Photo Gallery Below
The Reno
National Championship Air Races opened
the first day of practice today to windy
and cloudy conditions. Normally not windy
until later in the day, the early flight
sessions of the IF1 and Biplane divisions
were forced to cope with the higher than
usual winds.
An
incident marred the IF1 session when one
racer overran the runway on landing
causing damage to the airplane and,
reportedly, a broken ankle for the pilot.
(We will get the name of the pilot and
update this story tomorrow)
Later in
the day, an incident occurred during the
T-6 practice session that reportedly has
the winner for the annual "Dirty
Dagger Award" already chosen. We
will leave the description of the event
and the name of the pilot out of this
report, for now..
Several
Unlimited airplanes took the course
today, including two returning crowd
favorites, Howard Pardu in his Bearcat
and the Sanders Brothers Dreadnought.
Both airplanes will be a welcome sight to
the many fans who will pour into this
airport over the next several days.
Rare Bear
Air Racing Team had a problem on startup
for their afternoon practice run, a
t-fitting in the fuel supply caused a
leak. Quickly fixed, John Penny fired up
again and lifted off, only to have the
crew see that the tailwheel doors had not
completely closed. This forced John to
stay high while they sorted out the
cause, he did not enter the course for
practice. The source of the problem was
found to be an adjustment nut that had
been overtightend during the tech
inspection yesterday. The crew found and
fixed the problem quickly. John took the
airplane up again after the practice
session with no reported squawks.
Skip Holm
took the course with Dago Red, the
airplane looked and sounded great but
Skip appeared to only be putting hours on
the new engine, rather than flexing any
"Mouse Merlin" muscle.
Furias is
looking very good this year, very clean
after two runs today, one by Bud Granlee,
who finished his pilot qualifications as
reserve pilot for the airplane. Followed
by Gary Hubler who got in a few practice
laps in his new "ride" for
Reno. Keep an eye on this team. The
airplane simply looks much better than
ever, is running very clean and sounding,
well… just more aggressive!
Dreadnought
is back! Looking good, sounding good and
one fast pass just before landing has
this airplane firmly on the watch list
for qualifications, which begin on
Monday, September, 8.
Miss
America is on the field, with an
unfinished paint job. Time ran out for
this race team and a decision between
installing the new "Ricky
Motor" and finishing the paint had
to be made. The new engine is in,
reportedly with 15 hours on the tach. The
airplane did not fly today in the
practice session.
For
further enjoyment, we offer the selection
of images seen below, click on the small
images to enlarge them.
| Reno
Air Races Sunday Practice
Session Photos |
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