Aro Archives Reno 1977

[Shawn Aro]

an other archive form my dad one of my favriots Shawn all the best

[Leo]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

Nice!
Notice the empty desert hillside in the background that is now covered with houses...If they were trying to start the races today they could never get it going here.
Recently the Nevada Air Guard announced it's intention to use Stead and the back valley to train since it's normal practice site in Cali is closed. A couple of nights a week and some weekends doing practice drops, takeoffs and landings. They're going thru with it, but the outcry was pretty large. They had locals CRYING about the noise that would ruin their lives.
My thought was COOL! More flying over!

[gp70442]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

Hey, my first year at Reno. Daryl and the Baron pretty much walked away with it. I'll never forget that thing howling.

Also the only time I've seen a Curtis Helldiver.

Good memories
GP

[WARPT]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

They're going thru with it, but the outcry was pretty large. They had locals CRYING about the noise that would ruin their lives.
My thought was COOL! More flying over!

It never ceases to amaze me how ingnorant people can be..............
They move close to an airport and then complain about airplane noise...

Don't they know that it is airplane music?!

[John H]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

Nice!
Notice the empty desert hillside in the background that is now covered with houses...If they were trying to start the races today they could never get it going here.
Recently the Nevada Air Guard announced it's intention to use Stead and the back valley to train since it's normal practice site in Cali is closed. A couple of nights a week and some weekends doing practice drops, takeoffs and landings. They're going thru with it, but the outcry was pretty large. They had locals CRYING about the noise that would ruin their lives.
My thought was COOL! More flying over!

There was a private jet that crashed at Van Nuys a couple of days ago. Of course the news media proceeded to interview the neighbors who moved to that neighborhood on their own free will and they were complaining about the airplanes. Checking the site for the airport, Van Nuys airport has been there since December, 17, 1928 so what got there first? I would never CHOOSE to live on a busy street or next to a freeway then start complaining about it, what is wrong with these people? They are idiots.

John

[Leo]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

It's pretty typical.
We had a glider operation in Vacaville forever. When proposed development shut it down, the operators moved to another site north of town, a small airport right off the freeway. It wasn't the best site, close to the power substation and all it's towers and a little far from the preferred soaring area but it worked. The locals, upset over the increased traffic, petitioned to close it down. The portrayal of the gliders and towplanes buzzing the houses, barely clearing them on takeoff and landing (we were at 2000 feet, climbing and a half mile horizontal from the closest house) and the ruination of lives and property value was something to see! Property owners crying at the meetings. Nerves shot, unable to function due to fear for their lives. Eventually their right to operate was lost and the operation moved on (to Williams). The local area lost one of the premier soaring sites in California.
The lack of understanding by the non-flying public is not helped by the way the press manages it's stories. It's unfortunate that what "sells" is the picture of the burning wreckage.

[Stevo]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

I remember the first few days I was in the Vacaville area... I picked up a street map and saw that there was a glider port in the area, for a week I searched all over the area where it was supposed to be but could not find any hangers or a runway. It was a short time later I found out that the gliderport had closed a few years before.
Take a trip down memory lane Leo...
Vacaville Gliderport
Vaca-Dixon Airport

[Leo]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

Ahhh.
Those were the days.
Steve Seghetti (of Sparky fame) and Earl Benedict used to operate their T-6's out of Vaca-Dixon. First time I ever sat in one was there thanks to Steve.
There is still a Stearman being re-built in that hangar, I see it now and then when I drive by.
When the gliderport closed it was not pretty. A lot of fighting had gone on over the development of that valley. Went to a vote, lots of bad juju between people and unions, as it was during a building slump and a lot of jobs depended on it developing. After it passed and the glider port was closed, they plowed the site the day after they moved out. The area never developed, the person that was pushing it thru was doing it all with ninvestor's money, and he disappeared with most of it.
Strangely, the Vaca-Dixon was the site of a similiar scam in the late 70's. The architect I worked for at the time was hired to design an amusement park on the site of the old racetrack and the airport. After months of work and many excited investors the developer turned out to be a con artist (should have known with the name of Chic Arou), and was indicted, finally being caught in the fields next to the airport when he tried to run!
Had many a great time, many a great flight at that glider port!

[On Site Grafix]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

Of course all of us ancient hot rodders from So Cal can tell bunches of stories about drag strips like Orange County International Raceway and facilities like Ontario Motor Speedway and Riverside who all fell to the same fate ultimately. In fact, facilities for all types of motorsports all over the country eventually succumb to the same thing. Even Lyons Drag Strip was unnecessarily closed in the interest of progress (read that regress).

As the Vonage ads say, "People do stupid things"!!!!!

[Leo]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

ah yes. I remember when they built the first Ontario Speedway. My dad used to moonlight there as a fireman. Still have a huge roll of posters from the first couple of years.
Then they tear it down, and later build a new one just a couple miles away.
And none of this has ANYTHING to do with Shawn's great RB pic...

[Jan]

Re: Airplane Sound near airport (what a surprise!)

It's pretty typical.
(...)
The lack of understanding by the non-flying public is not helped by the way the press manages it's stories. It's unfortunate that what "sells" is the picture of the burning wreckage.

Thatīs true. We have a glider field rigt at the edge of our 1.8 Million
town Hamburg. People move into that area, because itīs nice and only
half an hour drive into towncenter. And guess what - we even get
complains about airplane noise. Iīm talking about gliders ! I heard
somebody complaining by phone, who could tell us the registration
of the plane that disturbed him. A "D-" followed by four digits. Defi-
nitely a glider. Registrations of anything with an engine here consist
of letters, not numbers. Strange people...

Anyway - we spend a lot of money to make our towplane as silent as
possible. But the biggest thing in noise reduction is, that in 90 % we
use a winch to start our gliders. 4000 ft between starting point of a
glider and position of the winch gives us usually between 1100 and
1800 ft altitude AGL. If you wanna see, what a winch like that looks like,
here is a link to a description (german but lots of pics):

http://www.hac-boberg.de/dateien/Doku_Winde_Kunststoffseil_Lepot_1_01.pdf

Very useful. Needs about one gallon U.S. of Diesel to kick 3 planes into
the orbit. Thatīs a lot cheaper, than aero-tow by plane. And a lot less
Airplane-Music for people living near by.

But: RockīnīRoll ainīt noise polution (AC/DC) and aerosounds neither !

[On Site Grafix]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

[QUOTE=
And none of this has ANYTHING to do with Shawn's great RB pic...[/QUOTE]

That's true, it's amazing how easy it is to go somewhere that was never intended (except when it would be really cool to do so).

[Leo]

Re: Aro Archives Reno 1977

I never winch or car towed, always an aero tow. Nice part of that was getting a tow to 3000' gave you lots of time in the air and on a good day you could guide him right to the wave and soar as long as you wanted.
I was always surprised at the perception that soaring was so much more dangerous, most think no engine, no fly!
I always figured no fuel, no fire, no engine, no problem. One less thing to make noise and vibration.
I still get a little pang when I drive by that valley. Most of the locals never realized what went away.