Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site cae780.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!cae780!rje From: rje@cae780.UUCP (Bob Evans) Newsgroups: net.aviation Subject: National Air Races Message-ID: <1386@cae780.UUCP> Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 02:47:39 EDT Article-I.D.: cae780.1386 Posted: Wed Sep 25 02:47:39 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 27-Sep-85 07:29:03 EDT Distribution: na Organization: Tektronix, Inc. (CAE Systems Division), Sunnyvale, CA Lines: 65 <.....> Wow ! After dreaming about going to Reno for the air races ever since I was about 12 years old, I finally got to go this year. I absolutely enjoyed every minute at the races. If you love airplanes, air shows, or loud noises - try it ! I took my wife along ... she wasn't too thrilled with the idea but by the end of the second Unlimited heat see was getting into it, and by the end of Sunday she was at the "Are we coming back next year ?" stage. My favorite air show acts were the Canadian Snowbirds, and the Hilton Grob sailplane flown by a fellow from the Bay Area named ?? - both acts were pure class - grace, style, emotional music ... The races are pure thrill. I loved every minute of it. Despite some _very_ stiff crosswinds om Saturday there was only one accident - a P-51 was blown off the runway (!) and into the sand, resulting in some wing damage and a bent engine when it nosed over. The crowd control was so good it wasn't really noticable. The only real surprise was having to sign a waiver for insurance purposes in order to get into the pit area. This liability stuff is getting out of hand. The only real problem came when we tried to leave Reno-Cannon on Sunday evening. There were probably 200 general aviation aircraft trying to leave at the same time. Calling clearance control was very frustrating. Imagine 20 pilots calling at once on the same frequency, with only 3 or 4 of them being polite enough not to call in the middle of someone elses transmission. Once you got a clearance, getting to the ground control was like duck soup. Unfortunately, having taxi permission didn't _necessarily_ mean you were going anywhere. After calling ground, I tried to taxi out of the parking area. A very nice ground crewperson waved me into line behind two other planes who had obviously taxied out of the parking spot without clearance - you could see them repeatedly calling ... I told the ground crew that I had my taxi clearance and went around the other two planes. Once you got to a taxi way, you had the fun of waiting in line (double lines at that) to get to be number one for take off. The drill was supposed to go like this ... Take offs were happening on 34L and 34R. 34L was being used for both intersection and full runway takeoffs by both G.A. and commercial carriers. (No, the jets were _not_ making intersection takeoffs :-) ) When you got to be number one in the queue, you were to call the tower, stating position, call sign, and "ready to go". Simple, right ? Well, about 50 % of the pilots there just _couldn't_ handle this. The tower was repeatedly having to call "Mooney at taxiway Bravo, 34L are you ready ?", etc ... My wife (a non-pilot) said "what is wrong with these people ? Do we really want to be in the air with turkeys who can't even run a radio ?" When it came time to go, the Bonanza next to me and I were cleared "into position left and right side of 34L ". The bonanza sat on the taxiway while I taxied out, did a quick run-up and lean, and was cleared for take off. He didn't get rolling until I was turning cross wind !! Next year we will stay over Sunday evening for dinner in Reno and fly home late that evening. At any rate, I loved the races, I'm going again, and I recommend it for a _fun_ weekend. Bob FROM: Robert J. Evans, CAE Systems Division of Tektronix, Inc. UUCP: tektronix!teklds!cae780!rje {ihnp4, decvax!decwrl}!amdcad!cae780!rje {nsc, hplabs, resonex, qubix, leadsv}!cae780!rje USNAIL: 1333 Bordeaux Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089 [until we move ... soon] AT&T: (408)745-1440 [until we move .. soon] Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com