Any news regarding Reno Air Races 2015?

Lon Moer · **Posted:** Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:58 am

Blackbirdfan wrote:

Pogo wrote:

Hey Blackbird, that's some pretty deft camera work, beautiful pictures, thanks a million! :drink3:

Now where the &*#@ is Garbs, lol?

Thanks. I have only scratched the surface of my shots. Here are a few more.

Hoot blowing the exhaust stacks up on lap 2 on Saturday (I can just make out the damage to the baffle when looking at the original pic.)

Saturday night runup following exhaust stack replacement.

Early lap 2 on Saturday.

924 warm up Sunday morning.

I'll post more as I get them done.

Will

garbs · **Posted:** Fri Sep 25, 2015 5:10 pm

Nice shots blackbirdfan - interesting angle with Peavine in the background and the spray bar trails backlit. Guide pylon, High G Ridge, or "Undisclosed location"?

Here's a few on takeoff from the boring old grandstands:

Doug Matthew's Rebel - the announcers had him taxi-ing out in this one while he was still circling overhead in his L-39

Grim Reaper - a new one for me

Lady Jo - last in the pack by a good margin each day:

924 - smoothest sounding racer, just a tad slower than Argonaut it seems.

And of course the big 3:

Can continue to post here if no one minds. Otherwise will move over to the racing forum.

Pogo · **Posted:** Fri Sep 25, 2015 7:53 pm

Hear! Hear! Ooops, I mean, here! here!

Actually, I don't care where they're posted, as long as they're posted. But Bearcats and Mustangs sure seem like warbirds to me, just saying. :supz:

phil65 · **Posted:** Fri Sep 25, 2015 8:59 pm

Any Corsairs at the race ?

Phil

garbs · **Posted:** Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:27 pm

phil65 wrote:

Any Corsairs at the race ?

Phil

Nope - none on the field anywhere that I saw. I believe that Doug Matthews sold the one he used to race, and Jim Tobul did not attend.

Blackbirdfan · **Posted:** Sun Sep 27, 2015 1:01 pm

garbs wrote:

Nice shots blackbirdfan - interesting angle with Peavine in the background and the spray bar trails backlit. Guide pylon, High G Ridge, or "Undisclosed location"?

I was shooting from the hillside above pylons 3 and 4. If you head out to the end of Lemmon drive there is a dirt parking lot on your left. To the right there is a dirt road that runs up to a water tank. I was another mile or so up the road from that water tank. You need 4 wheel drive to get up there (or a good mountain bike as I had.) Until I can get a media pass and shoot from the pylons, that is my favorite place to shoot from.

Here are a couple more pics I shot.

Will

Flybipe · **Joined:** Sun Aug 25, 2013 9:40 pm **Posts:** 11

When these guys are wearing oxygen masks during the race, are they really breathing supplemental oxygen? Or is it just so they can shield their mic from the intense roar? Or is it fresh air?

b29driver · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2015 7:29 am

Breathing the O2. Exhaust gases can be and frequently are present in the cockpit!!

garbs · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2015 8:49 am

"To the right there is a dirt road that runs up to a water tank. I was another mile or so up the road from that water tank. You need 4 wheel drive to get up there (or a good mountain bike as I had.)"

Don't think that the rental car company would have appreciated us taking their Chrysler 200 up there

Here's some from the Heritage Trophy contestants. I heard (but have not confirmed) that Berlin Express swept the best military, fan choice, and best of show awards. Congrats to John Muszala, shown here in the cockpit:

Other contestants included some non-warbirds, but all were beautiful restorations. First is a Lockheed 12:

Then Taigh's freshly repainted (for the nth time) PV-2:

Didn't get one of the Pearl Harbor Interstate Cadet.

garbs · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2015 9:01 am

The Breitling jets team did a very nice show, despite the elevator music they play for the first half...

That last one is their bomb burst towards the crowd - you can just see the start of their pyro. I also got it on video which I will try to post later.

Last minute rebuild of Strega's race motor - this was about 1 PM on Sunday. Guess they got it together right!

Thom Richard was in attendance as promised, sporting a new Griffon on a stand: Guess I needed another shirt after all

garbs · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2015 9:12 am

Last I have for now. I am at 98% of my free 2.2 gigs of storage on Photobucket so I guess I need to clear out some of the early stuff. Looks like I also need to clear the FOD off of my camera's detector

Lon Moer · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2015 3:10 pm

Flybipe wrote:

When these guys are wearing oxygen masks during the race, are they really breathing supplemental oxygen? Or is it just so they can shield their mic from the intense roar? Or is it fresh air?

Oxygen is a requirement.

RandolphB · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2015 9:52 pm

garbs wrote:

Thom Richard was in attendance as promised, sporting a new Griffon on a stand: Guess I needed another shirt after all

That's not a new engine, that's the old legacy engine that has been raced for years. The new engine is in the damaged airframe in Florida. This old engine was brought along as a backup engine this year just in case......and then ended up attending the event when the aircraft didn't. Thanks for getting a shirt, every penny counts. We'll be starting the recovery/ rebuild soon.

Blackbirdfan · **Posted:** Mon Sep 28, 2015 11:02 pm

Here are a few more of my shots.
Tora Tora tora from across the valley.

The Jets...

Proof that newer isn't always faster or better.

Will

garbs · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2015 9:38 am

RandolphB wrote:

That's not a new engine, that's the old legacy engine that has been raced for years. The new engine is in the damaged airframe in Florida. This old engine was brought along as a backup engine this year just in case......and then ended up attending the event when the aircraft didn't. Thanks for getting a shirt, every penny counts. We'll be starting the recovery/ rebuild soon.

OK - thanks for clarifying. So Thom would have flown x-country to Reno behind the race motor? I guess I never thought about it. The price tag on this one fooled me.

Hope you guys get it back together for next year - wasn't the same without PM in the mix. We watch most of the Unlimited races from Section 3 and they go nuts when Thom pops into the stands to sign shirts!

More nice stuff, BBF.

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