LAST RENO PYLON RACING SCHOOL 2023

[RAD2LTR]

Was supposed to go up and do some Air to Air, but just after takeoff we had a canopy issue and aborted. It was the shortest flight I've ever done I think, but hands down the coolest experience ever. Sitting there on the runway at Reno, in a race plane, with other racers around us... Yeah, that was cool. I'm going to try again tomorrow. I gotta say, shoehorning myself into a Glasair III takes a little work, and might make actually shooting the A2A stuff tricky. We'll see.

Anyway, here are some photos
























Thats all for tonight.

Will

[AAFO_WSagar]

Completely awesome to have you there Will! Nice work with the shots, looks like you're handling shooting through canopy pretty damn well! I've only shot through plexi back in real estate shooting days out of a Cessna 172, it was tough to get the old camera's to ignore the "extra lens filter" sometimes

Please keep going with the updates!! BTW, shared on FB! (I like this feature on the new board!!)

[RAD2LTR]

Completely awesome to have you there Will! Nice work with the shots, looks like you're handling shooting through canopy pretty damn well! I've only shot through plexi back in real estate shooting days out of a Cessna 172, it was tough to get the old camera's to ignore the "extra lens filter" sometimes

Please keep going with the updates!! BTW, shared on FB! (I like this feature on the new board!!)

I have a polarizer on the lens (Using my old school Nikon 35-70 F2.8D) with a huge flexible rubber hood that will conform to the window. The setup seems to work pretty well. I hear there is a Photonanza here as well, but I'm not sure who's it is, or what I need to do to get aboard. I will investigate further today.

Will

[shadow]

Thanks for the photos!

[AAFO_WSagar]

I have a polarizer on the lens (Using my old school Nikon 35-70 F2.8D) with a huge flexible rubber hood that will conform to the window. The setup seems to work pretty well. I hear there is a Photonanza here as well, but I'm not sure who's it is, or what I need to do to get aboard. I will investigate further today.

Will

Photo Nanza would be nice!! The Banana that my Bud Allen is selling just *might* go to our local A&P (he was at RENO with us the year Allen had the airplane down in Heritage land... IF, that happens, Allen and I would still have cheap access to the airplane! It only has the front door, however so we'd have to remove the escape window on either side. We did it in Jim Wright's V-Tail way back when I got the A2A of the Hughes Racer Replica! No idea if this would ever happen but.... it's not even windy once you get up to speed, air goes right past the window.

[RAD2LTR]

9:23 pm, and I'm just sitting down to edit some pics.... The day started out with the first photo hop from the back of Olivier's Epsilon. Wow, roomy enough, nice to shoot to the left. Oh, wait, I can't turn to the right because of the parachute. Hmmm, well, Okay I can roll with it, I'll simply shoot the stuff off the left wing. Easy enough. Well, I really need to turn off the back button focus on this camera so I can shoot over my right shoulder. (Puts head down to dig through the menus to find how to do that. ) 3...2...1... 3G turn holy hell! That caught me by surprise. Okay I'm not going to find that setting while we are flying, back to shooting. Now we are playing follow the leader in formation... Oh, that closure rate to the lead is a bit high, and we are doing a big roll to dissipate the energy, but I've got the lead plane in the viewfinder. Sweet I get to try a "Because I was inverted" shot... And the camera defocused... fail. Okay, 3...2...1..., another 3 G pull but as the camera got heavy, I found that it got really stable. I was shooting with my 25 year old 35-70 F2.8D non stabilized lens. It was the only thing I had that would fit in the space I had to work with. I wasn't expecting much, but It was a winner. As I type, I'm editing a random selection and every one of them looks good. Wow.

The afternoon hop was bumpy. This time I was in a Glasair III and I could sort of look to my right, but couldn't see anything to my left Again I had essentially zero space between the lens and the canopy, but I made it work.

I have another A2A shoot for tomorrow evening, this time in a proper photo plane. I'm now fully addicted to shooting air to air.

I'll get some pics posted as soon as I can.

Will

[RAD2LTR]

Okay, some pics...


















We were pulling about 3Gs through this turn, I was effectively shooting almost straight up.

A little less tight and less bank.



This Glasair really does look great.

Trying to keep up.





Flight Lead.





thats all for tonight. Its 1230, I'm going to bed.

Will

[shadow]

Great pictures, thanks!

[RAD2LTR]

This morning's mission...












Will

[RAD2LTR]

Thats all for now. Time for me to prep for the evening photo flight with several of the Sport guys. That said, the weather to the west is looking iffy, north still looks good. Should be interesting.

Will

[Pylon1_Mark]

Looks like someone is having a lot of fun - really great pics.

[RAD2LTR]

Looks like someone is having a lot of fun - really great pics.

I was tired after the flight this morning. Having a camera that goes from 5lbs to 15+ in about a second, sometimes for a sustained period of time, is a work out. Do this while trying to look through the viewfinder makes for a very good workout. Still, what an awesome experience. That was what I would call "Fun Flying" Its highly addictive. I need another hit... hahah.

Will

[AAFO_WSagar]

GEEZUZ WILL! THAT IS SOME SPECTACULAR CHIT! Thought you said you were going to A2A "school".. looks to me like you could give lessons! GREAT WORK BUDDY!!!!!!!!!

[AAFO_WSagar]

I was tired after the flight this morning. Having a camera that goes from 5lbs to 15+ in about a second, sometimes for a sustained period of time, is a work out. Do this while trying to look through the viewfinder makes for a very good workout. Still, what an awesome experience. That was what I would call "Fun Flying" Its highly addictive. I need another hit... hahah.

Will

Will, something tells me that your results over the past few outings will gain you many, MANY opportunities to take more amazing shots!

Truly nothing short of AMAZING work Will! You may be one of the best A2A shooters ever! Dealing with shooting through plexi and doing this well is... well... well (overused) phrase... AMAZING!

[RAD2LTR]

It would be cool if doors open for me after this. I have to think a normal photo flight would be a piece of cake compared to what I've been doing the last few days. I'm excited to see what else I have on the camera that I haven't looked at yet. I was planning on starting with my big lens stuff when I get home, but I have a feeling the wide angle stuff will have a lot more awesome stuff that is unique.

I'm really hoping I get at least one more A2A chance before the photonanza heads back to Virginia on Wed.

I'm off to the pylons today. WIll be interesting to see how I do with the new glass out there. (300F2.8 and 500F4E)

Will