AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018 - 83

It wasn't just flying that the family
shared on the ranch. It was a love of people and entertaining. "My mother once
came home and said the Mexican opera
was coming to dinner," Bob Hoff remembered. "These buses drive up and 110
people get off to eat dinner at the ranch."
Among the many people and aircraft that visited his family's Idaho Falls
farm-from Max Conrad to UFO "expert"
Kenneth Arnold-it was his mother who
put the love for adventure in her four
children. "You never knew who was coming to dinner," Hoff said.
The ranch is Rainbow Ranch, 2,700
acres along the Idaho foothills that the
family patriarch said he would name
for the rainbows that appeared along
the ridges after a thunderstorm rolled
through. There were horses at first,
and later potatoes and wheat-crops
the railroad investigated in the 1900s to
determine what would grow best out in
the young western states.
Today it's a thriving potato farm that
son James takes care of when he's not flying one of the vintage aircraft from Aero
Mark, the FBO that son Thomas runs
at Idaho Falls Regional Airport. James'
daughter Savannah works the line at
Aero Mark, and the Hoffs are either on
the ranch or at the airport, welcoming
guests at both spots.
When Bob and his brother had their
good years on the farm, they too branched
out in aviation, establishing the FBO in
1984. "We named it after dad," Bob said of
Aero Mark. "His name needed to be there."
The thriving FBO is home to two
large hangars, one that dates back to the
1930s that the family renovated in 1984
and a massive 30,000-square-foot hangar that Hoff loves to open up to friends
and visitors, especially those with vintage
aircraft.
STAGGER OR SWAGGER

Bob Hoff has never met an airplane
he doesn't like. But the radial engine
and power of the Staggerwing makes
it his favorite. His love affair with the
Staggerwing started when he was selling
Husky aircraft for Aviat Aircraft in nearby
Afton, Wyoming. He saw a Staggerwing
take off from a dirt strip and it "seemed
like a rocket ship," he said. "I was so
impressed with its performance, I just
had to have one."

His 1939 Beechcraft D17 Staggerwing
is "repaired," he said, not restored. He's
worked on just about every piece of the
aircraft but not taken it down to "the final
bolt." Its interior is as close to authentic
as he could get it, crafted of broadcloth
and leather.
"The Staggerwing was born in the
golden days of aviation, in the 1930s.
Each has its own story," he said. "The
Staggerwing makes you a 'real' pilot.
It's a very heavy taildragger. We say the

vintage to still be flying another 76 years
from now. Amazing."
The Hoff family collection of aircraft
extends beyond the Staggerwing and the
original Cessna 120 Bob's mother flew,
bought for $2,650 in 1946. There's a
Husky, a Super Cub, a Cessna 180 and
172, and a beautifully restored 1948
Twin Beech D18S. The Twin Beech had
the distinction of starring in the movie
Northfork, filmed in 2002. James and the
family's 1943 Boeing Stearman biplane
star in the Idaho Potato Commission's
television commercial to promote Idaho
potatoes. "If you've seen the guy looking for the potato truck, you've seen my
son James," Hoff said. James serves on
the Idaho Potato Commission board and
is the pilot in the bright red and white
Stearman in the commercial, giving a
thumb's up.
THE ROUND-UP

pilot's knees are either shaking when
he's done flying or he's swaggering."
Son Thomas also is enamored of the
Staggerwing, photographing and publishing a magazine honoring the aircraft.
Staggerwing Club News is published
quarterly, and Thomas Hoff is the editor, designer, photographer, and-most
important-historian. "Staggerwings
were built in an age before planned
obsolescence," he said. "With regular
maintenance and a rebuild or restore
every few decades, we can expect
Staggerwings and other aircraft of their

Growing up on the family farm, Bob
Hoff says he was once envious of the
kids from town. "They had concrete to
ride their bikes on; all we had was dirt.
And we always had work to do. A farm
kid didn't have the freedom the city kids
seemed to," he remembered. "But now,
looking back, it was the best thing. This
land is a privilege to walk and to say it's
mine; we like to share that."
And so, combining their love of old
airplanes and sharing experiences with
others, the Hoffs started the "Round
Engine Round-Up" in 2009, inviting
like-minded aviators and owners of
vintage aircraft to their ranch and to
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2018

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