Reno 2017 - Warbird Photo Dump

[Blackbirdfan]

Thanks for all the terrific photos! (Will, you could produce a Warbird calendar with yours!)

Thanks. It would be an interesting project to do a calendar. I'd be interested in doing it if I knew there would be enough demand to print a bunch up.

Will

[Blackbirdfan]

A few more from Wednesday night and Thursday morning.






Will

[garbs]

As mentioned before, TFL made up a good share of the Unlimited Bronze heats. Here's more variety in one pass than we usually see across all three classes:



The Reno crowd loves passing more than just about anything else (especially at the home pylon). The Bronze guys were really mixing it up in the back of the pack:







Here's Sunday Unlimited Silver on final, not necessarily in the order they finished:













And of course Steve Hinton flying top cover in the pace plane:



Finally, the Sunday Unlimited Gold on takeoff, in their starting order:

[phil65]

I picked the wrong year not to go....

Thanks for the pic's,
Phil

[Pogo]

Words can never express how much I appreciate the pics, guys -- thanks again!!

In Garbs' earlier pictures I saw Rare Bear and kept waiting for someone to ask ... did they take 'er up there just for display??

[Blackbirdfan]

A couple more for you.



Will

[garbs]

Words can never express how much I appreciate the pics, guys -- thanks again!!

In Garbs' earlier pictures I saw Rare Bear and kept waiting for someone to ask ... did they take 'er up there just for display??

Last I heard, Pogo, she still lives in Reno until they trailer her to San Antonio to be put on display. 232 was there also, in the same static condition. Word is she may be converted back to stock for sale.

BTW, the Voodoo shirts for sale at their pit all said, "Farewell Tour". Will be kind of dull if next year is Strega and "everyone else". I talked to Thom Richard and he said Precious Metal has all new longerons but is not yet far enough along to have to decide if it will be stock or a racer.

Still plan to go, though!

[Lynn Allen]

Thanks again for the pictures...

Lynn

[Blackbirdfan]

Words can never express how much I appreciate the pics, guys -- thanks again!!

In Garbs' earlier pictures I saw Rare Bear and kept waiting for someone to ask ... did they take 'er up there just for display??

Last I heard, Pogo, she still lives in Reno until they trailer her to San Antonio to be put on display. 232 was there also, in the same static condition. Word is she may be converted back to stock for sale.

BTW, the Voodoo shirts for sale at their pit all said, "Farewell Tour". Will be kind of dull if next year is Strega and "everyone else". I talked to Thom Richard and he said Precious Metal has all new longerons but is not yet far enough along to have to decide if it will be stock or a racer.

Still plan to go, though!

One thing to remember about Precious Metal, it was NEVER a stock mustang. It has mustang parts, but was designed from the ground up to be a Griffon powered racer. You can't convert it back to stock as its stock form is a Griffon powered racer.

Will

[oz rb fan]

i think i'd near cry if i heard PM was being rebuilt as a "stock" p51...........and where would an id come from?

[garbs]

i think i'd near cry if i heard PM was being rebuilt as a "stock" p51...........and where would an id come from?

Yeah - me too. She was one of the planes I just have to stare at from startup until shutdown. I tried to convey that sentiment to Thom - he seemed to believe he has options, I guess.

Last edited by garbs on Tue Oct 24, 2017 10:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Zac Yates]

Word on the ramp was that Voodoo was offered to the Smithsonian (reported in October's Aeroplane Monthly) but they declined, so the constant rumour was she'll go to Planes of Fame - will try another record attempt and maybe keep flying for airshows, but that Voodoo the racer is no more.

The Rare Bear team were kind enough to let the Kiwis in Full Noise use their trailer!

Some amazing photos. I watched a lot via the livestream but these are special - especially any photo of Shanty Irish or Full Noise.

[Sasquatch]

Bravo...HUZZAH!!!...on the photos; thank you to all who posted your incredible images; WELL DONE! And THANK YOU!

-Tom

[K5DH]

Great stuff, y'all! I especially like those night thunderstorm shots! Very artistic!

[garbs]

OK - my last hurrah for this year. These were Thursday morning's Bronze take offs:















All banking away so no "topside" photos, but it does satisfy KiwiZac's request The two Mustangs and the Yak all moved up to higher classes as the week went on.

Then, the odds & ends. Here's James Consalvi, winner of the best Gold final I have ever seen. It still feels like the race lasted about 8 seconds to me! Tiger is just walking away to his left.



The T-6 Gold final was no slouch either:



Jet Gold had a definite fan favorite,



but no one could catch Rick Vandam in American Spirit.

IMHO there is no better place in the world to watch an Unlimited Gold final than Section 3 - this year there was another reason to like it though. As the only group of semi-trainable fans who could promise at least 104 bodies (the number of hand hold straps), we were offered the privilege of holding RARA's new US flag for the national anthems on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday:



We did have some other visitors from current military inventory:



The second bundle's chute didn't open, so it had a bit of a hard landing.

Other flyovers:





Plus some other acts not related to Warbirds - the motocross/x-games guys were OK in short bursts:



And the "Bama Girls", all former Miss Alabamas, put on a USO-type show. Unfortunately the sound was awful



All for this year - I have hundreds more but can't tell many apart from what I have already posted. Thanks for letting me fill the space until Will begins posting his pylon shots!