A Wingman quiz

[wingman]

That air to air stuff has been fun, and inspired a quiz:

Other than being pretty T-6s and SNJs what do these aircraft have in common.

Brad and Shawn excluded for now...

[Big_Jim]

Re: A Wingman quiz

That air to air stuff has been fun, and inspired a quiz:

Other than being pretty T-6s and SNJs what do these aircraft have in common.

Brad and Shawn excluded for now...

I feel so unfairly singled out...... :-)

[wingman]

Re: A Wingman quiz

You are an inviting target, that's all.

I find it interesting that there seems to be no interest in this quiz -- how're people going to have a functioning Air Racing website if nobody gives a sh*t? The vast majority of useful and interesting input into the board lately has been me, Will, and a few photographers that come up to show some stuff and then disappear. We have a thread going with Tsunami and the Texas Air Races -- all the recent input has been me -- are these not worthy topics for conversation and questions? Do we know all about Tsunami that we need to know?? The A to A thread has been almost entirely me, Birgitta, and Sledge. No interest?

We have lately had interesting visitors -- Nemesis obviously, Smee again, who was a major contributor to Dan Martin's efforts, Steve Hill -- master of Carbon Fibre, propeller builder who changed Air Race history, and crew chief of the fastest Sport racer in history, as well as "young Thomas", Air boss, GRNDP, and others. Where's the interest? Why should these folks stick around if nobody cares enough to put something up on the board?

When Wayne was joking about making this place more like Faceplant it got all sorts of discussion and ideas. Wayne admitted it was a joke and everybody just went away. It would be interesting to see how many contributors to that thread have contributed any content or discussion since.

I'm a very periodic poster -- if I get into other things what happens here?

If people don't pay some attention to this place it will obviously go away...

Neal

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: A Wingman quiz

You are an inviting target, that's all.

I find it interesting that there seems to be no interest in this quiz -- how're people going to have a functioning Air Racing website if nobody gives a sh*t?

Ahh... I resemble that rant! Was exactly my point a while back when I was about to throw in the towel.

*Since* that time, I've clicked on some of the old links on the actual website... It's really no wonder there's not more content here on the board, myself (mostly) and others managed to produce quite a bit of content throughout the off season and it probably stimulated interest here on the board..

Annndd the big ol elephant in the room is Facebook.

There's no way I'm smart enough or have a big enough budget to try to compete.. or.. I can just accept that things wax and wane here (I've always hated that term) At least, it's not hard to keep up with the threads posted! I can't keep track of things at FB

I am seeing some old timers who have been absent coming back here a bit... really good to see Tim stop by and share his excellent images.

I really do appreciate your contributions Neal, you are, after all, the resident photo guru!

Lack of interest in things you feel are going to be greeted with enthusiasm can be frustrating! I was really proud of being a part of Jan Tegler's Flight Journal article and was very disappointed at the lack of response and that's when I had my give a s h i t rant.

Lots of folks are reading what you're posting Neal, just not responding...

[wingman]

Re: A Wingman quiz

But I have a LOT else going on in my life, and I soon need to get back into my nature and Death Valley material, as well as increasing health issues and old age, winter, etc. I'm certainly not going to be around here much at some point. What happens then?

About 50 people viewed this page before Brad came in. Presumably that 50 viewers included some bots and such so the actual number of people views may be much less. Is this a solid picture of the number of people visiting the forum? Is that a "Critical Mass" enough to support something that costs as much in time and labor as AAFO?

Neal

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: A Wingman quiz

Neal, I've been asking myself these exact questions for quite a while! Currently, the site is self-financed for the balance of the one year contract.. I think we have enough in the kitty for another year.. it is not much work on my end if I truly don't try to build traffic too much..

Sometimes when I do (attempt to generate interest) I create misunderstandings of my methods and motives and it sort of kicks the $hit out of my motivation as well...

*sigh*

I've been encouraged by many to keep the thing open.. I do plan to.

I have a HUGE archive of unpublished, pretty much unreviewed by me "stuff" that now that I have a house with room, I intend to dig out a lot of my stuff and post it here, somehow..

I'd like to think that at some point, I'll remember how to edit these damn web pages!

Anyway, I hope you stick around Neal...

by edit: Give it time Neal, the 2021 photo thread has Views: 11,477 visits in about a month's time... At least Big_Jim is hanging around again...

[knot4u]

Re: A Wingman quiz

I visited this thread before Big Jim posted and I had two answers to your quiz that were basically uneducated guesses. Either they?re all SNJ?s and not T-6?s or that?s an old picture and eventually they all went on to win a Sunday race at Reno (I didn't answer because both are guesses with absolutely no knowledge of the T-6 class history). I visit this site on an almost daily basis even though I haven?t been to a race in over twenty years. I read a thread here that I think had a post about trying to modernize the initial interface. Whoever it was that wrote it said that it looks like a site that hasn?t been updated in a long time, and he?s right. This site needs a facelift not an overhaul, there?s a lot of written and photographic history here, it just seems like it needs to be better organized. Wayne, I hope you understand I mean no offense, I don?t use facehugs so this is where I get my air racing itch scratched.

[knot4u]

Re: A Wingman quiz

Do all of my apostrophe's appear as question marks for anyone else? I've noticed it in other peoples posts and I'm wondering if it's an issue on my end. Thanks.

[RAD2LTR]

Re: A Wingman quiz

You are an inviting target, that's all.

I find it interesting that there seems to be no interest in this quiz -- how're people going to have a functioning Air Racing website if nobody gives a sh*t? The vast majority of useful and interesting input into the board lately has been me, Will, and a few photographers that come up to show some stuff and then disappear. We have a thread going with Tsunami and the Texas Air Races -- all the recent input has been me -- are these not worthy topics for conversation and questions? Do we know all about Tsunami that we need to know?? The A to A thread has been almost entirely me, Birgitta, and Sledge. No interest?

We have lately had interesting visitors -- Nemesis obviously, Smee again, who was a major contributor to Dan Martin's efforts, Steve Hill -- master of Carbon Fibre, propeller builder who changed Air Race history, and crew chief of the fastest Sport racer in history, as well as "young Thomas", Air boss, GRNDP, and others. Where's the interest? Why should these folks stick around if nobody cares enough to put something up on the board?

When Wayne was joking about making this place more like Faceplant it got all sorts of discussion and ideas. Wayne admitted it was a joke and everybody just went away. It would be interesting to see how many contributors to that thread have contributed any content or discussion since.

I'm a very periodic poster -- if I get into other things what happens here?

If people don't pay some attention to this place it will obviously go away...

Neal

Neal, Sometimes those of us who are on the board don't actually know the answer to the quiz. I for one don't have a clue as to what all the T6s have in common aside from the fact that they were all at Minter field in '93, all appear to have someone in the back seat. I was about to sit down and try to figure out what they all have in common. I know that Warlock was based at Minter field, perhaps all the others were at some point as well. I know Warlock and Big Red have both won Reno (I think), not sure about the others.

I'm always excited to learn new stuff here. Be it Tsunami history, or any other racers history. Some of us weren't old enough to remember, or grasp some of the important things that have come and gone, others weren't even around. When I see your Wingman quizzes, I almost always try and find the answer, but usually someone who was there answers before I find the answer. I don't think its a matter of no one caring. Its more a matter of either not knowing the answer, or feeling like they don't know enough to answer or add anything productive to the thread. Heck, I'm usually one of those people who can't add anything productive to a thread because I wasn't there and the material being discussed is all new info to me. Lets be real, most of us have never had the opportunity to work on a Merlin, Allison, R2800, 3350 or 4360. Or a twin turbo IO540 for that matter. I'm bummed that we don't get more people talking technical stuff. Its awesome when Thomas Lockwood starts talking about mods done on the Sport class racers. The aero stuff is fascinating. I really hope whoever is doing the Shockwave project checks in and talks about the technology and thoughts behind what is being done. With Tsunami, that is just an assembly of a thought out and tested aircraft. Perhaps when flight testing starts they will be more active. I've asked Elliot Seguin to come back and post any of his stuff here, be it air racing related or not as its pretty interesting seeing and hearing his thoughts on what he is doing, why and why it was a right or wrong idea. He had totally forgotten about the site. (He hasn't been in to post anything so that is too bad. He said he would be happy to, not sure what the deal is. ) Perhaps we need to start a separate thread on ways to improve user involvement.

It has been very cool to see some long time users of the forum reappear. I encourage those people with knowledge to step forward and share it, they might not get a million people commenting or posting, but who knows. A random thread could turn into an epic one if the right people feel like responding, and feel welcomed to do so.

Okay, I need to go figure out what these T6s have in common...

Will

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: A Wingman quiz

This site needs a facelift not an overhaul, there?s a lot of written and photographic history here, it just seems like it needs to be better organized. Wayne, I hope you understand I mean no offense, I don?t use facehugs so this is where I get my air racing itch scratched.

First, yes, your ' is appearing as a ?.

As I've said a few times, I'm aware we need to update, unfortunately, I've managed to have a health issue that is messed with my memory and I've forgotten how to edit/create web pages. Fortunately, I've managed, just enough to keep the site alive and rescue it when we had a server melt down last winter.. I've tried several times now to just get a damn secure certificate uploaded to the server so I can get that stupid not secure message to go away... every time, the level of concentration needed overwhelms the memory cells and I give up.

I'm always happy, not offended to accept suggestions for the site.. I created it after all LOL.. so it pains me to see it in such need.

I'm 70 now, probably have 10-15 really good years (if I'm lucky) followed by however many years I can last past 80.. no man in my family has lived past 85 several generations back...

This site is important to me, after almost 25 years running it (opened aafo in 1997) it's part of my identity. It is just not as important as it was when I was perpetually 55 years old for about a decade or so LOL!

[Shawn Aro]

Re: A Wingman quiz

i don"t understand why named me i am hardley on here anymore

[RAD2LTR]

Re: A Wingman quiz

i don"t understand why named me i am hardley on here anymore

Because you likely know the answer.

[wingman]

Re: A Wingman quiz

You do know the answer, don't you, Shawn?

And, for what it's worth I miss you here...

Neal

[Shawn Aro]

Re: A Wingman quiz

no I don"t

[wingman]

Re: A Wingman quiz

The answer is really simple, actually. What I was going for is that all these airplanes have won Reno Gold. Big Red won 45 years ago, flown by Mac McClain. Race 18 won in about 1983. The others all battled mightily through the mid 80s and into the nineties. Race 27, with Fast Eddie won several Golds, with Papa Goss in 2nd or 3rd. Finally Al got one too.

I just thought it was remarkable that a whole formation (with nothing at all to do with Reno) was entirely Gold winning aircraft.

It was a great ride and great photo opportunity. My thanks all these years later to Ron Hevle, who arranged for my seat in that formation.

Neal