Brothers from Billings Montana to attend
their 6th National Championship Air Races during September 2012.
Mark and Dave Standish of Billings Montana will return to Reno for
their 6th year serving on the pit crew for Pilot and owner Pete
Zaccagnino of Clearwater FL for the Jet (# 24) and helped if needed on the
Sport Class (#28).
The Reno Air Racing Association (RARA) sponsors the National
Championship Air Races and Air Show at Reno Stead Airport north of Reno Nevada.
The National Championship Air Races and Air Show take place
annually during September. The races
started in 1964 and featured multiple laps and multiple high performance
aircraft on closed ovoid courses ranging from 3 miles (Biplanes, Formula 1) to
8.5 miles (Unlimited, Jet and Sport).
The first Reno air races in 1964 and 1965 were set-up by
WWII flying ace Bill Stead and was located at Sky Ranch airfield 20 miles to
the east of Stead on a 2000 foot dirt runway which today is called Spanish
Springs. When Stead AFB (named after
Bill’s brother, Croston Stead) closed in 1966, they turned it over to the
public for use and the races have been there since then.
The Unlimited class aircraft consists mainly of modified
and stock World War II fighters such as P-51 Mustangs, the F-8F Bearcats,
Hawker Seafury and many more which can reach speeds above 400 miles per hour on
a regular basis. In 2003, pilot Skip
Holm flew Terry Bland’s highly modified P-51D Mustang “Dago Red” to an all time
speed record of 507.105 during a six lap race around the 8.5 mile course. The new Sport class which is generally
homebuilt aircraft is reaching speeds of 350 mph or better. The jet class has a record of 538 mph in 2009
by Curt Brown with his L-29 and Viper jet-engine.
There are six classes of aircraft for the races
·
Biplane
o Two
sets of wings
·
Formula one
o Continental
0-200 engine
o Wing
area of 66 square feet
o Empty
weight of aircraft of 500 pounds or more
o Fixed
landing gear
o Fixed
pitch propeller
·
Sport
o Reciprocating
engine of 650 cubic inches or less
·
T-6
o Pratt
and Whitney R-1340-AN-Wasp engine
·
Jet
o No
afterburner
o Less
than 15 degrees of wing sweep
·
Unlimited
o Empty
weight of 4500 pounds or more
Mark and Dave’s passion for aviation began at a young age
in Big Timber Montana where their father Dr. V. D. Standish, a Big Timber
physician, flew a Cesena 195 and a twin Beach and several other types of
aircraft allowing them to fly with him.
Mark and Dave have 5 brothers and sisters.
Mark went on the attend A&P (Airframe & Power
Plant) school at Colorado Aero Tech in Broomfield Colorado in 1991, and then
went to work at Goodrich Aerospace working on heavy jets (L-1011, DC-10, Boeing
747’s etc) as a systems mechanic. He
worked through all areas of the aircraft and then started in quality control.
In 1999 he moved back to Billings and worked for Corporate Air for awhile. Mark now has an automotive repair shop; he
specializes in BMW and general automotive repair.
Dave graduated from Creighton University in 1982 and
Creighton University School of Medicine in 1986. He completed his internship
and residency at the Phoenix Hospital in Arizona in 1989. He joined the Fellow
of the American Academy of Pediatrics and then joined the Children's Clinic of
Billings in 1989.
So how did our brothers end up on a pit crew for the
National Championship Air Races?
Mark and Dave finished building their high performance kit aircraft
Lancair IV by Lancair in 2006. Dave had done extensive research on what
aircraft would be best and consulted Mark's expertise as an aircraft mechanic
as well . That went on for four or five
years before finally selecting the Lancair IV.
Dave had started the project in 1998.
Mark moved back to Billing in 1999 and helped finish the project. They hired Pete Zaccagnino to inspect and do
a check flight for FAA certification after doing research on who would be best
based on a forum of Lancair owners.
After he was finished, he asked Mark and Dave to crew for him at the Reno
Air Races. In talking with Pete he said
“it was Mark and Dave’s quality of work and attention to detail on the airplane
that impressed him the most”.
The races begin with entries and pilot credentials reviewed
for proper training and qualifications to race.
Reno Air Racing Association has a class earlier in the year to qualify
new pilots and pilots changing classes for the races. They cover rules and course layout and have
several practice runs to get the pilots familiar with the course with an
instructor on board. It is called Pylon
Racing Seminar and lasts for 4 days. For
more information go to the Reno Air Racing Associations website,
www.airrace.org/
The racing teams
start arriving as early as a week earlier to get their aircraft ready for the
races. Sign in and qualifying starts
Monday morning and run till Wednesday morning, then the Races start Wednesday
afternoon to Sunday afternoon ending with the Gold Unlimited featured race. During qualifying each class is given a time
slot to conduct the qualifying, during this time is controlled chaos with
aircraft qualifying, taking off, entering and departing the course, and landing
at the same time. This is very
impressive in how well it is coordinated by the RARA/FAA personnel. Typically each pilot has more than one run to
qualify. If you fly to low they will be
disqualified for that day but you can retry the next day. If you continue to fly to low, they will
disqualify you and you will not race.
Safety is #1 priority for RARA.
The pilots and aircraft are irreplaceable.
A typical day in Reno Air Races starts before day
break. There seems to be at least one
aircraft flying above the field checking any adjustments that have been
recently done. Sunrise and sunset on the
ramp are beautiful times of the day. A typical day for the pilots and pit crews starts
with a morning briefings for the pilots followed by briefings with the pit
crews with the aircraft schedules and needed last minute adjustments/repairs on
the planes. Planes are then staged,
fueled and prepared for the pilot. During
2011 they were working on an L-29 Delphin.
It did qualify and raced on Friday morning.
2011 was very special for both Mark and Dave. Mark had suffered a heart attack in June and
underwent heart surgery to have a stint inserted and was released by his doctor in time to attend
this year’s races. Mark is very thankful
and says the good Lord looked after him.
The races for 2011 came to a tragic end on Friday September
16, 2011 at about 4:29 P.M. The P-51
“Galloping Ghost” flown by Jimmy Leward suffered a mechanical failure of the
elevator trim tab leading investigators to believe this caused the plane to
pitch up violently resulting in high G’s on the pilot rendering him unconscious
which lead to the crash of the airplane in the box seat section of the
grandstands. The pilot and 9 people on
the ground were killed and 69 injured.
This was the worst disaster of the air races history. Dave Standish went an offered his services to
assist with the injured. Both Dave and
Mark were in the Sport hanger helping on the Lancair when the crash
occurred. That was approximately 200-300
yards from where the impact was. Race
officials announced that the rest of the races for the weekend were cancelled.
Prior to 2011, 19 aviators lost their lives due to collisions
and crashes during the races on the course.
2007 there were three pilots who died in separate incidents over a four
day period. The races were suspended for
one day after the third incident but continued for the finale race on Sunday.
After months of uncertainty the Reno Air Races Association
decided they needed to continue this very special event which is rich in
history and tradition. They announced in
January they would have their 49th annual National Championship Air
Races and Air Show September 13-16 2012.
Owner Pete Zaccagnino of Clearwater FL says he is returning
and his faithful pit crew members who include Mark and Dave are going to be by
his side this September in Reno, at Stead Airport North of town.
