Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
My parents used to go to that every year – I’m sure my dad wishes he still could. My sister was probably at least 8 or 9 years old before she actually got to celebrate her birthday (Sept 17) on the right date.
Amazing how low into the weeds some of those guys will get in order to take advantage of the ground effect.
I could recongnize the Mustangs easily enough, but what was the ones with the big silver hub and long tube body? Didn’t look like a Thud, and I don’t think it was a Hellcat. Is it a Yak?
Byron,
Not exactly sure which plane you meant but if it was the silver one in the opening segment I believe it was an F8F Bearcat. The three planes primarily used are highly modified Mustangs; Bearcats and the Sea Furys.
I was rooting for Rare Bear (came in second). The winner, Strega, was piloted by 22 year old Steve Hinton. His father was a racing legend. 3,800 horses and close to 500 mph. It’s on the must see list right behind Airventure.
MY GUAWD! Some of the props!!! Looks like someone is compensating!
Just say’n…
Nothing sweeter..than the sound of a screaming Merlin…
Looks like great fun. But let’s not forget the wise words of our hunble scribe. “You can only tie the low altitude record”
Low does not get them any points. Quite the contrary: fly below the pylons and it’s automatic DQ.
It’s well worth the trip to see in person. I’ll be there next year.
Yes, there was a Yak-Czech Mate-
has a R-2800 in it-very nice package
and flew faster than ever this year-
http://www.warbirdaeropress.com/articles/CzechMate/Czech%20Mate.htm
Only thing between it and a better shot
at Reno Gold is landing gear
too short for a bigger prop.
The only modified Bearcat at Reno is Rare Bear.
they had basically a warmed over stock motor,
but will be back with a better bullet next year.
Howard Pardue had his stocker there, but it did not
race in the Gold.
The Mustangs found “something” the last 2 years,
but Dago Red wasn’t there, peferring to prepare
for an assault on Rare Bear’s 3km speed record next year.
Strega (the winner in Gold) qualified 20 mph faster than
the field. Has a new driver in a very capable young man
Steven Hinton, son of Steve Hinton, who flew an almost
peerfect line all weekend-the new guard emerges.
Sea Furies abound, all except Dreadnaught with
R-3350 Skyraider motors (Dreadnaught has a R-4360).
Unusual for this year were 2 Curtiss P-40′s who made
a nice showing -actually gave a stock Corsair a run
for it’s money.
It’s tough to make a Corsair really fast-
wings are a little too thick.
Blues had a tough time-used the 2 holer (#7)
as sub for #4 most of the weekend.
Boss had a gear door problem and had
to cancel a show one day.
Saw one of the last Fat Albert JATO demos.
If you’ve never been, and want to, GO.
Next year, with a healthy “Bear”, and Dago,
should be something else.
http://www.warbirdaeropress.com is a good resource to learn
more about the “Big Iron”, along with the
official race site: http://www.airrace.org/indexJS.php
Blue Skies,
Rich
“Saw one of the last Fat Albert JATO demos….”
I went to the Airshow at Alliance Airport in Fort Worth last weekend and saw the Blues. They did the JATO Fat Albert demo as well – quite impressive. Also was blown away by the C-17 STOL demos. I think they landed in something like 1,500 feet (couldn’t hear the PA announcer but it looked like that to me).
Question for our host (or others in the know. During separate F/A 18 solo demo the pilot did a slow flyby at very high alpha basically hanging on the engine. How slow can you do that? Looked like something around 120 knots or less. I’d never seen that and was impressed. Why you would want to do that I can’t figure out but it was impressive nonetheless.
They had a few warbirds do flybys from Cavanaugh Museum in nearby Addison. Nothing dramatic, but nice to hear a radial rumble among the jet screams for a change of pace….
They don’t even fly those at optimum slow speed AOA, it’s actually a few degrees lower to ensure perfect controllability. At sea level altitudes they have to ease power out of blower in order to stay level, too.
It’s a demonstration of slow speed maneuvering capability. All fights that don’t end at the merge get slow to one degree or another. The most maneuverable machine at higher AOA/slower speed will win if flown by a competent pilot. No aircraft flew slow better than the Hornet. At least, not until the F-22 Raptor launched to a limited opening.
Yap at the end of the fly-by he just added power and climbed away accelerating. I’ll probably will suffer hearing loss in later life as a result. But that was impressive.
One more thing-
You can make a 10 day trip out of it
if you want-The Tailhook convention the weekend before,
and the air races after-that’s my plan for next year!
See you there.
Fly low, fly fast!
I grew up in Reno and learned to fly at the Stead airport. Worked the Air Races a couple years, driving the fuel truck. I need to get back there with the family some time. Or, since it’s right in the middle of Marching Band season for the youngest son, after he gets out of High School.
I was there, I think it was 1979, when Steve Hinton crashed in the Red Baron. A good friend was an Air Guard helicopter pilot and did the Air Evac down to (then) Washoe Medical Center. My mom was a nurse and met Steve while he was in the hospital. Luckily he seems to have recovered with no problems, since he and his son are flying warbirds all over.
WOW! I just enjoyed the ride! Thanks for sharing this SUPER COOL experience.