Thank you Wayne and associates

[Brewski]

As a daily lurker here on the board for the last 5+ years, I try and keep updated on all of the events related to Reno. I want to thank Wayne and all of the contributers for the wealth of information that is shared on a daily basis. I haven't attended the races for about 6 years now, but will be attending again this year. I have all of you to thank for that This year sounds like the year that can't be missed.

You may be wondering what has made me break my silence after all of these years (or most likely you're not), it is the recent updates and interviews on this site. I can tell that Wayne has been working overtime to inform all of us. Just wanted to extend a digital handshake to him for his work.

I feel as if I know most of the posters on this board, and their personalities, but I don't know their real names. I believe that some of the real movers and shakers involved in racing post here, but I don't know who they really are. I feel as though I'm on the outside looking in (which is exactly what I have been doing for 5 years). Maybe it's me, maybe I should be able to tell who they really are based upon their handles. I'm not saying that people should have to declare who they are, you've had that discussion here previously (a couple of times I think). If any of you would like to volunteer your info, I would greatly appreciate that, and I'm sure that other casual fans would also.

OK, this has rambled long enough.

To follow my own request:

Bruce Utzig

Fan since 1987 when I was working for the framed race poster vender.
I don't work for nor am I affiliated with any specific race team.
I would REALLY like to see Critical Mass reach her full potential this year.


Again thank you,
Brewski

[rwflyboy]

Glad your back

Stop the Rhino camp (Bad Attitude) and say hi....would be glad to met you and hear of your old times on the ramp....as to who I am...not the Driver...just a younger brother......;->

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Thank you Wayne and associates

Originally posted by Brewski
I can tell that Wayne has been working overtime to inform all of us. Just wanted to extend a digital handshake to him for his work.

Wow Bruce, thanks! I have to admit to letting the informational pipeline for this site run a bit drier than in year's past lately. This has not been due to lack of interest by any means, but other things have been happening that demanded my attention that have taken up a lot of my time.

Early this year, I became involved in developing two websites for pretty important events that are directly involved with classic aviation and the future of air racing. One is the website for Aviation Nation (The Nellis Air Show nellisairshow.com) and the other, and I'm pretty proud to be a part of this, the website for the Naional Aviation Heritage Invitational (The Rolls Royce Cup heritagetrophy.org and .com)

So, while I've been a bit lax here, I've been working in the "background" to further all of our goals, that being.... helping in whatever way I can to further the goals of all of us who love the old birds and love watching them in competition, both in the sky and on the ground.

The Nellis Air Show is a bit of a trial run for what might well become a second venue for the grand sport of Air Racing. If the interest can be grown and maintained for the event "Las Vegas Air Racing" to take hold and actually make it, then we will not only have one event annually, we'll have two. This would be a great boon to the teams of this sport as it just might make it easier for them to gain sponsorship and make ends meet...

Anyway.. long answer to your message but I would like to say, I really do appreciate the "pat on the back"...

We're working on some more stuff to get out prior to Reno, hopefully, it will all get done and we'll head down there ready to roll with some stuff to keep ya interested until the first blades of September rip the sky over Stead!!

Wayne

[wolfee]

I am not a racer, not even a pilot. Just a long time fan of the Rano Air Races. My Grandfather was a test pilot at Edwards AFB when he died before I was borne.

Joe Wolfe
Moving to Richmond VA soon.

Wolfee

[AAFO_WSagar]

Wolfee... nice historical background! I grew up in the home of modern Air Racing, just a few miles down the road, in fact, from Sky Ranch in fact.. I'll ALWAYS kick myself for not continuing my bike ride with a buddy on the weekend of the first race out there!

We headed out the road to the ranch after having seen a couple airplanes out at the Reno Airport earlier in the week.. (no, I have no recollection what they were, other than one was a Mustang) but we did not prepare at all for the trip and having no water, while riding a bike out in the desert got the best of us as we topped the hill and could actually see the sun reflecting off the airplanes in the air and the cars parked out at the event... I remember my friend and I looking at each other... and saying... "Man.... we've got a LONG way to go!!" so we gave up and turned round and headed back home..

There is little aviation background in my family, other than my brother, who worked as a mechanic in the Air Force and later, for World Airways down in the bay area as same..

My father did NOT like airplanes or flying, hated doing it himself and even more, hated seeing his kids up in those "crates"...

Sort of a neat background on his reasoning for that.. He was born in 1911 and had bought a ride in a jenny or something from a barnstormer at some point in his "wild" motorcycle days as a youngster back in New York.. The pilot had given him the regular "shake and bake" flight and then had some sort of engine coughing problem and a somewhat rough landing.. Probably normal for the course and the engine thing was probably just to give the "kid" a thrill but my dad HATED it and swore he'd never fly again...

He did, but only twice.. once on a DC-3 over the rocks to SFO (Reno's service was all prop until pretty late in the Jet age, I'll always remember the "event" when the first 727 service started there and we got to see one of them rocket ships for the first time!) and from there to New York in a jetliner for his father's funeral.. He hated that flight so much, he took the train all the way from New York to Reno via Chicago for his return!

Needless to say, once I finally took my first flight in my early 20's.. I was hooked on airplanes and flying and have been more so every year of my life since..

Never took a flying lesson but have had the "stick" in the right seat more than a few times, including a very memorable flight from Portland to the South Oregon Coast as "unofficial" PIC of a Tri-Pacer several years ago... The owner of the plane was very good about letting me just fly it, advising me of altitude of the next hill and asking.... "that mountain is 3500 feet... we gonna clear it?"

Total flight time was something like 5.5 hrs and I loved it! Not too hard to find the coast from Portland... go west, turn left.. you're there..

He even introduced me to using the radios for navigation and it all started to gell very well.. One of these days... I'm gonna "just do it" and take those darn lessons, even if I can't afford to do much with it, it's just something we all need to do if we really have the urge!

I'd like to hear how those of us here who do fly, first got their start. I know, there are some interesting stories. Steve Dilda, for one, has a great story of how he got his start while in the Air Force as an enlisted man... (he had no intention of being a pilot when he went in)...

If he reads this, I'll let him tell the story, it's a good one and someone in his life changed his life for good...

Nice thread Bruce.. thanks for starting it!

Wayne

[rwflyboy]

If I lived near ya Wayne......

I would be glad to give ya some time. You buy the airplane time, I get current and I get ya done on what you could pay me.......Just because " What a Man You Are!!!!" doing this site for us...maybe some guys could pitch in to get you soloed......Someone out there in Your area who enjoys this site ought to be able to be your CFI ?

[snowman]

Bruce, you're alive! Thank you for breaking the ice and taking up the keyboard. Good to hear from you. I have been hooked on this "fastest motorsport in the world" since racing (Oops - I mean driving) up from LA in '69 just in time to see Dr Cliff Cunnins in Miss Jeannie, Race #69, pancake in the dry lake. I saw his prop cartwheel through the air upon impact and thought the worst. He showed up on the back of a convertible a half hour later much ot everyone's delight.

Christmas and child birth are great but they ain't air racin'! Thank you Wayne and all the other cyber geeks for keeping us informed. If it weren't for the occasional visit to the Eagle's Nest and the Dwelle hanger, I would just faint away between Septembers.

Mr Dwelle may be part of the Auburn airshow on Aug 9. His fast and faster passes are worth the price of admission.

ron snow
air race fan

ps Cliff and Miss Jeannie beat Lyle in the Bear by half a plane length in the closest and most exciting race I have ever witnessed. Lyle's 3350 was detonating with clouds of black smoke. Cliff was recovering from two broken collar bones and it was also his daughter Jeannie's 16th birthday!

[stuntflyr]

Pssttt, Miss Candace, Candace is her name.
Chris...

PS Cliff bellied'er in in 1970, as we get older it all runs together though!

[blacksheep]

oops wrong place

[Total flight time was something like 5.5 hrs and I loved it! Not too hard to find the coast from Portland... go west, turn left.. you're there.. ]


Wayne,
I wouldn't say PDX is all that easy to find ,remember the 707 that landed at Troutdale by mistake ?



Blacksheep

[snowman]

When was that?

Sjpeak for yourself about getting old and loosing it Cliff. I was there! Clay Lacey won in '70 with his free-purple-paint Snoopy when all the fast guys broke. Thanks for the spelling correction. I don't have the advantage of printed material or other resources but my aging memory. What I do remember is the thrill of hearing Cummins engine sound at full gallup. Still the sweetest sounding Merlin ever. Goose bump city!

Speaking of memories, there was Kerch on Strega in '88. I asked him if they had bolted on some horsepower to gain the 19-20 mph speed increase. He said, "Ron, you could look at the airplane all day and not see it. But we made 200 refinements that gave us a tenth of a mile per hour each". One sharp dude, that Kerch.

Hope to meet you all on Monday morning 9/8/03.

ron snow
older air race fan

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: oops wrong place

Originally posted by blacksheep
I wouldn't say PDX is all that easy to find ,remember the 707 that landed at Troutdale by mistake ?

Ouch! Three airports, pretty close to each other.. (Troutdale, PDX, Pearson)

Doubt anyone would ever mistake Pearson for PDX... hummn.. I've only flown into Troutdale a couple times...if I remember correctly, it SURE looks a lot smaller than PDX... musta been a bit embarrasing for the crew..

Dunno if any of you have ever heard of the "Chico Air Geeks" or not.. a *somewhat* infamous band of.... ahh.... "airmen" and other assorted persons of interest

One evening while visiting the former museum director for the "Spruce Goose Museum" ... who was/is probably the Chairman of the Board of the "Air Geeks" (in disguise, of course, while in his role as "Director" of the mainstream museum out at McMinnville)...

Anyway.. trying to make a long story short.. One evening out at my friends house, a group of the "Geeks" had come up for a visit... I was talking about "Chico" and made a bit of a "misspoke" which prompted one of the "Geeks" to relate a story that had happened to him while working at the Chico Airport as a Fueler....

True Story: totally misquoted, stolen or otherwise copyright violated from an unnamed Chico Air Geek...

It seems one evening this "fueler" was sitting at his post at the very quiet Chico airport when a lone cabin class twin Cessna was seen to enter the pattern, land and taxi up to a parking spot near where our "fueler" was stationed..

As the pilot of the aforementioned cabin class twin shut down the engines, our "fueler" drove up in his truck, assuming that fuel was the reason for this stop...

The cabin door of the airplane opened and a familiar bald head was seen to peer out of the cabin, owner of this head, squinting from the bright sunlight, looks around and casually asks our "fueler/geek" .....

"Son, you seen a limo around here anywhere?"

To which our fueler/geek, in his best hick twang responds:

"well no Mr. Rickles (owner of the bald head and squinting eyes)
I recon the nearest limo to Chico would be quite a piece down the road".........

To which, our now wide eyed Mr. Don Rickels turns and responds to his increasingly uncomfortable pilot......

"Chico.... WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN CHINO.... YOU HOCKY PUCK"

The above is a true story as near as I can remember it told to me by our fueler/airgeek...

It would seem, I'm not the only person who sometimes misspeaks when they mean to say Chico and wind up saying Chino.. which is what prompted the above story/recollection on the evening it was related to me...

Happens to the best of us I guess...

Wayne
PS... Blacksheep... what part of the PNW are you located???

[blacksheep]

PNW

Story was the PIC got lost in some fog and you are right Troutdale is alot smaller than PDX , the problem was getting the plane out again

As to your question I was born and raised right here in the Portland,Vancouver area

Blacksheep

[AAFO_WSagar]

Blacksheep,

I think we corresponded a bit some time ago??

I've been up here since about '69 with a year or a bit more spent down in Klamath <no> Falls about a year or so ago..

I do think I remember hearing about that incident out at Troutdale... Do not remember how they did manage to get out of there though..

Interesting cluster of airports actually.

Wayne

[Peashooter]

Here's the scoop on my handle:

http://www.pylon1.com/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=5&topic_id=523&mesg_id=523&listing_type=search

In 1978 the influences were: 1) my newly minted degree in philosophy and "Thomism"; 2) reading about the "Bearcat Professor," Russ Hanson [Flying Mag., Mar. 1966]; 3) new findings in cosmology, i.e., black holes, worm holes and other theories on curved space; 4) Red Baron, Foxy Lady and Roto Finish Special; 5) Star Wars; and 6) every new issue of "Air Classics".

All the Blackhole Peashooter needs is a mouse motor, Kerch, five Mil and some aluminum to replace the styrene. <g> Peas

[Len Ashburn]

A Big Thumbs Up!

To Wayne and everyone else who contributes here and to Air Racing to help keep this remarkable sport alive, here's a big THUMBS UP!