Warbird Information Exchange

That's nice to hear. It was so far from stock I guess it really can't compare to some of the Mustangs and Furies. I'm planning to do a small-scale model of her and I always enjoy seeing photos like that one. Thanks!

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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

P-51A racing....

Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.

Zac, don't forget that it won in 1985 (I think that was the year). Dreadnought was just a smidgen faster, but was overheating and the pilot made a mental mistake -- The Super Corsair ran right with Dread for the whole race. Both of these airplanes broke the old record -- which meant they were running faster than ANY Mustang, Sea Fury or Bearcat had ever run before that day.

Nothing to sneeze at there.

The others had more potential, though. Dread, Dago, Rare Bear, Strega, and others just kept going faster and faster and that fat Corsair wing had just hit a wall. But nobody can take that race on that day away from her.

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

I "stopped by" for qualifying. The best bargain in aviation.. 10 bucks for a pit pass. The right crowd, and no crowding, as they say. left this morning. Going to Red Bull Global Rallycross in Seattle on Saturday. Just couldn't deal with Voodoo all alone with no competition.

Neil, you asked about Voodoo and how they were crewing it. My impression is that Stevo is doing it all himself this year. He has a couple of helpers, but he ran Monday afternoon (not real hard, but hard enough to sound bitchen) and spent pretty much all day Tuesday tinkering on it.

The field is thin and time will tell if this is the beginning of the end, or just transition. It would only take a couple of big spenders to make things interesting again.

As i walked away from Voodoo and turned left a couple rows down, there was 924, Dreadnought and Argo on the left, with Sawbones on the right, and a couple of Mustangs further down. I thought, man, if this don't get your juices flowing, nothing will. I know mine were. I sure hope things get going again. I will sure go back!

The top three or four Sport Class planes are pretty exciting to watch when they turn the wick up. But the future of air racing is not a bunch of RV-8s spudding around the pylons. About as exciting as watching paint dry at the new Walmart.

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Rob C

Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. “

– Michael Crichton

Great photos Neal, thanks heaps for sharing! Likewise your memories - my comment was more about the need for drastic changes to make a Corsair competitive (and, presumably, far too expensive/rare an airframe to try again), rather than implying Super Corsair was a no-hoper.


I may need to buy the DVD of this year's event, if only to see that! The only two results online for Mrs Virginia so far (Monday and Tuesday) show 356mph lap speed and around 1m21s lap time.

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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

That A model has raced before, and was a pleasure to watch and hear back then. Boy that was a long time ago...

Zac -- that 356 mph is almost certainly about all you're going to see. It's a pretty precious airplane, and is there mostly as something to fill out the field a bit. I'm quite sure they have no intention of beating on it.

I do wish I was there to hear it run again.

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

Rob -- you should have seen the late 1980s, when there would be 30-35 airplanes there, and for the slower airplanes there was a real concern that after spending all that money and effort to get to Reno you would not get to race because you didn't make the cut. Now that was a sight.

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

The had consolation races for them.

A solid 3rd place finisher that always flew home on Monday.

I did love that airplane. It gave me a lot of pleasure (and great photographs) over the years.

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

In Reno...

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A man's got to know his limitations.

Enjoy, and post some impressions here. Take a moment to go down to visit with the Formula 1 folks down at the West end of the ramp. Serious racers and good energy down there this year, I hear.

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---

The Super Corsair was a lot of fun out at the pylons. Nothing else left a wake like it! You could hear the air ripping 15 seconds after it passed. A Mustang left virtually no wake after it passed by comparison.

What plane # are you with ?

Great day today...

Thanks,
Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.

Me? I'm not there this year. Just sitting on the edge of my seat watching results on the internet.

Glad it's a good one so far -- it'll only get better. Reno is still one of aviation's great events.

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Neal Nurmi

---Wingman Photo---