Reno 1977

[Dash119]

Gentlemen and Ladies,

I am new member of the forum, although I have been reading it on and off for years.

Does anyone have any pictures of Race 20 "Philippine Mustang" from the 1977 races. It was finished in a dark blue base with white stripes. It was owned and flown by John Wright of Reno Nevada. I was on his crew that year at the youthful age of sixteen.

Several years later he replaced Gunther Balz as the pilot of Race 5 "Roto-Finish", which I believe went on to become Race 5 "Red Baron". He and his wife died several years later in the crash of Race 20 in Elko Nevada.

Thanx in advance.

[Lon Moer]

Welcome to the forum!

John Wright was a great guy and his blue Mustang was beautiful.
The "Roto-Finish Special" raced in 1972~'73, and became the "Red Baron" in 1974.

Here's a couple photo's from the internet;

[Dash119]

Welcome to the forum!

John Wright was a great guy and his blue Mustang was beautiful.
The "Roto-Finish Special" raced in 1972~'73, and became the "Red Baron" in 1974.

Lon,

Thank you for posting those. I had seen two of them already but was hoping there might be more.

I guess I got the timeline reversed between his time in Race 5 and Race 20. One of the miracles of growing older...

Regards.

[sledge39]

.
An old thread with pix and info on "Phillipine Mustang" before Reno 77 (scroll down to post #26)

http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/showt...man-quiz/page3

Re: A new Wingman quiz... pages - 3 % 4

[Dash119]

.
An old thread with pix and info on "Phillipine Mustang" before Reno 77 (scroll down to post #26)

http://www.aafo.com/hangartalk/showt...man-quiz/page3

Re: A new Wingman quiz... pages - 3 % 4

Sledge39,

Thank you!

Regards.

[AAFO_WSagar]

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."
- President Merkin Muffley

Love your sense of humor, thanks for sharing your experiences!!!

Really glad to have you, sorry for the glitches on the membership signup form, that said, I'd assumed that my IP block on Russia screw it... my autocorrect put in a capitol R... russia! Anyway, thought that might have fixed the problem of bots flooding the system with bogus memberships... you may have uncovered a glitch that's truly keeping them out. Maybe, I'll leave it borked! You wanted in, had an issue and as a real person,, contacted me and I fixed it for you.

I think I'd rather have to do that than delete 1000's of bull**** apps from r u s s i a !!

[Desertdawg]

Congrats on your first post here, welcome onboard.

Cool memory to have from being 16.

You must have had some good stories to tell at school when you returned.

[Dash119]

Congrats on your first post here, welcome onboard.

Cool memory to have from being 16.

You must have had some good stories to tell at school when you returned.

Thanks for the welcome.

Best part of the experience was a ride from Cannon out to Stead during the week before the races. John had just installed a new canopy, and the plexiglass was perfect. He told me before the flight to keep my headphones on during takeoff. But being sixteen, the first thing I did when the tail came up was to pull them off... I couldn't hear a thing for a couple of minutes. We did a high circuit of the course before landing, a day I will never forget.

I bought a shirt with a big Rolls Royce logo on the front at the races. When I got back home to Southern California and back to school, everyone thought I was a fan of the car... The general public didn't know much about warbirds then, and they still don't.

Regards.