Reno Air Races Streaming This Weekend (1 Viewer)

If anyone is interested, Live Airshow TV is live streaming the Reno Air Races.

-Keith

Neat!

Unfortunately it isn't nearly nice as actually being there especially when it comes to the sound of some incredible engines.

Wow...there was just an amazing finish in a heat race to determine starting position for Sunday's unlimited Gold Race. Hopefully, a clip of that will show up on youtube.

-Keith

Wasn't that the place where there was that horrible air crash a few years ago? And before that the accident in Ramstein Germany? I love air shows, but those were awful. Many deaths and some horrific injuries.

In Spokane Washington, there was also a terrible crash about 20 years ago where a guy tried some way over the top maneuvers with a B-52 at Fairchild AFB. Thankfully it was a rehearsal, didn't occur during the actual air show.Air shows are fun, but even with the rules where planes can't fly towards the crowds, things can go terribly wrong.
Don't mean to sound so negative, but be careful. If things don't look right, maybe time to head home.

Yes, at Reno in 2011 a mechanical failure caused a plane maneuver in a violent and unexpected way. It is believed the pilot was rendered unconscious because of the g forces and the plane crashed into a crowd, killing 10, injuring 69. I remember reading about a similar thing happening many years ago at the air races but in that case, instead of crashing, the plane just started climbing. The plane reached around 9,000 ft before the pilot regained conscious but he was able to land the aircraft.

The Ramstein accident was much worse. And this year, at the Travis AFB Open House, I a biplane crashed while performing which killed the pilot. It didn't threaten the crowd which I was grateful for since I was there.

Certainly any type of motorsports pose a certain amount of risk to the participants, and unfortunately, the spectators. Auto racing has seen its fair share of disasters as well. Probably the biggest is the 1955 Le Mans crash that killed over 80 spectators.

And while it might not be a very comforting thought, I would imagine statistics tell us that the drive to the event is far more dangerous than the event itself.

-Keith

Here is a video grab from yesterday's close finish.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ny1nc6bjvl78un/finish.jpg?dl=0

-Keith

Keith Plucker said:

Yes, at Reno in 2011 a mechanical failure caused a plane maneuver in a violent and unexpected way. It is believed the pilot was rendered unconscious because of the g forces and the plane crashed into a crowd, killing 10, injuring 69. I remember reading about a similar thing happening many years ago at the air races but in that case, instead of crashing, the plane just started climbing. The plane reached around 9,000 ft before the pilot regained conscious but he was able to land the aircraft.

The Ramstein accident was much worse. And this year, at the Travis AFB Open House, I a biplane crashed while performing which killed the pilot. It didn't threaten the crowd which I was grateful for since I was there.

Certainly any type of motorsports pose a certain amount of risk to the participants, and unfortunately, the spectators. Auto racing has seen its fair share of disasters as well. Probably the biggest is the 1955 Le Mans crash that killed over 80 spectators.

And while it might not be a very comforting thought, I would imagine statistics tell us that the drive to the event is far more dangerous than the event itself.

-Keith

Click to expand...

Many, many years ago a friend of mine had a relative who was killed when the wheel of a racecar flew up off the race course and struck her. Two feet in the other direction and my friend would have been the victim. These things are very rare, but they do happen.

As you mentioned, driving to the event is far more dangerous. Kind of like commercial air traffic, much more dangerous driving to the airport than the flight itself.No need to hibernate in your home and never go to these events, they're very enjoyable, but sometimes s**t happens.

A buddy of mine and I went to the Reno races back around 2001-2002. It was a great experience. It really is fun to watch the races.

The one thing that we saw that I won't ever forget, though, was a flight demonstration by an F-14. Here's the story:

As many of you probably know, there are several different "classes" of aircraft that compete over the weekend. Each class of aircraft has their own "track" marked by tall pylons. All tracks share the same "front stretch" which runs in front of the bleachers/grandstands, but each track has a different overall length - the largest loop being around 8.5 miles around.

My friend and I went on a Sunday, where there was a flight demo of an F-14 scheduled. An F-16 (one of my all-time favorite military aircraft) had performed on Saturday, but we couldn't make it that day. As the F-14 demo wound down, the announcer mentioned that on Saturday, the F-16 pilot had decided to race one lap around the largest track and recorded an (obviously) amazing time. The F-16 is, after all, a highly maneuverable, single seat fighter jet.

Upon hearing this, the F-14 pilot decided he wanted a piece of the action, too. Now, comparing an F-14 to an F-16 is much like comparing a Miata to a Camry. But the F-14 does have one trick up it's sleeve - the variable sweep wings. For maximum speed, the wings are swept back, and for added maneuverability (at the expense of speed), the wings are swept forward. Normally, as the announcer described, the wing sweep is computer-controlled, but for purposes of this demonstration, the pilot was going fully manual.

After we all were nearly deafened by the plane screaming past the start/finish line, we watched in amazement as the plane rounded the course - watching the wing sweep constantly changing - opening, closing, etc.

When all was said and done, the F-14 crossed the finish line mere seconds slower than the F-16s time from the previous day. I wish I remembered the actual margins, but both my buddy and I were completely impressed that the results were as close as they were. Neither one of us would ever have guessed the F-14 capable of even approaching the F-16s time.

Another highlight was watching the Blue Angel's C-130 (Fat Albert) demonstrate RATO (Rocket Assisted Take Off).

Jason Charlton said:

Another highlight was watching the Blue Angel's C-130 (Fat Albert) demonstrate RATO (Rocket Assisted Take Off).

Click to expand...

I also saw a C-130 do that a few years back. Not Blue Angel's, maybe ANG or just regular AF, but it was very impressive.

I always thought the term was JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off). (Never mind, just found out the terms are basically interchangeable).