Now I think those folks might have been correct. A recent visit to the Greater Tahoe area confirmed that it held more appeal than I had imagined, beginning with some of the most striking natural views I have experienced.

From the air or ground, the natural splendor of the lake is breathtaking, from its clear, greenish-blue water that changes color with the seasons and more than 70 miles of jagged shoreline to its mountainous surroundings.

My first surprise was how large Lake Tahoe is. One can read about how it straddles a large stretch of the California-Nevada border, spanning roughly 22 miles long and 12 miles wide with a surface area covering 191 square miles, but it appears much larger in person than on paper.

Part of the impressive visual effect is because of the lake’s location high in the Sierra Nevada. Its surface is 6,225 feet msl, and the terrain around it rises thousands of feet above.

Getting There

That terrain is among several factors pilots have to consider when flying into the area, which is dotted with airports whose field elevations fall between 4,400 feet and 6,300 feet. Many piston pilots have a good idea of how operating from such high airports would affect their airplane’s performance. Others might be surprised by the reduced power they are likely to experience, especially when flying normally aspirated aircraft. Density altitude, gusting winds, and weather that often changes quickly can add to the challenge.

Operating at high-elevation fields for the first time warrants additional research and preparation, especially for “flatlanders” not accustomed to mountain flying. High ground around Lake Tahoe and beyond can complicate approaches to certain airports. Well-known peaks in the  area—including Mount Donner at just over 8,000 feet, Mount Pluto at 8,610 feet, and Mount Rose at 10,785 feet—severely restrict maneuvering space and make accurate navigation and situational awareness critical.

The Airport

We visited Truckee-Tahoe Airport (KTRK), which for decades has served as a hub for vacationers and part-time area residents who shuttle between first and second homes. The area is considered a year-round destination for hiking, biking, horseback riding, boating, and watersports during summer, and skiing and other snow sports in the winter. The area is famous for its ski slopes, including Palisades Tahoe, site of the 1960 Winter Olympics.

• READ MORE: Chart Wise: Truckee-Tahoe RNAV (GPS)-A

The airport is challenging because of its elevation of 5,904 feet and surrounding higher terrain. Pilots must follow prescribed approach and departure paths not only to remain clear of terrain but also to avoid flying over noise-sensitive residential areas. Winds can also be challenging at Truckee-Tahoe.

Jeff Menasco, a former Air Force pilot who is the airport’s director of aviation, said the multiple windsocks positioned around the field often point in different directions at once.

A fatal accident involving a Bombardier Challenger jet in 2021 reinforces the notion that Truckee-Tahoe can be unforgiving.

Demanding and Appealing

Truckee-Tahoe is an inviting airport with a generous parking lot and a bright, airy terminal with lots of space to relax, flight plan, and conduct meetings. The second floor has a balcony overlooking the ramp and runway that is a great place for aircraft watching. There is an adjacent park and playground for families with children—and you might meet several staff members’ dogs during a visit.

The airport makes an effort to help pilots with advisories and tips, including a series of approach and departure videos on its website that demonstrate proper flight paths and point out landmarks, such as the truck weigh station on nearby Interstate 80, Kings Beach at the northern end of the lake, and Brockway Summit, which you have to clear on certain approaches.

• READ MORE: Mackinac Island Is Especially Stunning by Air

On the ramp, turbine pilots will notice that only blended sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is available. Menasco said the airport wants to take a leadership role in promoting sustainability. As a result, he said, some customers embrace the plan despite SAF’s higher cost. Others decline fuel, preferring to fill up with less-expensive standard jet-A at other airports.

Red Truck, the airport restaurant, draws a substantial nonpilot crowd to supplement fly-in customers. The menu features a range of breakfast and lunch treats that blend Mexican and South Asian influences. We arrived in time for lunch, which included a naan-dog consisting of a quarter-pound brisket frankfurter on a “bun” of naan with house-made mustard, relish, hilbeh, cabbage, and caramelized curried onions. Delicious.

We also ordered the lunch bowl, which combines dal, quinoa, fresh cabbage, fattoush, and a choice of meat or seasonal vegetables. The shaded outdoor dining area was ideal for planespotting and people-watching.

History

While the Truckee-Tahoe Airport got its start in the late 1950s, aviation had been part of the local culture for much longer. During the 1920s the federal airmail service established an intermediate landing field near the current airport. The field, which was 2,000 feet long and 600 feet wide, was part of the service’s airway between Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Instructions to pilots included directions that followed railroads and warnings about tall obstacles.

“On the direct course 10,000 feet will clear the highest peak, but an altitude of 15,000 feet should be maintained,” the instructions read, in part.

• READ MORE: Flying the Finger Lakes Region of New York

By the 1950s, business owners in Truckee were eager to build a new, larger, modern airport to attract more tourists. By 1958 they formed the Truckee Tahoe Airport District (TTAD), elected a board, and sought state and federal funding to build a runway and terminal and buy additional property around the airport. Today, the airport is funded by a number of sources, including aviation fuel sales, aircraft services, hangar leases, and local property taxes.

In 2017, when the control tower opened, the airport boasted 33,580 aircraft operations, made up of 14,978 piston single, 1,145 piston twin, 6,942 turboprop, 4,140 jet, 1,229 helicopter and 5,146 glider. The daily average was 92, though the figure grows significantly during holiday weekends and peak tourist periods in summer and winter. The record stands at 532 ops in one day.

Alternates

Other airports, all nontowered, that serve the Lake Tahoe area include Lake Tahoe Airport (KTVL), Minden-Tahoe (KMEV), Carson City (KCXP), Dayton Valley (A34), and Blue Canyon-Nyack (KBLU).

We arrived at Reno-Tahoe International (KRNO), the area’s Class C commercial hub, on our way to the annual weeklong National Championship Air Races at Reno-Stead Airport (KRTS). With an event as big as the races going on all day and local casinos and restaurants buzzing at night, it is easy for visitors to forget about the region’s other attractions, but there are many. Tahoe is close, well known, and clear in its appeal. But there is more to see in the Reno-Tahoe area. Hotel rooms are hard to find during race week, so we stayed 40 minutes away in Carson City, Nevada’s capital.

The town has developed a young, artistic vibe that we found welcoming. There is plenty of creative food, good coffee, and shopping to keep visitors busy. Carson City is also close to Tahoe and Virginia City, the preserved-in-time Old West town that feels like a scene from 3:10 to Yuma or perhaps High Plains Drifter.

Downtown Reno, where the Truckee River runs through, features shops, restaurants, bars, and large-scale outdoor art. If Las Vegas does not quite work for you, Reno might be your place.

For pilots, the network of airports in and around Reno and Lake Tahoe make the area a singular flying destination.

Truckee-Tahoe Airport (KTRK)

Location: Truckee, California

Airport elevation: 5,904 feet msl

Airspace: Nontowered, Class D

Airport hours: Continuous

Runways: 11/29, 02/20

Lighted: Yes, both runways

Pattern altitude: 7,000 feet msl for light piston aircraft, 7,500 feet msl for turboprops and jets

This column first appeared in the December 2023/Issue 944 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Flying the Truckee-Lake Tahoe Region appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

For the estimated 140,000 fans who attended the weeklong celebration of aircraft performance (September 13-17), I suspect the overall experience was still one to treasure, in part because the races are more than the sum of the event. When you walk through the gates and head for the grandstands, you are stepping into a complex timeline that stretches back to the competition’s conception in 1964 and beyond to aviation’s Golden Age, with the Cleveland air races, and the Thompson, Bendix, and Greve trophies.

I know I will feel a tinge of joy every time I look back on my days spent with the Yak-3 racer Miss Trinidad, its owner Sam Davis, crew chief John Dowd, pilot John Maloney, and the gang of volunteers that kept the complex vintage machine ready to race. This group generously made room for me in its pit stall so I could report on the effort required to get a bunch of 80-year-old warbirds to the starting line and the elements that, when blended correctly, turn a race plane into a winner.

• READ MORE: The Intricacies of Getting Ready for Reno

The performances seen at Reno are often the culmination of years of work spent modifying, testing, and refining these former fighting aircraft into racers capable of lapping the 8-mile course at 400 mph or more. Favorites change from year to year with certain airplanes enjoying runs of back-to-back victories and record-setting lap speeds. Sometimes an airplane will languish at the back of the pack until a new owner or change of sponsorship brings the resources needed to make it a front-runner. In other cases, finding the right pilot can put an airplane in the winner’s circle. These combinations often become part of air racing lore.

That tradition piqued my interest as a kid leafing through aviation magazines. Photos of P-51 Mustangs, F8F Bearcats, Hawker Sea Furies, and other models of the World War II era rounding pylons, flying wingtip to wingtip, seemed completely thrilling. Even more storied than the aircraft were the pilots. From Chuck Lyford and the Bardahl Special P-51 and Mira Slovak and the Smirnoff Bearcat in the 1960s to Steven Hinton in the recently restored Bardahl Special in this year’s races, the aviators who compete at this level tend to lead interesting lives.

For decades, I was determined to make my way to Reno to see the action firsthand. But life and all of its schedules kept me away. As a result, I missed watershed developments, including the arrival of original non-warbird designs Tsunami during the mid-1980s and the twin-engine Pond Racer, a Burt Rutan composite design of the early 1990s. My father went to the races with a group of friends in 1992 and brought back photos of the Pond Racer. I was jealous.

Still, I followed the races for many years through print, television, and video, catching memorable events like Hinton flying the P-51 Red Baron to a new speed record in 1979 to the classic 1989 showdown between Bill “Tiger” Destefani and his P-51 Strega and longtime rival Lyle Shelton in the Bearcat Rare Bear.

Seeing the event in person this year might have been the ultimate case of “better late than never,” but it gave me a sense of what the races truly represent and why the tightly knit racing community returns each year despite the expense and obvious risks.

“Community” really is the right word to describe Reno’s cast of characters that includes pilots, aircraft builders, mechanics, owners, officials, sponsors, and families. As expected, people serving as crewmembers work tirelessly for their teams, repairing, tuning, and tweaking aircraft before and between qualifying flights and heat races. What might surprise outsiders is how hard the same folks will work to get a competitor’s airplane into a race, especially if they are sidelined by a mishap.

If someone needs a spare part, a special tool, or someone with particular expertise, help is sure to emerge from a neighboring section of the pits, which sprawls like a small town across the vast ramp at Reno-Stead Airport (KRTS). It is the kind of town where some of your neighbors might be celebrities.

Pete Law, the renowned former Lockheed engineer and fluid dynamicist who for decades designed exotic systems for cooling racers’ engines and keeping them running properly, stopped by Trinidad’s pit stall for a friendly visit. Across the ramp were the legendary P-51s Miss America and Thunderbird. Take a shortcut through Miss Trinidad’s backyard, and you would enter the Hinton headquarters where the Bardahl Special was undergoing constant preparation. The airplane, restored and heavily modified over the past year, reportedly at great expense, was favored to win the Unlimited Gold race.

The stakes were high, and the atmosphere in the pits was intense, though still friendly, with visitors stopping by to chat and bag the occasional autograph. In the background, generators hummed and power tools whirred as workers opened hatches and removed exterior panels to perform a range of surgeries on aircraft before sending them to the line to start the next race. Occasionally, someone shouts for a tool or bandage to dress bloody knuckles. Sometimes you hear the echo of a nut, bolt, screw, or other small part dropped deep inside a fuselage or engine cowling, followed by an expletive. That is about as harsh as it gets.

Proof of the air racing community’s openness came when my wife, who did not grow up around airplanes, flew out to join me for the final day of competition. The entire crew welcomed her, and she wound up having such a great time chatting with them and pitching in to help when she could that the racing almost became secondary. She wondered how you get so many accomplished people to work free of charge.

As a physician, she happily answered medical questions with owner Davis and crew chief Dowd while learning about the vagaries of twin-row radial engines like the Yak’s Pratt & Whitney R2000. She cannot wait for the races to resume at a new venue, which is planned for 2025.

The ultimate show of friend-for-life status came just before we departed on Sunday afternoon. Members of the Davis team wore white T-shirts with an image of the airplane and the inscriptions “Miss Trinidad” and “Race 27.” As we said our farewells, Davis approached and handed us our own crew shirts.

We will wear them with pride.

This column first appeared in the November 2023/Issue 943 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Taking in the Reno Air Races’ Final Lap appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Now it’s down to three possible locations: Casper, Wyoming; Pueblo, Colorado; and Roswell, New Mexico. Off the list, for now, are Buckeye, Arizona; Thermal, California; and Wendover, Utah, though RARA says the sites “each have tremendous merit and value in their own right. We will be reaching out to them to continue discussions on their potential as expansion venues in the near future.” RARA is due to announce the final choice in March.

• READ MORE: Regional Growth Forces Reno Air Races to Look for New Home

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the amazing, positive feedback we’ve received from the six bidding communities as a whole, as we search for the future home for the National Championship Air Races,” said Fred Telling, CEO and chairman of the board for the Reno Air Racing Association. “Through a rigorous vetting process, we feel confident that one of these three locations will provide the right mix of elements our event needs to continue to race well into the future.”

According to RARA, “a series of site visits were conducted at each of the six locations by some RARA board members, class pilot representatives, and other committee participants to assess the viability of hosting the pinnacle air racing event at their facilities. A myriad of factors were taken into account, including the ability of venues to host large crowds, handle hundreds of aircraft, and support the large racecourse needed for the event.”

These venues are vying for air racing events in 2025. For 2024, Reno will host an airshow October 4-6 featuring the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, the Canadian Snowbirds, and the U.S. Air Force F-16 Viper Demonstration Team. RARA claims that the races brought an estimated $100 million in annual economic impact to the Reno area.

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on KITPLANES.

The post Three Locations Vie for National Championship Air Races appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Following the race, Dowd was riding a wave of gratification, knowing he had at least set a record for aircraft powered by the Pratt & Whitney R1830 Twin Wasp engine, sourced from a Douglas DC-3. “That was the fastest that engine has ever gone,” he says. And while he is not the type to mention it, his Yak—named Lilya, for Russian wartime fighter pilot hero Lilya Litvyak—made the rest of the field, all North American P-51 Mustangs with legendary Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, look slow.

Racing Costs Money and Time

After returning to Syracuse, Kansas, Dowd began working on improvements that he believed would push the airplane past 400 mph, which would almost certainly be fast enough to crack the Gold race, though probably not enough to win it. You can expect only so much improvement in performance year to year, especially when you are on a budget. Besides, Dowd, who has racing experience at Reno dating back to the 1970s, had difficulty finding time to work on his race airplanes.

“You wind up with a list of ‘wanna dos’ and ‘gotta dos,’ and in my case my spraying planes always were the priority,” he says of the aerial application business he owned for decades. “My farmers had to come first.”

Dowd did not return to Reno until last year, but after problems getting Lilya ready, he brought a P-51A called Shanty Irish, with which he won Silver again, flying very smoothly and very low, even by Reno standards. Though fans loved the P-51A, Dowd felt the Yak had more winning potential. Besides, he has never really enjoyed flying P-51s. While they might appear smooth and graceful rounding the pylons, the experience in the cockpit feels like drudgery. “It’s like driving a truck around the course—a lot of work.” The Yak, he says, is simply easier to fly.

Sometimes, Less Is More

There were several additional reasons Dowd chose the Yak over the P-51. First, it is smaller than the P-51s, Grumman Bearcats, and Hawker Sea Furies that make up most of the competitive air racing field. This basic trait tends to equate to a smaller budget required.

Probably the most significant advantage related to the Yak’s size is that it does not need an enormous engine in order to go fast. Dowd’s airplane won the Silver in 2016 at 376 mph using the Pratt & Whitney R1830 Twin Wasp—and it was tiny among the air-cooled radials typically found at Reno, including Pratt & Whitney R2800s and R4360s, and Wright R3350s.

There are engine people and airframe people among those who race at Reno. While the groups overlap, some tend to turn to more powerful engines when they need more speed. Others look for ways to make airframes lighter and more aerodynamic. “A race-prepared Merlin is going to cost you $300,000, overhauling a 3350 is about $250,000, and an R2000 overhaul is closer to $125,000,” Dowd says. A smaller engine is more economical, though not exactly cheap. “You quickly find that it can be cheaper to focus on airframe modifications.”

Dowd also has the advantage of being an aeronautical engineer by training. For decades he has spent winters performing intensive maintenance on his agricultural aircraft—and occasionally squeezing in racing projects—in his well-equipped shop.

How It Is Done

After acquiring the Yak in 2010, Dowd went through it carefully, rebuilding and replacing numerous parts that were broken, worn, or just not working properly. Over the next few years, he overhauled the engine, balanced control surfaces, and began redesigning some of the aircraft’s internal electrical and mechanical systems. Mostly, though, he sought to clean up the machine aerodynamically.

Most World War II aircraft, even those famous for high top speeds like the Mustang, really were designed to fly at 250 mph or so—or about how fast you fly when escorting bombers to their targets. The incidence settings of the horizontal stabilizer would reflect this, so these aircraft generally trim out easily to fly at that speed, or roughly half the pace required for the Gold.

This is why racing airplanes often have to use lots of trim to keep the nose down when approaching 500 mph. Sometimes the resulting aerodynamic pressure is rough enough to tear the trim tabs off the elevators. An elevator trim tab lost in this manner was named as a contributing factor in the crash of race pilot Jimmy Leeward’s P-51 Galloping Ghost at Reno in 2011. The accident killed Leeward and 10 spectators, while an additional 70 were injured by flying shrapnel when the airplane nose-dived into the ground and disintegrated. The stakes at Reno are high.

Getting his Mustang to fly fast meant Dowd had to reset the angle of its horizontal stabilizer and remove an offset built into the vertical fin to counter engine torque. Doing so significantly reduced “trim drag.” Curiously, the Yak flies fine at race speed without changes to the tail.

Spinner Afterbody

One of the modifications that makes Dowd’s Yak stand out is barely visible. It is a fiberglass fairing called a spinner afterbody. Like most radial-powered racers, the Yak uses a large-diameter propeller spinner to cover much of the engine cowling’s frontal area to improve aerodynamics. This arrangement leaves a narrow opening between the cowling and the spinner for cooling air to reach the engine.

As the air accelerates, it moves around the spinner and into the cowling. The void behind the spinner causes turbulence and pressure to build, causing drag. Dowd’s spinner afterbody, which he designed, is almost a mirror image of the spinner. The fairing matches the large diameter at the back of the spinner and narrows to a smaller diameter as it reaches the engine crankcase to which it is attached.

As a result, air flowing over the spinner continues smoothly across the fairing, expanding and decelerating to more efficiently cool the engine while reducing turbulence and drag. This is the kind of device aeronautical engineers dream up. It may not look like much, but the afterbody is effective, Dowd says. “It’s good for an extra 20 mph.”

Other racers took note, especially Dowd’s friend and longtime rival, Sam Davis, who flies a similar Yak, Miss Trinidad, and is known for his skill at fabricating custom aircraft exhaust systems. Dowd was sure that a set of Davis’ custom pipes would add even more speed to his Yak, which still had its original, inefficient exhaust system.

• READ MORE: Expanding the Campaign at Reno

Making Deals

“When I asked Sam about making the exhaust, he said he would do it, but he wanted me to make a fairing for him in exchange,” Dowd says. While giving that much help to a competitor might seem strange, it is the way things go in the air racing community. Pilots often take a year off from the sport to help rivals prepare their aircraft or join their race-day pit crew. Sometimes they even fly for them. In addition to supplying the spinner fairing, Davis proposed that Dowd fly Miss Trinidad for him as well. These are the types of deals that racers make all the time.

Davis, based in Corona, California, has been working steadily on Miss Trinidad for weeks, including the installation of Dowd’s fiberglass fairing. The airplane is based at Chino Airport (KCNO), home of the Planes of Fame Air Museum and Fighter Rebuilders, an operation that restores warbirds and prepares numerous racing aircraft for competition.

Recently, John Maloney, a longtime racer, film pilot, and son of Ed Maloney, who founded the museum and restoration businesses, test-flew Davis’ Yak and deemed it ready to race. Well, almost. The aircraft is at least ready to begin the process of countless tweaks, fine-tuning, and practice flying necessary for a good run at Reno.

In an interesting twist, Maloney has even offered to fly Miss Trinidad at Reno, possibly bumping Dowd to reserve-pilot status. “It’s fine. Johnny is one of the best sticks I know,” Dowd says, noting that he is often happier working with the crew than flying the airplane. “I’ll be there with all of my tools.”

This story first appeared in the September 2023/Issue 941 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post The Intricacies of Getting Ready for Reno appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Vicky Benzing hails from Northern California, growing up in San Jose. After graduating from high school, she pursued a career in physical chemistry, eventually obtaining a Ph.D in the discipline from the University of California-Berkeley. But a lucrative position in the Silicon Valley tech industry failed to hold onto her heart. Recognizing we have only so much time on the planet, she switched gears about 20 years ago, turned toward aviation, and practiced full time the aerosports she loves. Today she is based at Monterey Airport (KMRY).

She’s a skydiver, holds an airline transport pilot certificate, and flies her 450 hp 1940 Stearman in air shows around the country. In 2008, she placed in the top 10 in the Advanced category at the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships in an Extra 300S. But it’s her past 13 years at the National Championship Air Races in Reno that spark her forward the most. Benzing first raced at the Reno-Stead Airport (KRTS) in 2010, winning her first heat flying a Glasair SH-3R. She went on to become the “fastest woman at Reno” in 2015 in an L-139. And recently she’s topped the Sport Class Silver division with her custom Lancair Legacy, Lucky Girl.

• READ MORE: 6 Cities Competing to Host Next National Championship Air Races

FLYING caught up with Benzing as she was preparing for Reno 2023—hopeful to mark one more milestone at the storied event in the Unlimited Class at the controls of a P-51 Mustang.

FLYING Magazine (FM): How did you transition from aerobatics and get your start at Reno? What was the first airplane you brought to the races?

Vicky Benzing (VB): At the behest of Lee Behel, I went to PRS [Pylon Racing Seminar] in my Extra and, of course, the Extra is too slow to race. The Sport Class was not yet oversubscribed…we hadn’t opened the class up to [Van’s] RVs yet…so he asked me if I would race if he could find an airplane for me. Vicki Cruse [an aerobatic champion who died flying her Edge 540 at an airshow in England in 2009] was a close friend. Lee purchased her Glasair from her estate, and I raced it in her honor. She had previously raced at Reno—it was Race 13— the Cruse Missile. That airplane…had gremlins, and we always attributed that to Vicki’s sense of humor. I won that first race against Scott Nelson—I had to pass him to win the race. I got the fire truck ride, and the second race, I was on the pole, and when you’re a rookie, trying to find the pylons is tough. In the chute, when I put the throttle forward, I had a prop overspeed and very nearly lost the prop. I managed to get the airplane on the runway. We rebuilt the engine on that airplane, and I raced it the following year, the race that the Galloping Ghost went in, so we didn’t get to finish the race. So it wasn’t till the third year that I actually got to race all the heat races.

FM: From there, you went on to progress into the Jet Class, as well as getting the right airplane to advance in the Sport Class. Tell us about those experiences.

VB: In 2013, I raced the jet, Kermit, the L-39, and the Cruse Missile. We tried to make the Cruse Missile go faster with modifications—and I had a number of Lancair “kills.” But it wasn’t as fast as all the Lancairs. I put a rearview mirror in my cockpit, and I put a label on it that said, “Lancairs belong here.” But I wanted to have an airplane that I could modify and work on my own, and so in 2014, I went out and bought Lucky Girl [a Lancair Legacy]. I think the Cruse Missile was jealous, because Lee took me to go look at Lucky Girl in Fresno, California, and on the way, the Cruse Missile threw a fit and had a prop overspeed, and we ended up landing at the former Castle Air Force Base—Merced Airport [KMCE] now. Lucky Girl’s a fast stock Lancair, and through the years I’ve just modified her bit by bit, with bigger pistons, and last year, nitrous [oxide, a performance booster], and we’ll probably run nitrous this year.

FM: In 2015, you became the fastest woman at Reno. How did you come by that milestone?

VB: I raced the jet again in 2014, and then Dianna Stanger called me up to race her jet, Darkstar, an L-139, in 2015, and that’s when I became the fastest woman ever at Reno, ’cause I was clocked on the course at 469.831 mph, which was the same speed as one of the other guys did. And he clocked it first before me, so I ended up behind him in the order. Last year I raced Robin, the yellow jet [L-39]. Jets [are] a different deal—it’s really high G loading, especially for the really fast ones. You kind of say, “400 mph, 4 Gs; 500 mph, 5 Gs,” but that’s continuous, so if you hit wake, or fly unevenly, you’re hitting even higher Gs.

FM: You moved up to the top of the Sport Class Silver rankings regularly over the past few years in Lucky Girl. But you’ve had other dramatic moments in the race that stand out.

VB: From 2014 to present, I’ve raced Lucky Girl. My engine quit in the cooldown [lap]. I came out on downwind in the cooldown and went to land, and the engine quit. I was like, “What? You’re kidding me.” And those airplanes come down so quickly. I was basically over [Runway] 8, and I made the left turn to land on 32, and I barely got on the runway, barely got out of the turn before I made the runway. They are not gliders.

FM: For this year, you plan to campaign a special airplane. How did you come to buy a classic warbird?

VB: So I bought Clay Lacy’s P-51 [Miss Van Nuys] in 2019, and Steve Hinton Jr. has been restoring it, and it became a much bigger project than it started out as. The idea of purchasing the aircraft was to put it on the racecourse at Reno because it’s an historic aircraft [see “In Depth,” Issue 938] but also to fly it at airshows, because I think airplanes like that deserve to be seen. I think, as a woman, there are not that many opportunities to fly warbirds. I would love to be the person who is at the [Commemorative Air Force] museum wrenching on airplanes, but I just don’t have time to do that with doing the shows. I had to make an opportunity for myself to fly a warbird. I went to Stallion 51 to get training—and I swore up and down to my husband I was not going to buy a P-51. He bought me a little model for my desk. But Clay is my neighbor at Pine Mountain Lake, and I heard that his Mustang was for sale. It took a little talking to my husband and asking Clay if he would sell it to me.

FM: But the care and feeding of a warbird takes time and investment. Share with us the story of bringing an historic P-51 to the Unlimited Class.

VB: [Miss Van Nuys] had never been restored since it was built in 1944—never been overhauled. The last time an engine had been put in it was 1976 [after Lacy’s last time racing it at Reno in 1972]. I would be surprised if there were 100 hours on that engine. We were just going to bring it back up to snuff, but then one thing led to another. And that led to paint, and can you paint the cockpit, can you change the instrument panel? And then going through the airplane, we found a crack in the tail, so it had to come off. Steve is in the process of painting it—we got delayed by paint because we had a custom color mix, [a purple that is an exact match to the original shade]. We ordered it in September [2022], and we got it in April. We put in a water bar system for racing; the wing was profiled to make it smooth for racing. We put all the antennas inside the airplane. One of the things that I really like about racing is the modifications that you do to your airplane are there forever. If you’re using it for commuting or flying here to there, you’re going a lot faster because of the investment you’ve made in the airplane. My Lancair Legacy Lucky Girl cruises all day long at 2,500 rpm and full throttle, 5,500 feet, at 250 knots.

This column first appeared in the September 2023/Issue 941 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Expanding the Campaign at Reno appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The Reno Air Racing Association said it will commemorate its 60th anniversary with an airshow at Reno-Stead (KRTS) from October 4-6. The event will feature a rare combination of military aerobatic teams: the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and theRoyal Canadian Air Force Snowbirds.

• READ MORE: Reno Air Races Reveal Final List of Participating Pilots, Aircraft

Other performers scheduled to appear include the U.S. Air Force F-16 Viper Demo Team and a range of top civilian aerobatic acts. RARA said the Reno Air Show will include static displays, a racing heritage area and its STEM Discovery Zone. The organization also said it has planned “a few surprises” for the event.

“Even though we are not racing, we are planning an epic celebration of our history and certainly our future that promises to be yet another amazing event for Northern Nevada,” RARA said.

• READ MORE: 6 Cities Competing to Host Next National Championship Air Races

Regarding the future, RARA previously disclosed that it was reviewing proposals from six cities interested in hosting the National Championship Air Races in 2025, which had been held in Reno since 1964. The candidate cities are: Buckeye, Arizona; Casper, Wyoming; Pueblo, Colorado; Roswell, New Mexico; Thermal, California; and Wendover, Utah. RARA said it expects to decide on a new host city this year.

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The RARA circulated a formal request for proposal earlier this year following its announcement that 2023 would be the final year for the races at Reno Stead Airport (KRTS) in Nevada. The responding cities are: Buckeye, Arizona; Casper, Wyoming; Pueblo, Colorado; Roswell, New Mexico; Thermal, California; and Wendover, Utah.

Officials from those cities submitted more than 1,500 pages of documents supporting their case for why each should be the next host, the RARA said.

“Seeing the interest to host the National Championship Air Races at each of these unique venues gives me great hope for the future of air racing,” said Fred Telling, CEO and chairman of the board for the RARA. “We’re looking for our next home, somewhere we can celebrate many more anniversaries, so we’ve assembled an expert committee that is putting an extreme amount of care and diligence into choosing our next location.”

Often referred to as the Reno Air Races or simply Reno, the event began in 1964 at nearby Sky Ranch and moved to Reno Stead in 1966. Over time it developed into a singular motorsports gathering—a festival, really, celebrating high performance and camaraderie within the aviation community. It has also become a major economic boost for the local tourism industry.

“In the past 10 years alone, the event has attracted more than 1 million visitors to the region, generated more than $750 million for the economy, and contributed significant aviation related education and outreach to schools and nonprofits all around the area,” the RARA said.

The committee researching the proposals includes RARA personnel specializing in operations, safety, security, business development, and more. Representatives from the race classes are also “an integral part of the selection process,” according to the organization. The selection committee is vetting the proposals and plans to make site visits later this year. The RARA said it expects to announce a decision early next year.

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I also knew that I had only myself to blame for waiting too long to address the dirty buildup. Had I taken the time to wipe down the airplane thoroughly after every flight I could have avoided the discomfort of lying underneath in a semi-stress position, rag in hand. I have a creeper that makes scooting across the hangar floor easier, but it cannot help me scrub.

• READ MORE: Maintaining Your Ideal Aircraft: What Can a Pilot Do?

My reason for tackling the cleaning project stems from a trip to the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada, earlier this month. While there I spent a lot of time observing the crew of Miss Trinidad, a Russian Yak-3U Unlimited class racer. I noticed that they cleaned the airplane several times a day, not just after each flight but in between flights. Cleaning and polishing were part of the long checklist it used to make sure the Yak was always ready to fly.

Earlier I had shown a picture of Annie to the Yak’s crew chief, John Dowd, a career agricultural pilot and longtime racer I have written about before. Dowd pointed to the remains of hundreds of insects on the leading edge of the wing and reminded me that keeping the airplane clean would help aerodynamically in addition to simply being the right thing to do. He was correct, and, yes, the bugs really were visible in the photo. It was a bit shameful.

The Reno experience reminded me that owning an airplane is a major commitment, and cleaning off bugs, soot, and grass fragments is just a tiny part of the overall responsibility. After all, cleaning and checking every part of your aircraft helps ensure that you do not miss potential problems like airframe damage, corrosion, fluid leaks, or loose fasteners.

• READ MORE: Acquiring the Right Airplane Does Not Preclude Dreaming

After returning from the air races, I began writing a personal checklist consisting mostly of tasks to complete at the conclusion of each flight and during nonflying time spent in the hangar. It is a living document. I add items to the list as they come to mind. You will not find them in the typical POH, but they are vital, and we tend to forget them without a checklist. 

The efficient work of the volunteer crew taking care of Miss Trinidad also illustrated the importance of taking a consistent, professional approach to aviation. While I always seek to give my family a smooth, secure, airline-style experience when we travel in Annie, I know that I need to improve my briefing style and try not to be nervous when speaking with ATC. Becoming the best PIC one can be is always a work in progress.
For now at least one thing is certain: Annie will not have to overcome the drag of accumulated insects on our next flight.

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The pilots, both from California, were identified as Chris Rushing of Thousand Oaks, flying Baron’s Revenge, and Nick Macy of Tulelake, flying Six-Cat. Both Rushing and Macy were arguably two of the most skilled and experienced air race pilots in the world for the class.

• READ MORE: Reno Air Races Canceled Following Fatal Collision

The collision occurred after the race. Minutes before the accident, the pair had been competing in the last race of the Gold category. The races are run at 50 to 250 feet agl with engines consistently at full power and the aircraft flying nearly wing tip to wing tip. 

The intensity of the competition takes a toll on both the pilots and aircraft, necessitating a cooldown period following the final flag. There is no set rule for how long the cooldown is or how many laps the aircraft must take, or the order in which they will return for landing. It is left to the discretion of the pilots since it is not a “follow-the-leader” situation.

As noted in the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Air Safety Institute (ASI) preliminary assessment of the accident, the collision happened when the aircraft were attempting to land on Runway 8 at Reno-Stead Airport (KRTS). 

Richard McSpadden, senior vice president of ASI, noted that the collision occurred at approximately the base to final turn for the runway. 

“It appears there are three potential factors that may have contributed to this accident: decreased vigilance departing the cooldown area, procedural errors in traffic deconfliction, and diminished visibility below the higher flying aircraft,” McSpadden said. “We’ll look for the [National Transportation Safety Board report] to determine the cause.”

Because the race was over, the attention of the crowd was not so much on the T-6s, and a great many attendees reported seeing the aftermath of the collision as wreckage falling from the sky or clouds of dust rising from the desert floor. Others described hearing a collective gasp from the crowd followed by confusion and a stunned silence. 

Both the FAA and NTSB are investigating the accident. The NTSB preliminary report is expected to be released in a few weeks.

The Takeaway

If anything can be drawn from this accident, it is that the pattern is no place to let down your guard. The combination of crowded airspace, inherent blind spots due to aircraft design, low altitude, and relatively slow speeds during a task-saturated phase of flight makes for a challenging environment.

This accident proves that experience and skill can only go so far—if it can happen to professionals, it can happen to us.

The post Early Analysis of Fatal Reno Accident Offers Lessons appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The organization also identified the two pilots who died in the accident. They are Nick Macy, who piloted Six-Cat and Chris Rushing, who flew Baron’s Revenge.  RARA said both were “expertly skilled pilots and Gold winners in the T-6 Class,  Families of both pilots have been notified and support services are onsite as they deal with this tragedy.” There were no additional casualties on the ground, the group said.

RARA said it decided to end the event after discussing the situation with the pilots’ families and representatives of the race classes that had not yet completed all of their scheduled races. A competitor in the Unlimited Class told FLYING that a vote was taken by a show of hands and only three people indicated they wanted to keep racing.

“I am completely devastated and heartbroken…,” said Fred Telling, chairman of RARA and president of the T-6 Class. “These two pilots weren’t just an integral part of the National Championship Air Race family, they were a part of my family. My heart goes out to their own families and to all of the spectators and fans who have so enthusiastically supported us this week.”

RARA said it is cooperating with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident.

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