot Bob Odegaard killed during practice for Valley City air show

The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead ^ | September 7, 2012 | Staff

[nuconvert]

Thanks. I hadn’t realized that he restored a blue one.

[Raven6]

The Corsair was the first aircraft I ever really "fell in love with" so to speak. But even though I had studied the F4U-1 with its P-W R-2800 radial, I was not aware of the F1-G and F2-G Super Corsair variants made by Goodyear Aircraft with their huge four-row R-4360, 28 cyclinder, 3,250H.P. engine until I read up on these racers. The aircraft that went down was built in 1945.

It's always hard when we lose pilots of this caliber. I've lost a friend that I considered to be one of the most professional pilots around... For some reason I've had a harder time accepting his death than any others. Don't know why... I just have. Maybe I've just had a hard time believing that an AeroCommander that had just passed its annuals and its airworthiness certification just "came apart" at 27,000AGL.