According to race officials, all seven classes of airplanes will take to the sky.

“We are incredibly excited as an organization for this monumental step in air racing history as we begin to execute our plan for the 2025 National Championship Air Races,” said Tony Logoteta, president and chief operating officer of the Reno Air Racing Association (RARA). “We’re invigorated by the fact that we’re hosting the air races in a brand-new venue in Roswell. It’s going to be amazing to see this iconic event put on again and see our September family.”

Race organizers have visited Roswell several times in recent months to meet with airport staff, emergency services, and city officials to design a new course for the races, review safety protocols, and establish partnerships with the community, according to the organization. Contractors have also been secured for construction of race infrastructure, such as a grandstand.

New Racing Challenges

Air race pilots are expected to visit the area to fly the proposed course in advance of the Pylon Racing Seminar (PRS) scheduled to be held in May in Roswell.

Race officials said the new venue will make for different challenges for the racers, but that “attendees can expect the same spirit of camaraderie, competition and classes of planes that are hallmarks of NCAR.”

Ticket sales and race details will be available in months to come. 

“Reuniting with our September family for the first air races in a new venue will be a historic and emotional moment for our organization as we eagerly prepare for next year alongside our partners in Roswell,” said Fred Telling, RARA chairman and chief executive officer.

• READ MORE: Taking in the Reno Air Races’ Final Lap

The National Championship Air Races traces its roots back to the Cleveland Air Races of the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s. 

The event, billed as the fastest motorsport around, moved to Nevada in 1964. It was first held at Sky Ranch airfield near Spanish Springs, before it moved to Stead Air Force Base, which was later renamed Reno-Stead Airport (KRTS) after the base closed.

In September 2023, fans gathered at the Nevada airport for the last air race at that location, which local officials said was a venue no longer able to accommodate the growing sport. Over the decades, homes and subdivisions encroached upon the airport that had once been remote, sparking concerns about potential accidents that could harm area residents. 

The air races have become an end of summer institution for aviation enthusiasts from around the world. In addition to attracting hundreds of aircraft, pilots and support crews, the event also features large displays of static aircraft along with demonstrations of military and civil aircraft.

The National Championship Air Races are set for September 10-14, 2025.

The post Plans Advance for 2025 National Championship Air Races appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“The loss of fidelity from 5G could put the technology back 20 or 30 years,” said William Mahoney, director of the Research Applications Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The impact of 5G activation on the aviation industry will be discussed Thursday during a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Among those slated to speak is FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson, who will address the impact of 5G deployment on aviation safety.

• READ MORE: FAA Administrator to Testify at 5G Hearing

Research Applications Laboratory was created in the 1980s as part of a consortium that studies worldwide weather patterns and worldwide climate change. The early days of the agency were spent working with NASA and the airlines studying windshear and icing and developing better technology for gathering weather information.

Today, the hardware used by weather gathering agencies ranges from river gauges to satellites. 

Other 5G Concerns 

For the past several weeks the activation of 5G networks by AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) has dominated the headlines. The wireless companies stress that 5G will improve communication speeds.

U.S. aviation officials from both the FAA and the airline industry have raised concerns that 5G signals will disrupt radio altimeters aboard airliners, disrupting critical aircraft systems and potentially creating a safety hazard in low-visibility situations.  

• READ MORE: FAA Issues Airworthiness Directive for Boeing Jets Due to 5G

Both AT&T and Verizon argue that 5G is already in use in Europe.

Experts in weather technology warn that when deployed in the U.S. 5G may adversely impact weather data gathering because it will conflict with ambient terrestrial broadcasts.

The Earth’s radio waves are fixed, Mahoney said.  

“The earth emits passive information on water vapor sensing at the 23.8 GHz range and the 5G C-band operates in the 24 GHz range,” he said. “Water vapor and temperature data are critical for weather models to be accurate. If 5G is contaminating the data, or if it is prone to errors, we will have to throw it out.” 

Mahoney said the challenges with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began a few years ago when the weather agencies sought to protect weather technology used to communicate with weather satellites.

“The problem began with the radio frequency spectrum of 1675 to 1680 MHz. That is the frequency we need to downlink from the geostationary satellites. We have been fighting to protect those frequencies,” he said, noting that the data captured by the satellites covers entire continents, and sometimes, when the frequencies are compromised, data, or even complete scans are missing.

In June, Mahoney testified before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, warning them about the potential adverse impacts of 5G on weather data gathering.

Mahoney said the agency wants to develop computer models as to what the impact of 5G will be on weather data, but to do so, they need more information.

“We need to know where all the towers will be and the exact frequencies and power levels that will be utilized so we can simulate the transmissions and see how it will affect the data,” he said. “Leadership from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association and the European model group claim that if we have contamination from 5G it could set back the accuracy of the reporting capability 20 or 30 years.”

This could be mitigated, Mahoney said, if the FCC protects the frequencies and the wireless industry develops technology with sufficient noise reduction that will prevent bleed-through.

The post As 5G House Hearing Looms, One Expert Brings Up a Different Concern appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“Seeing new racers discover the love of head-to-head racing, mastering their skill and doing it all with our incredible veteran instructors makes for a fun week,” said Fred Telling, CEO and chairman of the Reno Air Racing Association. The PRS training is required for rookie racers before they can compete. It is also required for certified racers every three years. A total of 80 pilots, including rookies, certified racers and instructors, came to Stead in June for the course.

This year’s STIHL NCAR will take place from September 15 to 19. There are seven race classes: Unlimited, Jets, Formula 1, Biplane, Sport, T6 and Stol Drag, a completely different race class that was introduced in 2019—the last year the races were conducted. The 2020 event was cancelled in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to watching the races, spectators can expect impressive airshows each day that include the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, flying tight formation in their F-16 Fighting Falcons; F-22 Raptor Demonstrations; Jim Peitz, flying aerobatics in a Bonanza; and much more. The National Heritage Invitational, featuring stellar examples of airworthy airplanes 45 years or older, will also be on the show grounds.

To get a feel for what the Pylon Racing Seminar is like, see The Art of Air Racing.

The post Reno’s “Rookie School” Prepares Air Racers for NCAR appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The Reno Air Racing Association, which hosts the annual STIHL National Championship Air Races near Reno, Nevada, is sending out a cry for help to save the iconic event. In addition to several race classes, featuring a range of aircraft types from backcountry taildraggers to military speedsters, the event includes airshow performers, STEM education stations, military and vintage aircraft displays, vendors and much more. RARA announced in a press release that it is looking for donations to enable the event to proceed in 2021.

RARA was forced to cancel this year’s event, citing health concerns driven by the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason. While much of the work had already been done to put the event together, the cancellation resulted in zero revenue. Federal aid and the sale of a hangar helped cover some operating costs and kept the organization from laying off all of the staff, but 75 percent of the employees had to be let go.

The viability of the event had already come into question with continuing cost increases. RARA said insurance premiums increased unexpectedly by $160,000 for the 2019 event, which, as a result, “experienced a significant financial loss” despite good attendance. Insurance costs had already surged as a result of the tragic crash of Galloping Ghost, in which 11 people died and 70 people suffered serious injuries. The crash resulted in stricter maintenance inspections for the race airplanes and reshaping of the race courses to protect the spectators.

It would be a shame to see this unique event end up in the history books. RARA says it needs $500,000 by the end of the year to re-hire critical staff and “begin paying for the ongoing costs necessary to produce the large-scale event whose mission is to celebrate and preserve air racing’s rich history while honoring military and inspiring youth.” Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to help save the air races.

The post Race Fans Called Upon to Help Save Reno’s Air Races appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The 2020 STIHL National Championship Air Races near Reno, Nevada, was set to officially open its doors to spectators on September 16. However, as with all major air-show events planned after March of this year, the coronavirus pandemic put a lid on the excitement for this week. The annual event, in which racers of various airplane types battle in formation around closed pylon courses low over the desert-land adjacent to the Reno/Stead Airport, is scheduled to return next year, September 15 through 19.

While the cancelled event is a big blow, there was some good news for air race fans this week. According to Kevin Quinn, the creator of STOL Drag, the FAA signed off on the official “letter of accreditation” for the new STOL Drag race class. The Reno Air Race Association announced plans for the new class last October—the first to be added in nearly two decades. The event now includes seven classes: STOL Drag, Formula 1, Biplane, Sport, T-6, Jet and Unlimited.

STOL Drag is a backcountry flying duel: Two airplanes fly back and forth over a 2,000-foot course with dust and dirt swirling as they come to a complete stop at each end. Stick and rudder skills take precedence over massive powerplants, and the class is open to anyone who is interested in trying to qualify. Quinn said the STIHL NCAR STOL Drag class will include three categories: Unlimited, Silver and Bronze, allowing pilots of various levels to be competitive.

The ever-growing High Sierra Fly-In, where STOL Drag was conceived, is set to take place in October at the Dead Cow lakebed. However, this year the event will be limited to racers only, since Nevada limits gatherings to a maximum of 50 people in light of the pandemic.

While the STIHL NCAR was cancelled for this year, some of the race pilots wanted to remind the local community that the event is still very much alive. Around lunchtime on September 19, several smoke trailing jets will fly over the Reno area in celebration of the event. “We miss seeing the fans and want to let them know we aren’t going anywhere,” said Jeff Turney, founding member of jet racing at the STIHL National Championship Air Races. “We can’t wait for 2021.” The schedule for the flyby can be found here.

The post Jets Celebrate Reno Races As STOL-Drag Class Officially Added appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The six-cylinder, 310-hp Continental growls and pops as I line up on Runway 7L then builds to a throaty roar as I open the throttle. I feed it in slowly, just like Joe told me to, in order to keep this Lancair with its castoring nosewheel, tiny tail and monstrous torque pointed straight down the runway. But around the time I figure I’m at full throttle, I discover I have another inch to “firewall power,” and when I get there, the ­acceleration becomes gut-wrenching. We’re up to 85 knots in no time at all. I ease back on the stick, and we leap into the dry desert air. This is my first time flying an airplane that has the power and speed to compete in the famed Reno Air Races in Nevada, and even in this bone-stock Lancair Legacy, it’s a bit like having a tiger by the tail.

My friend, Joe Coraggio, is in the left seat. We’ve known each other since we both flew the Embraer 175 for Compass Airlines, where Joe, a check airman, was assigned to give me my annual line check. We hit it off over two short legs, and a few days later, I flew over to Fleming Field in Minnesota to take a look at the Long-EZ project Joe was building in his garage. Over the next couple years, Dawn and I came to be good friends with Joe and his husband, Kevin Vernon-Harris; they’re friendly, generous people with an infectious enthusiasm for life in general and sport aviation in particular. I helped out on the Long-EZ build a few times; we flew together in my Cub and Pacer and a friend’s RV-7; Dawn and I camped with Joe and Kevin at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin; and Joe introduced me to many of his seemingly endless pool of friends and acquaintances in the experimental, warbird, airshow and ­racing corners of aviation.

One of these is Eric Whyte, with whom Joe co-chairs the annual AirVenture Cup Race. Like Joe and me, Eric is a professional pilot who has been flying since his early teens, and in fact, it was Eric who gave Joe his first Young Eagles flight in 1995 and, subsequently, mentored him as he began flight training. Joe recalls, in those days, he hung around the airport so much that the other pilots started calling him “Ramp Rat,” a nickname that stuck. Both mentor and mentee have done a great deal to carry on the program that gave them and so many other young aviators their start; in 2017, Eric was the recipient of the Phillips 66 EAA Young Eagles Leadership Award, and Joe was the honoree the following year.

One cold winter evening in Joe’s basement, he and I got to talking about the AirVenture Cup Race, which takes place the weekend before Oshkosh and ends in nearby Wausau, Wisconsin. Joe made it sound so fun that, a few tasty IPAs later, we had cooked up a harebrained scheme to “race” my flying club’s 70-mph Piper Cub at the next AirVenture Cup. It was a great lark that made for a good shaggy-dog tale (“The World’s Fastest Cub,” December 2014), and the following year, Dawn and I raced our own Piper Pacer. At both races, I really enjoyed getting to know Joe and Eric better, along with their many racing friends—­several of whom also ­compete at Reno—and another ­highlight was ­flying dozens of Young Eagles on the Saturdays before the race.

Over the past five years, Joe and I were hired at two different major airlines. He and Kevin moved to Phoenix to be near his base, and Joe ­finished his highly modified Long-EZ, ­nicknamed “Betty.” Joe’s ­intention was always to make Betty a ­racing machine, and with that aim, he had incorporated quite a few ­aerodynamic mods and a ­200-plus hp Lycoming IO-360 swinging a three-blade ­composite propeller. She was fast but not quite as fast as Joe hoped, so he continued to modify her with the dream of racing her at Reno. When I visited on a Phoenix overnight in spring 2016, Joe expressed frustration at the slow pace of progress but still hoped to be able to take Betty to Reno that fall. Shortly ­thereafter, an exhaust ­modification suffered an unexpected failure mode that grounded Betty for more than a year.

“In retrospect, it was just pride that made me want to race the airplane I built,” Joe says now. “It took me a while to realize it was just the wrong airplane for the job. Even if got all the speed I wanted to get out of it, I would have been clinging to the very bottom of the Sport Class.” Some explanation is required here. The Stihl National Championship Air Races—as the Reno Air Races are officially known—has six classes including Jet, Unlimited, Biplane, T6, Sport and Formula One. The Sport Class is limited to 36 pilots (eight each in Gold, Silver, Bronze and Medallion subclasses, plus two alternates), and in 2019, all Sport Class racers but one qualified at 230 mph or faster. Joe was struggling to get Betty much over 220 mph.

In 2018, Joe learned that Reno ­staple Andy Findlay—who has ­dominated the Sport Class for ­several years with his highly ­modified, ­400-mph Lancair Super Legacy, One Moment—also had a stock ­normally aspirated Legacy he was willing to part with. With Lancairs and Glasair IIIs forming the backbone of the Silver and Gold Sport classes, it was the right airplane for the job. Joe and Andy made a deal, and Ramp Rat Racing was born. Shortly thereafter, Joe partnered with BendixKing, and they replaced Joe’s somewhat-tired first-generation glass panel with a beautiful, state-of-the-art layout built around their xVue Touch, AeroNav and AeroFlight products. Several of Joe’s EAA friends serve as his volunteer crew, Kevin handles the business side as team manager, and well-known homebuilder and AirVenture Cup ­regular Dick Keys is about as capable a crew chief as one could ask for.

Pylon racing taxes and hones a pilot’s stick-and-rudder skills like few other aerial pursuits. The Sport Class course at Reno is just under 8 miles long and defined by nine pylons strung across the Reno-Stead Airport and the adjacent desert plateau. The pylons themselves are 50 feet tall and denote the minimum race altitude, above which the racers seldom stray. Flying the course solo would be challenging enough, but it is all done in close proximity to up to seven other airplanes in any given heat. (Basically, flying formation on a lead who doesn’t really want you there and who you are trying to pass.) It is a credit to the pilots involved and the race ­organization that Reno is as safe as it is.

Read More from Sam Weigel: Taking Wing

In order to race at Reno, Joe was first required to attend the Pylon Racing Seminar, held in Reno each June. Good formation skills are a hard prerequisite, with a Formation Flying Inc. (FFI) or Formation and Safety Training (FAST) card required in most cases. The four-day course ­consists of classroom training, ­formation ­exercises, familiarization laps and practice racing. A strong emphasis is put on contingency procedures, such as engine failure and crowd-line escape maneuvers. It was an ­intensive week, but Joe kept improving and was awarded a Sport Class ­race-pilot certificate following the successful ­completion of his check ride.

“One of the things that kept me from coming to Reno sooner was this perception that all the racers are these superpilots,” Joe tells me. “And so there was a lot of fear—of the unknown, of whether I could measure up, for personal safety. I’ll tell you, it was scary coming down the chute onto the course at PRS the first time. At Reno, I always have the energy to make a runway in case of engine failure, for example.” He gestures to the surrounding mountains and desert. “That’s not true most of the time. Most of the time, I’m flying around here.”

Experienced and well-funded racing teams do a great deal to eke every bit of performance out of their airplanes. For rookies like Joe, speed comes mostly with experience and learning. This was seen over the course of race week at Reno: Joe ­qualified at 274.4 mph, which put him in Sport Bronze Class, but then he finished in first place in his first heat and was moved up to Silver Class. His speed improved until he recorded 280.7 mph in the last heat, and in the Sport Silver final, he took sixth place—which is 14th out of 36 ­overall. “At the start of the week, I was so ­task-saturated, it was like ­tunnel vision down to here,” Joe says, ­forming a small circle on the windscreen with his hands. “But later in the week the tunnel expanded, and I was able to keep other things in my scan—like engine instruments. In ­recognition of Joe’s impressive debut, he was named the Sport Class Rookie of the Year.

I ask Joe if he has any plans to ­modify the Lancair for next year. “Well, one obvious thing to do would be to increase engine power by running nitrous oxide,” he says. “But that’s one more thing to manage, and I’d have to keep a closer eye on engine instruments. It goes back to expanding that tunnel vision.” Another option would be aerodynamic ­modifications. It turns out that the ­slick-looking Lancair suffers a good deal of form drag from the abrupt ­narrowing of its aft fuselage, and repairing that area yields around 10 mph, while strengthening the tail would afford an increase in VNE. As with most things in aviation, it comes down to money. Joe has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with BendixKing, and is hoping to sign one or two other sponsorship deals with the goal of making the plane more competitive within the Sport Silver Class.

The Legacy is a wonderfully responsive airplane, if a bit sensitive in pitch. We play around in the practice area as long as we can until the setting sun forces a turn back to Joe’s home airport. At reduced power of 21 inches of manifold pressure and 2,400 rpm, we’re “only” doing 215 knots true—which is still the fastest I’ve gone in a single-engine piston airplane. Joe talks me through a remarkably jetlike final approach and landing; final approach speed is 100 knots. It’s great to have friends with cool airplanes. As we push the Lancair back into the hangar, Joe tells me his desire to race at Reno was sparked, ironically, by Sport Class founder and AirVenture Cup ­regular Lee Behel’s fatal crash while qualifying at Reno in 2014. The crash itself wasn’t the spark, Joe explains; it was Lee’s explanation of his love of ­racing that was read at his funeral.

“We are here because we absolutely love flying and the fraternity of pilots within this group. We want to live as competitors, not spectators.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, flying the Lancair has put me in rather the racing mood myself. I have to go find myself a suitably sexy and speedy ride before the 2020 AirVenture Cup.

This story appeared in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of Flying Magazine

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