Stars,stars and more stars

Wow, just got back from an awe inspiring experience up on top of Beartooth Pass just outside out of Red Lodge Montana shooting stars and the Milky Way with a sunset experience.  It is a humbling experience to see how insignificant we are in the scope of things.  Enjoy.

Beartooth Mountains sunset

Part of the Milky way with a couple satellites.

Twilight Lake in the Beartooths

Milky Way with a little color.

Well here it is the 7th of August and the Reno Championship Air Races are going to be here before we know it,  They say it will be there 55th year.  Wow thats pretty impressive considering 9/11 and the terrible crash of the Galloping Ghost which we lost several spectators.  The races are evolving each year trying to find that magic formula to both draw spectators and racers.  The big problem now it the cost to come and race these incredible planes.  I have heard that Voodoo is now residing in the Planes of Fame museum in Chino Ca.  Strega is trying to find sponsors but as of late they are not planning on attending this year.  Steve Hinton Jr has retired from racing.  So what does that mean for the unlimited racers this year?  Well it opens it up for the field and maybe bring more people to enter their planes.  The other classes are exciting as well.  If you love aerobatics you will not be disappointed because they always have the best.  They will also have the Patriots Jet team who also put on a great show.  If you haven't yet, get your hotel room because they go fast and get more expensive the longer you wait.  Here are some shots of the different classes that race.  A good web site to get up to date information is  air race.org.

Unlimited

BiPlanes

Sport

T-6's

Formula 1

Jet

Boys does time fly by.  I am changing a few things up.  I am going to post more the just aviation.  I plan on sharing several topics and hope you will enjoy the change.  Such as landscape and wildlife.

National Championship Air Races 2016 Reno

Hey fans, it's getting close and all the racing teams are working long hours to get their planes ready for Reno.  Voodoo did some telemetry tests with a prop borrowed from Strega.  Strega seems to be a mystery as we don't really know if it will race this year or not.  I haven't seen any entries yet but am looking forward to a large field.  The teams are quiet as they strategize their action plans starting with qualifying.  The question is always how hard do you run.  Do you use a qual engine and run hard and change out to a race engine for the actual races?   How important is it to qual first second or third?  Old school is you want to be on the inside pole position.  You also don't want to race till Friday to save wear and tear on the plane. Some teams bring planes in on trailers, some fly in.  41 days till the races, wow has time flown.  Here are some shots of past races of all the different divisions.  Formula one, Byplanes, T-6's, Sport, Jet, and Unlimited.  So get reservations and tickets and come see the action.

Formula One

Biplane

T-6s

Sport

Jet

Unlimited

National Championship Air Races Reno 2016

Well Air racing fans, the Reno National Championship Air Races are ramping up.  They have just completed the Pylon Racing School (PRS) for 2016 June 15-18 at Stead Airport.  They had a record attendance of 79 airplanes and 130 participants in all 6 racing categories.  We will be seeing the return of John and Sue Paul’s P-51B Boise Bee and one of their P-40’s (probably “Sneak Attack”).  A lot of vying for seats of planes and back ups.

Some notable planes coming are P-51s, Seafury’s, P-40’s, F7F-Tigercats, Yaks, Bearcats, F-4U Corsairs and the field is growing.  

P-51d super modified Voodoo was doing some telemetry tests during PRS using a prop borrowed from Strega.  

With this many PRS attendees, the slots are going to be filled again which means harder and faster racing from day 1.  So be sure to get your tickets and come out and watch the best air racing in the world September 14-18.  Also remember the Air Races are also a world class air show featuring the Navy's Blue Angel Demonstration team.

National Championship Air Races 2016

Well race fans 2016 Reno Air Races is coming fast.  Time to think about plane tickets, hotels and tickets.  This year is beginning to be races you really want to see.  Also on tap is the world renowned Navy Blue Angles who always give a great demonstration.  Also the races showed a profit which I am sure will be spent to make your experience even better.  I have been told we may have more unlimited racers this year.  If we can fill the slots, wow what a year for the races. 

We won’t have Mike Mangold in the Jet class, he was killed in a plane crash in December 2015 while flying an L-39 in Apple Valley California.

 

Also we won’t be seeing a crowd favorite Precious Metal, an XR-51 which basically has the griffin motor with contra rotating props.  It experienced a fuel leak and caught fire prior to take off, the pilot Thom Richard got out safely.  It was extremely lucky it happened on the ramp rather than in the air but sadly it will take time and money to rebuild, Thom Richard will be flying in the Formula 1 class.

NBC Sports will air some footage taken during the 2015 races on March 27^th at noon, Pacific Time

All in all this year is going to be a great one so come and play in Reno.