"Rare Air '07"

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

THAT, AND THEIR WINGS ARE ON UPSIDE-DOWN: The once-staple Vought Corsairs are nowadays a type conspicuously absent from the NCARs, perhaps because the youngest models were not configured so much as pursuit craft as fast-climbing interceptors -- a design useful at Reno only if you can count on declaring “may-day” for anything but an engine-related emergency.

VOODOO ERGONOMICS: What P-51s did throw down for the Unlimited Gold basically rolled over and let the Sea Furies have at it. Of the four Mustangs so inclined, one didn’t start, one didn’t finish and the other two were grounded. One of the “hangar queens” was Bob Button’s colorful “Voodoo”, looking jus’ darlin’ while sinking a root in the pits. (The a/c was previously known as “Voodoo Chile”, con carne y queso.)

[RarebearFan77]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

These are great.... Any chance of getting a hard copy of it?

[flyingjibus]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

You are very talented and have an eye for funny. Nice work.

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

You're both very kind, thanks.

I only have a couple of originals left and they were kind of "quick and dirty" in production. Anyone wanting a hard copy would be best off if I e-mailed them the Word files (which have the illustrations inserted) which they could then print on their choice of stock.

$

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

MORE PRECIOUS THAN (UNLIMITED) GOLD: When a race pilot reckons the antique value of his kite versus the risks and rewards of Unlimited-class racing, it can’t be all that surprising if the trend is toward either restorations or puttering around the course in the Bronze or Silver races -- at least until P-51s are allowed to race the T-6s. (This actually may explain why Mustangs seem to be accumulating in the slower fields.)
The rub here is over the perceived need to make stock museum-pieces of a/c that have acquired more fame as racers than they ever might have as war-wearies, with such storied names as “Stiletto”, “Critical Mass” and “White Lightning” relegated to relatively anonymous warbird displays – as if these mounts wouldn’t bring a tear to the eye of the true believer exhibited in their race-paint. For certain, in whatever museum NCAR alumni might some day be gathered, hearts would leap just as they do at Wright-Pat’ or the Smithsonian.
And where sandbagging the Silver and Bronze is concerned, airframe failure is still less likely to result from pulling a measly 2.5-G turn than from a collision, but hey, it’s your plane, mister!

[I know, "Proboscis Medal" is out of scale. Maybe it's a Thunder PM! $]

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

FULL OF SOUND AND FURY: What the T-6/SNJ class lacks in top-end speed down the home stretch, it more than makes up for in sheer, raw, bellicose engine noise. The story is that the tips of the Texan’s cute little two-bladed prop actually approach the speed of sound when at full crank, which accounts for the migraine-like throbbing associated with the aircraft’s motor-note. Quite possibly, the T-6 was the first a/c nicknamed a “Converter” by its pilots, i.e. converts avgas into noise.

[I know, I know, the canopies are wrong; they just drew better that way. $]

[race9]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

Ha, I didn't notice the turtle when I first saw these.

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

WELL, THEY ALL LEAK OIL: Whatever the reason for the preponderance of British Sea Furies at NCAR, it’s interesting to note how the most competitive among them are powered by engines of American design and manufacture, particularly the mighty 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 – called alternately the “Wasp Major” or “Corncob”.
(Then again, the P-51 was strictly a “downstairs maid” until mated with the British V-1650 “Merlin” …)

… THEN YOU TAKE A CORNCOB …: Almost as sparse as Corsairs at Reno are F8F Bearcats, which is strange since the type basically came and went between wars and suffered more from obsolescence than combat attrition. One reason for its scarcity might be the Grumman’s dearth of options for engines. Replacing the stock R-2800 with anything larger than a Curtiss R-3350 would likely require dramatic alteration of the airframe.

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

THOSE SONS O’ BENCHES!: All pilots competing in any of the heats or finals are required to attend pre-race briefings in “the Room of Hard Benches”, a vintage, corrugated-tin hut dating back to the airfield’s military origins. With graffiti-scored wooden benches and the inevitable chalkboards, there’s more than just a whiff of “Twelve o’ Clock High” to the setting.
While the briefings are ordinarily intended for revisiting rules and emergency procedures or discussing race schedules and other topical issues, they also traditionally provide the participants with opportunity to treat eachother to plenty of wisecracks, tart humor, good-natured jabs and patently absurd storytelling.

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

STAYIN’ ALOFT: Keeping a relatively low profile at NCAR is the event’s biggest name (at least for as far as the rest of the world is concerned), John Travolta. In these times of jejune celebrity dilettantes conspicuously “into” one damn thing or another, it’s refreshing to know of a star who’s always been a true believer -- that Mr. Travolta’s first pair of wings weren’t the ones he wore in “Michael”.
Because John (may I call you “John”?) has been a licensed pilot since 1977, has ratings through multi-engine jet, three or four of his own a/c and surely the means to own at least part-interest in a piston-engined fighter, the utterly pregnant question at Truckee Meadow has to be, “When is he going to race?” Now maybe, were Mr. Travolta to actually compete in the Unlimiteds, perhaps place or show in even just the Bronze or Silver, who knows? We may even come to buy him in a military role before “Saturday Night Fever” turns 50!

[Jack McFall]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

I would LOVE to have a hard copy.

Could you please email it to me ...................

airrace2@aol.com

Thanks

Jack

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

THUNDER OVER-EXPOSED: Premiering this fall at a theater near you is a feature-length motion picture billing itself as “the world’s fastest love story”, a drama set against the backdrop of the NCARs at Reno. God knows the races need the publicity, but what Show-Biz does for exposure begs comparison with what it does for respectability.
Of a piece with the usual disfigurement Hollywood visits upon its subjects, the biggest name in the cast of “Thunder Over Reno” is an “actress” whose meager résumé is three-quarters uncredited roles or Playboy videos. (This learned from the Internet Movie Database. Really.) It seems we’re supposed to buy this frail as a race pilot of Unlimited-class fighters –– for which it would not be as easy to suspend disbelief as for the FAA to suspend Bill Rheinschild for low passes.

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

I'm still refining the process, but the Word files with attachments can make it across in three or four e-mails, on request.

You can share the material within reason, just make sure credit is given.

$

[split-s]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

“HEAT” SEEKERS: In the epic poem, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", one who kills an albatross not only is thereafter cursed with bad luck but must wear the dead bird on a string around his neck. In Reno, however, it appears that "albatroses" hanging around Stead Field indicate good fortune.
The Jet class, for its first five years fielded entirely with surplus Soviet-bloc L-39 "Albatros" trainers, is for 2007 admitting any jet with wing-sweep of less than 15˚ and engine without afterburner, opening up the field to a variety of NATO trainers as well as other types of "Russian Trawlers". For whatever reason this change was made, it's good to see the class still a feature at the NCARs as the physical realities of air racing force their own checks - particularly on the jets.
Small, fast aircraft don't make for the most watchable of races from no closer than the FAA show-line, much less at the far end of the course. Racing jets at type-speeds would give us even less to see, passing the grandstands in a blur and requiring a larger course to offset the G-loading - or subjecting airframes to excessive Gs. Kind of makes the prohibition of afterburners seem redundant.

[SFAforester]

Re: "Rare Air '07"

Thanks for sharing. Those are really cool!