Updates from Reno...

[shadow]

Re: Updates from Reno...

It was a great finish!

STOL now with F1 staging.

I hate to say it, it's slighlty smokier now than when we arrived. Let's hope that trend changes!

[shadow]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Unlimited #26 (Russian Thunder) just towed out to flight line. Jets started up, F1 towing to end of runway, sports lining up, T6 1v1 lined up.

Smoke encroachment appears stalled.

[shadow]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Formula 1 gold fraed naught (sp?), which was on the pole slowed WAY down but stayed on race course. At end of race looks like it maydayed because it stayed low and landed on 14.

Unlimiteds taking off now.

It's so good to have racing!!

[wadeh]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Unlimited heat 1B just finished, with Shanti Irish winning.

[V1670]

Re: Updates from Reno...

WAY TO GO Dusty!!

[ZacYates]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Yahoo, go Dusty!!

I did get the chance to talk to Scotty for about a half hour and got tons of great info.

Thank you for that post, it was a great insight and wonderful to see the support Scotty has.

[Matt58]

Re: Updates from Reno...

The smoke rolled in pretty good this afternoon and shut down all racing. The air show acts went on without a hitch. Around 6pm, it cleared up real nice and left me optimistic for tomorrow. Around 8pm, the smoke rolled back in, really thick and as I type this, it?s still pretty bad. Hopefully Mother Nature works with us and give us decent race conditions. Fingers crossed!

[Race5]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Formula 1 gold fraed naught (sp?), which was on the pole slowed WAY down but stayed on race course. At end of race looks like it maydayed because it stayed low and landed on 14.

Dropped a valve. They swapped the cylinder and have it up and running already.

[wadeh]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Here is my update for today. I'm posting later than usual because we went down into Reno for the seafood buffet at the Atlantis.

The day started out looking much better than the last few days. I was optimistic that we might get a full day of racing in.

It started out on a little bit of a down note, though. As we were going to our bleacher seats, we noticed that we had some collapsing chairs stolen. I've usually got a group of about a dozen people with me. Some of them simply can't be out exposed in the bleachers for the day, so we bring some of the cheap collapsing chairs (like you get at Target for $10) and set them up under the grandstand. At the end of each day, we put them back in their bags and stack them under the bleachers. We've been doing this for at least 20 years, without problems. This year, only two of us made it out, so we just had two of the chairs out there. We packed them up last night, like we always do, and they were gone this morning. We also set up some bleacher seats at the beginning of the week, and use them each day. The folks sitting in front of us yesterday had two of the same kind of bleacher seats that we do. They'd gone out for a walk mid-day, and returned to find one missing. They were able to get it back, though. They found that someone had taken it up about a dozen rows and was sitting on it. I simply can't grasp the mindset that would make someone think that it's ok to just grab someone else's property and use if for themselves. I'm not sure how I would have reacted had it been one of our chairs in that situation...

Anyway, we reported the loss to the county sheriff's trailer. I was not concerned about the value of the chairs, and I really don't care that we lost them. They were due to be replaced, anyway. Besides that, we left them out in the open. The concern that we relayed to the sheriff's folks is that we've not worried about this, and hadn't had any problems for so long. Further, there are normally volunteers (usually scouts) checking tickets in the reserved seating. They're not doing that this year, and the reserved grandstands are just open for anyone to go in. I suspect that there is lots more foot traffic under the bleachers than usual, and that may be a factor. I was a bit concerned about wasting their time with such a trivial issue, but they were very receptive and chatted with us for a while and thanked us for letting them know (and it seemed like a genuine thanks, not just a polite dismissal).

From a racing standpoint, the day got off to a pretty good start. We had the STOL drags, the great biplane race with the photo finish, a couple of F1 races, and unlimited heat 1B (won by Shanti Irish, for which we stood and applauded as he crossed the line). We also had the opening ceremonies. It was armed forces day, so they swore in a set of new recruits.
After that, the smoke closed in and we were pretty much done with racing, although the civilian airshow performers, the F-22 and F-18 demos, and the Heritage and Legacy flights happened.

So it turned out to be a great day in the pits, instead.

We chatted at length again with the One Moment folks. They have been quite hospitable and open with information, and when we were done, they sent us off with a bunch of swag (so I now know what shirt I'm wearing on Sunday). One of the pieces of information is that they had the big turbos repaired and they are now back on the airplane. At the time we spoke with them, it was early enough in the day that they still thought that they might get to race. They'd run the engine since re-installing the big turbos, but the heat race would have been the test flight. Since racing was cancelled, they are hoping to be able to get an actual test flight before they race. We did learn some of the visibility rules that we didn't know. The classes that fly on the smaller courses require 3 miles of visibility, and the classes on the big course require 6 miles of visibility. Honestly, I thought that we had 3 miles most of the day, so I'm not sure why we didn't see some more racing of the smaller classes.

We stopped by the Shanty Irish folks to congratulate them on their heat victory. They remembered us from earlier in the week and we had a nice chat for a while.

One of the morning races was F1 heat 3A. This race was interesting. Limitless started out on the pole, but was overtaken in the first lap by Fraed Naught. A bit later, Limitless re-took the lead. I thought that we might get some good lead changes, but Fraed Naught kept falling farther and farther behind. It became apparent pretty quickly that he was way, way off his normal racing speed. We speculated that he might be dealing with a mechanical problem. Sure enough, as soon as he crossed the start/finish line, he called a mayday. Afterward, we went down to the F1 pits. As we were getting there, they were just starting to tear the engine down, so we hung around for a while. The problem turned out to be a stuck valve. We waited and watched as they removed the cylinder and the valves. After they got the stuck valve out, they played with it for a few minutes and then moved to the back of their pit area, where we couldn't really get a good look. I am assuming that they probably got it taken care of. I do know that they have a spare engine, so if worst came to worst, they could probably make that change. Shortly after they had pulled the cylinder, a crowd started to form around their pit. The airplane was in tail-first, and they were working at the engine which was just inside the rope, facing the crowd. Folks kept getting closer and closer. At one point, someone reached in where they were working, which was seriously uncool. Even after they sent that person away, another guy just kept leaning in. Although he didn't touch anything, he was just inches away from where they were working, until one of the crew very bluntly told the guy off. As above, I just don't understand some people. The crews probably see hundreds of people during race week, and we are all strangers to them. It's probably hard enough that they are working with an audience. The last thing that they need is our "help".

I suspect that the pilot of Fraed Naught delayed calling the mayday so that he could finish the race and not be bumped out of the gold heat for Saturday. Along those same lines, we learned of an interesting situation in the sport pits. Race 24 had a mayday that took them out of qualifying, so they are still unqualified. I would think that they would have to start in a slower group and win their way back into the gold. But we heard at the One Moment pit, that they are going to start Race 24 in the first gold heat in the last position. The thing that makes this interesting, is that the One Moment folks ran a slow setup so that they could get qualified and start in the gold heat - but Race 24 is getting to start in the gold heat without a qualifying time. In a way, that makes sense, since they'd be 100mph faster than anyone else in silver. But I wonder if One Moment might have benefitted from starting to work on their plane sooner, rather than keep the slower setup for qualifying.

We also spent a fair amount of time chatting in the STOL pits. A number of folks in that class are from the Pacific Northwest. We talked a bit out-of-the way airstrips, and about a few air museums up there. They hadn't heard that there is a small museum at the Skagit airport (where the P51 Valhalla is based). And they told us about a really cool-sounding museum in Hood River. So we're now thinking about a road trip down there some time to see it.

Hopefully, we'll get a change in the weather pattern that take out some of the smoke. My forecast is showing wind for tomorrow, and cool and cloudy on Sunday, with a chance of rain. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the wind will help clear the air, but not be so much that they end up cancelling more races.

[GRNDP51]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Great update as usual wadeh, even being out on the field it?s nice to hear different details that I didn?t get to hear firsthand (lots of people to see, lots of things to do )

On the Race 24 situation, this is interesting. It does make sense to start the plane in back of gold since it?s proven to be a gold plane. I doubt they would do this with a brand new racer that ?can theoretically do 400mph?. Needs to be some proof to back this up.

Relating this to Andy, Andy starts in 2nd either tomorrow or Sunday no matter what. If we don?t race tomorrow and end up racing on Sunday, Jim will have to start all the way in back for the Sport Gold race. Really hoping that isn?t the case and Jim?s up near the front for our Sunday race, but that?s one thing Andy doesn?t have to worry about is Mother Nature ruining his chances of being near the front in Sunday. Fate worked in his favor here with time to get the plane dialed with the new turbos and a nice flight test this evening (sounded amazing), without having to go back on the course with the old setup.

Fingers crossed we can get some racing in tomorrow, we really need Sport Race 28 to bump to gold, that could make for a very VERY fun gold race!

[RAD2LTR]

Re: Updates from Reno...

So, the view from the pylons through the lens was....

I didn't get a west pylon morning pass, so I shot from the ramp. We did a quick shoot with IF1 "Quad Nickel" that might actually look okay. From there a bunch of us went down to the Jumbotron in a neutral area to shoot the STOL drags. Those were cool, I think I've got some interesting pics there. The bus for the afternoon races were supposed to go out at 1130 or so, so I headed back and got on the bus. We missed the IF1 gold race, but I did see Fraid Knot sitting on the runway after the mayday.

The Unlimited race was great. Dusty flew a nice line and got the win. He started from the outside and was in second by pylon 4 hunting for Steve Couches in Bardahl. Slowly Dusty reeled him in, and got the pass on the back side of the course (I think, things are all blending together at this point.) After he was out front he opened a gap and held it for the rest of the race. Average speed 330.0. Not the fastest the plane has gone, but the fastest its gone on this course. The radiator exit door wasn't totally closed so he might have a little more speed if he can get it closed all the way. He's now sitting 5th in the Gold, right behind Blondie/Sparky. The plane sounded fantastic. Apparently he was pretty well wide open so I'm not sure if the plane has any more speed to be found.

From there I got to sit in the sagebrush for the rest of the day. At one point we were told by race control that we could have a Jet, T6, Sport or Unlimited race next up. They weren't sure which... we got... nothing. We eventually got back on the bus and came in. We did get a decent sunset with lots of ramp action after the races were done.

I'm not going to get any pics done tonight, have a 0500 ramp shoot in the morning. I'm beat and need to get to sleep.

Will

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Will, all you guys, you're doing a great job filling in the details! I don't envy you sitting out there not knowing from minute to minute what is going on. Personally, sitting out in the desert between action is my absolute least favorite aspect of covering the r aces. Some guys do pretty well just shooting the chit with other photogs... I just get bored stiff and really fidgety...

Ahem, hats off to you guys!!!!!!!! Nice work all!

[Plane Nuts]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Great updates Will and wadeh. To expand on wadeh comments on rude people here at Stead, there is no smoking here. Rushin' Thunder's fuel tanks were full and as it warmed up the gas expanded and was venting. The crew could smell cigarette smoke but didn't see who was smoking. In the box seats someone was smoking and security told them to stop, security was told to f off. Fortunately, there are a lot of nice people here. Hoping the smoke clears so we can see some racing.

[shadow]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Heard on race frequency Bipe29 (raffle biplane?) report smoke conditions "good for fast movers". Hopefully I heard that right!

T6 going up now. Sport gold on the flightline. Unlimited gold are filling in on the flightline.

[Matt58]

Re: Updates from Reno...

Unlimited just took off. It has cleared up real nice for racing today. It was pretty thick this morning but a breeze/wind from the southwest moved out a majority of the smoke. Hopefully it doesn?t roll back in this afternoon.

Should be a great day!