Warbird Information Exchange

The CAF's SoCal wing had a static presence this year - no demo flights as in the past:







Some other shots from the Unlimited pits. Czech Mate was a solid second place all week - never threatened Voodoo and not in any risk of being passed by Dreadnought.



AFAIK, Voodoo led every lap of every Gold race. Don't tell a certain Spitfire pilot about the Trump/Pence sticker



The mortal remains of Precious Metal were present for fundraising purposes. I was told by someone in their crew that it was going directly to the shop for teardown and assessment of cost to rebuild:



Looked much cleaner than when I saw her last in Kissimmee in January:







Finally (for this post), Brant Seghetti had a new mount this year, I believe. If not, it seemed to be a much slower ship than the one Steveo won Silver in the first time he raced.

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Chris

Brian's "Sparky" is the same aircraft with a new paint job. They no longer have the Jelly Belly sponsorship, and were getting tired of hearing the plane called "Jelly Belly" instead of "Sparky"......


Were you there Sunday for the takeoff incident in IF 1?

Thanks for the detailed shots of Precious Metal. Sparky does look a lot better without the stickers...

Other than the Yak, nobody was running hard in the Silver. The POF Mustangs were just flying airshow formation -- looks good in photos and to promote the Races. Not much point in risking a six figure motor for four figure prize money.

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

We were there, but never heard anything about it until my wife saw it on FB back at the hotel - very scary but yet another example of what a class act Thom is (IMO). Apparently the race went on and they cleaned up the runway pretty quickly and quietly.

We did see the Sport class plane burning furiously out in the infield - took 3 crash trucks worth of foam to get it out! She was very talented and fortunate to get out unscathed. I heard at the hotel that she hit the nitrous switch and the intake manifold blew off.

I did notice this out in the sagebrush



Looks like the remains of an F9F, but I don't remember seeing it in previous years. Poor image, as it was full telephoto and then cropped besides.

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Chris

Understood - kudos to POF for bringing some planes to round out silver. Cheers also to the POF pilots and to the Sanders clan - the only passing that went on in Unlimiteds at all was Wee Willy/Mrs. Virginia and Argonaut/924. I wonder if it will ever be like our first year; they had a medallion class because Bronze, Silver & Gold were all full.

I suppose the Yak declined to bump into the Sunday Gold race for the same reason?

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Chris

It was kind of funny...those of us out at Pylon 8 were bused to the middle of the race course during the Blue Angels performances. That first day I think there were more of us taking pictures of that derelict Cougar than were watching the Blues perform. And yes, it's a Cougar...the wings are sitting behind it in the bushes. The canopy is laying in the dirt next to it too. I have a dozen photos of it or so. It's pretty well beat-up.

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+1

Did I see 2 bi-planes ground loop when landing on Sunday ?

I do have some pics.

Thanks,
Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.

Yip From a post at AAFO.com called "2016's 8 Injured Aircraft":
"Sunday: Jeff Rose and Eric Zine post Biplane Gold
" -I saw this situation play out. It seemed like Zine was really anxious to get on the ground after barely holding off Kirk Murphy. He gunned it towards the sky and turned it around very quick to land on runway 8. He got it down safely and kept taxiing to get off at the exit near home pylon. Rose came in very hot and couldn't get the plane on the ground let alone slowed down before coming into contact with Zine. I've seen various times that the biplanes have rolled past each other as the runway is wide enough, but Rose clipped Zine's left wing and sent him in a very rapid 360. Zine spun 180 and rolled backwards until the tail snapped and the plane halted to a stop. Rose got out pretty quick and Zine took a little while, but it appears that he is fine."

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Zac in NZ
#avgeek, modelbuilder, photographer, writer. Callsign: "HANDBAG".
https://linktr.ee/zacyates

"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." - kalamazookid, 20/08/2013
"The more time you spend around warbirds the sooner you learn nothing, is simple." - JohnB, 24/02/22

ok, thanks for the info.

Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.

Last post for me on this topic - here's the 4 Sea Furies with 4 different motors from Sunday Gold takeoff:









Steve Hinton in the T-33 pace plane couldn't get the canopy down when he lined up to take off, which could have been a big deal as all of the racers are sitting there idling. He taxied back in the direction of the jet pits while the racers took off and formed up on Stevo. Section 3 was abuzz - "these guys are going to self-police???" I guess they found a solution, because he got it closed pretty quick and took off in plenty of time to form up.

And some other non-race events:

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Chris

I'm getting closer to finishing up my first memory card...

Will

whats the story on the F9F?

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Keep 'em coming, Will. The Voodoo spinner shot must be a self portrait, but I can't see an obvious cameraman in the reflection.

Regarding Rare Bear & 232, my understanding is that neither has run since their most recent maydays, but that the team hopes to at least have a new motor (that can keep cylinder #1 cool) for Rare Bear in the "near future". I assume that is Unlimited Time, which could be years in real time.

I had several Tiger sightings in the Voodoo pit - does anyone know if he's had any bites on Strega?

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Chris

I think the engine on RB is in good shape to be honest, unless the hurt it last year in the final race on sunday. I don't think they did however. 232 needs the engine. Unless that is a new one on there. Last year, if memory serves me correctly, it was sitting in the bear cave with no engine on it.

The voodoo spinner shot is a mega crop. I shot that from way back with my short lens. The pic sucked, but the reflection in the spinner did not, so I cropped everything down to the spinner. Mental note for next year, shoot the same pic, with the 500mm lens from way back, and get it centered. The Nikon 200-500 is an amazing portrait lens, you just have to stand back a bit. (I was out in the pits late Friday because I heard someone doing a runup, and all I had on the camera was the 200-500. the results are pretty awesome. My F35 pics posted earlier were taken with it as well.

Will

Ditto that! Any photos of it on happier days? This one slipped past my radar and I found nothing else on the web...

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