Yesterday morning, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in awhile. I would attend the Reno Air Races after a hiatus of 5 years. Hard to believe, but after annual pilgrimages for the previous 30 years I was getting a bit bored seeing some of the world’s greatest pilots racing and doing aerobatic demonstrations.
But it occurred to me that perhaps within the next 10 years we wouldn’t be seeing those magnificent WW2 planes. Fifty years ago, when they had the first races, one could buy a Mustang for $10,000. Work on it a bit, clip the wings and go racing.
Now these planes are worth millions with about 100 left flying in the world.
Another interesting thing – when the races started 50 years ago Bob Hoover would fly the chase plane, “Old Yeller”, which was another P51D.
The planes have become so much faster that a T33 jet is now the chase plane.
Anyway I decided a few weeks ago to head “over the hill” to Reno.
What a day it was. Although there were no military planes there due to sequestration, the static display, courtesy of several groups dedicated to historic preservation, was the best I’d ever seen.
Saw my first live Spitfire (there were actually 2 of them – one static and one racing), a Lockheed 10 Electra – that was outfitted and painted exactly as Amelia Earhart’s plane….well, I’ll show you the pictures.
Saw a Japanese Zero. A real one, not a redone T6. There have to be only a handful of those flying. I can remember seeing some slides my grandfather made of postwar Japan, and seeing literally 100s of these Zeroes stacked up on the nose, ready to be cut up.
I want your opinion on the racing Spit – it had an unusual canopy. To me it looked like it was part Mustang, part Spitfire.
I want to show you more than the planes – I want to give you an idea of a day at Reno with the people. As someone described today on the tarmac, “Everyone here today is 12 years old”. Reno is really a celebration for aviation nuts.
So walk around the tarmac with me….
…Heading “Over The Hill”
One of the 2 flying Howard 500s on static display
…This is the first Spitfire I have seen outside of a museum or pictures. it has quite a history.
OK, I got a little carried away photographing this plane but it was beautiful – and I had never seen one up close before. The woman who maintains it said something interesting – compared to a Mustang the craftsmanship is amazing. The Mustang was “thrown together” (hey, there was a war going on!) while the Spitfire showed intricate craftsmanship.
She confirmed to me that the red bar on the door was used to open/break out in an emergency.
Quite a history, this plane…
Clay Lacy’s Lear 25 – he was doing mild aerobatics in it – rolls, loops…
These Czech L39s have become quite popular – they even race in an unlimited class…
How many of you have seen a Harpoon up close?
The Howard 500 – one of 2 flying. 2 P & W R-2800 2500 hp engines – came out just when turboprops and jets were coming but what a hot rod
A Lockheed 10 Electra – painted and equipped just like Amelia’s!
After one of the heats for the warbird unlimiteds – they pull up – gaining 1,000 feet in seconds…
This was the chase/spotter plane for the jet class – mostly L39s
Coming back around to the old Huey I got a kick out of thinking that after 5 years of wartime service in Vietnam it was now making children smile. By the way, I was talking for a moment with the mother of the little girls (one in pink, the other smiling in the pilot’s seat – anyway the little girl in pink was wearing a cast – I was laughing with the mother who was pulling a wagon to let the girl ride – but she was apparently too excited to sit in the copter to worry about injuries or discomfort – a future pilot in the making?
Have no idea what these guys were doing – but I like the colors and composition against the sky…
The Section 3 group had become a minor legend at Reno – all with their orange shirts, all sitting in…Section 3.
To me, the Pit Area was well worth the extra $30 charge. You walk around all these magnificent racers from the smallest to the biggest…Plus there are some vendor displays. That’s where we are headed.
I was walking by Strega’s Tent and they were pushing it back in – Strega has won numerous times…
While they were pushing Strega in a guy was demonstrating his aerobatic-certified F33 Bonanza – one of 25 made.
Bob Hoover’s Mustang that he used for many years. Owned by someone else now.
The Rare Bear – a famous plane up there. The first Bearcat to race
These planes have become so much faster in 50 years that the pilot flying this T33 starts the race now
Is that plane a Spitfire? Never seen one with that canopy and the fuselage seems too long.
This highly modified P51 has a Rolls Royce Griffon Engine and a counter rotating prop.
The Lexicans 
Awesome photos. Wished I coulda been there.
Just one little thing… 😉
” I was getting a bit bored seeing some of the world’s greatest pilots racing and doing aerobatic demonstrations.”
SHHHH!
You could lose your Lex card saying things like that.
LOL
Heh I was being a bit facetious 😉 But having gone there for over 30 years each year, seeing Bob Hoover perform his magic year after year – the Blues/T-Birds – I was getting used to it! All the while realizing that this event is unique in the world.
In truth this was to be one post with even more pictures – but I mistakenly did a search on the same page as what I was editing – and it was gone!
The dashboard could bring it back but not with all the features that I had – so stay tuned tomorrow to see things like an Admiral who (thanks to the help of a Lexican on the F/B Page) – served with Lex, a funny sign at a men’s urinal, and other surprises.
(how many posts could mention such 2 disparate subjects together? 😉 )
LOL, that funny sign at the Men’s Urinal, would be a pic of Jane Fonda in the urinal would it?
It’s better than that cg23sailor – every time I see it I laugh – told the guy next to me that as soon as he leaves I’ll take a picture (images of strangers taking pictures of you in the restroom probably isn’t good for the long-term health of the photographer 😉 – but he laughed and said go ahead and take it while he was there.
But I’m thinking he probably doesn’t want to be posted on the Internet so I will probably just crop the picture to show the sign 😉
Bill:
Was “Warlock” there? She is an SNJ, #42 ( a quick son of a witch ). When I was associated with her, she was owned and flown by Al Goss of Woodland, CA.
Paul
Paul – I have seen Warlock there for years but don’t remember seeing her this time – which doesn’t necessarily mean anything one way or the other. It would be nice if the official website would show all the participants but they don’t.
The Spitfire is one of the later Marks, powered by the Griffon engine, much bigger than the Merlin, hence the five blade propeller and longer fuselage. Same engine as in Precious Metal which has counter-rotating propellers. Both due to the greater power of the Griffon.
Brilliant, Bill… simply brilliant.
Bill – I am amazed at the cumulative knowledge shown by the Lexicans. The bubble canopy threw me but it seems to me the last iteration – the Mark 19.
I was so curious that I called the Reno Air Race Association this morning and while the official didn’t seem like a real plane nut he did say that it was modified.
Buck – thank you. Don’t know if I am in the brilliant category but thanks for the compliment.
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Thank you. Very nice pictures.
Many thanks for letting us feel like we were there, a unique format. I haven’t been in years, but did attend for over 20 years as a team member on Bob Love’s, John Crocker’s, and other unlimited teams. In your photos I saw many of the planes I used to see, plus several of my old team friends. From what I can see, you and I were priviiged to experience Reno during its peak years. Did you get the feeling it is now in decline? I welcome contact with others who were there with me long ago. Ron Burda
It is definitely undergoing a change Ron. I remember reading that after the accident 2 years ago many thought the Reno Air Races were finished.
Another accident killed the Cleveland Air Races , when a P51 slammed into a house in 1949, killing a mother & son.
Of course the Reno accident was far worse.
In the 20 years of my attendance, I never saw an accident – they have happened but they were/are not an annual thing. Pilots go to a school to learn track safety before they ever race.
The worst thing I saw was about 1986, when the Blue Angels in their A4s came. It was a windy day, the main runway runs at an incline and after the group took off, one of the Skyhawks took off and did his inverted routine over the runway.
Only the plane kept sinking to the point it disappeared below the horizon due to the runway’s incline. Even the Navy announcer stopped talking and I had a sickening feeling I was on the verge of seeing a fireball.
But he pulled up, of course. But had that happened I am sure that would have been an end to the races. In any event while the Blues came back in the following years, they never took off from Stead Field, but the Reno Airport. At least while they had the A4s. (They have come to Stead in their FA/18s).
I went up there after a hiatus of 5 years, because I believe we won’t be seeing these WW2 based fighters in a few years. Might be 10 years but their value, the cost of campaigning one and the limited potential return in prize money make it a numbers game.
I spoke with a woman from there familiar with the politics, and she said that they nearly didn’t come this year because of a decision of the RARA in how the prize money would be distributed.
They started Reno in 1964, when you could buy a surplus P51 for $10,000. Now they are worth a couple of million.
But then, it is amazing the Air Races ever succeeded here. Reno is a small town but against all odds has succeeded with this Air Race, the last of its kind.
I hope that they continue.
Bill, Thanks for the memories. I also remember most of what you related about your own times at Reno.
I HAVE witnessed more than several racing crashes, and they happen unexpectedly and leave a surrealistic feeling. Airplanes are supposed to fly, not end up in a ball, a blizzard of aluminum, or worse, a fireball. I’ve seen all of those closeup from Reno’s pylons where I often went to take professional photos.
Bob Love, Seafury racer #16 Lloyd Hamilton (now deceased) and I once had breakfast together in our casino/hotel. The two listed on a napkin the names of the pilots they knew who died at air shows or in races. It was a very long list. Aerobatics and racing are very dangerous.
I remember bringing a married couple to their first Reno race. As we were unloading our photographic equipment from the back of my car, I warned them that they could see something horrible. Just seconds later and quite visible to us, two T-6s had a mid-air while spread out in a line heading for their race start. We watched as two pilots died. I told them, “See. I warned you.” I also watched through a very long lens, wingwalker Gordon McCollum die on the top of Joe Hughes’ inverted Super-Stearman while trying to catch a ribbon held by his wife holding a pole on the runway. That was the only time I stopped taking photos for the rest of the day.
I flew illegally in several races in the back seat of Bob Love’s P-51, and always wondered if I was taking a greater risk than I knew. The opportunity was too tempting, however. I went. I think probability says that if Reno continues, at some point a much greater tragedy will occur than happened to Jimmy Leeward. That might ground all warbirds.
Ron Burda
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