Reno is upon us.

"Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
09/10/2019 at 10:41 • Filed to: None

Put on your headphones, and it’s still not the same as being there. This year they are adding STOL drags, where the goal is like a 0-100-0 race , turn around and do it again. All the while, firefighting airtankers are fighting a fire 50 miles away. Go see it. It'll blow your mind.

DISCUSSION (12)

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Grindintosecond
09/10/2019 at 10:58

Much as I like air racing, I don’t like seeing irreplaceable warbirds modified and put at risk just to fly circles around a course. Would rather watch Sport Class where nothing of historic value is at risk.

Grindintosecond > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
09/10/2019 at 11:06

Rare bear is a case example where it was restored into a racer, from a scrapped hulk. Many are leftover parts built into racers. Dennis Sanders has many sea fury's but all came from collecting parts over time. So the notion that an owner has to restore it into a museum piece I disagree with when it's parts first so it can be anything.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Grindintosecond
09/10/2019 at 11:47

To me, whether it’s an original airplane or one assembled from parts it still has historic value. There are only so many airframe hulks in existence that can be brought back to airworthy status. I just don’t like seeing them put at risk, as over the years quite a few Unlimiteds have been lost in crashes. If I’m going to the expense of building one from parts I’d want it to be as original as possible and fly it in shows. But that’s just me talking as a history geek.

Hamtractor > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
09/10/2019 at 12:00

I love warbirds so much that I have a P-51D tattooed on my left bicep. And I feel like anybody with the funds and ability to fly them, whether modified or restored, should be able to do so. Rare Bear is so much fun to watch, such power and grace! The Reno Air Race is on my bucket list, might try to do it with my dad next year. My dad went down to Kissimee a couple years ago and spent like $5k to fly a P-51, swears it was the best day of his whole life...

When I win the Powerball, I’ll be buying a T-28 Trojan immediately. As beautiful as a Merlin sounds at WOT screaming past in a Mustang, something about the wapwapwap of a radial engine that gets me fired up... noit to mention you can pick up a cherry, low-hour , modernized cockpit example of a Trojan for about 10% of a Mustang’s price.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Hamtractor
09/10/2019 at 12:17

Years ago, just after getting my pilot license I was given a gift of a one hour ride in an AT-6. It was very cool, and would definitely be on the toy list after winning a lottery ( you have to have a few hundred hours of T-6 time before you can get insurance on a big HP warbird). After that I go shopping for a Corsair.

Hamtractor > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
09/10/2019 at 12:34

The Corsair is my next warbird tattoo, lol. It’s my professional opinion (as in professional lover of everything that flies) that the Mustang and the Corsair are the two most beautiful things ever created by the hands of man. The Mustang is all Muhammed Ali, grace and footwork and artful application of lethal violence. The Corsair is more Mike Tyson, more agile than she should be, faster than she should be, and capable of terrifyingly brutality...

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Hamtractor
09/10/2019 at 15:11

I’d think the P-47 would be Mike Tyson, going by your definition. the additional guns make it a slugger. My old boss flew both in WW2; his first combat sortie was on D-day flying the Jug covering the landing. His unit later transitioned to the P-51; they were based at Martlesham Heath in England. He had some amazing stories.

Hamtractor > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
09/10/2019 at 15:26

I like the cut of your ji b sir. Although Tyson wasn’t known for his ability to absorb damage... Maybe the Jug was more like a young Chuck Liddell? Maybe the Corsair was just a Pacific Theater Mustang?

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Hamtractor
09/10/2019 at 17:03

I think US fighters in general could absorb battle damage pretty well. Sturdy construction with armored glass and self-sealing tanks went a long way in combat. My boss told me about a time he took an AA round in the engine, blowing off a cylinder and spewing oil everywhere but the big Pratt continued to run and it got him home that day. Three days later he went back (in the same plane) and made multiple gun runs on the field, shredding the AA emplacements and a few planes on the ground. His wingman dropped a pair of 500-pounders in the middle of parked aircraft and the ensuing fireball went up 500ft in the air. He had lots of stories like that, and he was only 21 at the time

Hamtractor > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
09/10/2019 at 17:57

I love hearing stories like that, when I was a kid I’d sit with my dad in the big tent at the local airshow and listen to the WWII and Korea guys tell stories all day. All my family war stories are infantry-related, my Uncle Dick went ashore at Omaha on D+2, all the way to Berlin, my pops was in Vietnam, 1967-68. I bravely manned my post in the bowels of the USS Hewitt when we patrolled the Persian Gulf in 1993-1994, lol...

f86sabre > Grindintosecond
09/10/2019 at 21:17

I need to get back there some day. It’s a great event.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Hamtractor
09/10/2019 at 21:47

Yep, my brush with death was in an Army Guard aviation battalion in ‘91. Saddam had invaded Kuwait, and we were thinking we’d get activated. Didn’t happen though; nobody needed our Cobras so we stayed put.