Today was a challenge.
The wind was calm early, but picked up around 9 or 10. They made up the biplane race that scratched yesterday and then ran mostly normal for the first few hours.
The STOL Drag racers had already finished their competition, but they ran some exhibition races. Due to wind restrictions, there were able to fly upwind, but not downwind, so they didn't do the return part of each race. They just ran one way.
As for racing, I think that most of the races scratched. The ones that did run played out pretty much as expected. I'm trying to remember if I saw any passes today, and I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Some of the performers were quite a bit of fun. Eric Tucker did both his dead stick and his comedy routines. For me, the comedy routine was one of the most fun things that I've seen at Reno, ever. I fly both full scale and radio control Cubs. The wind was such that he could hover and fly backwards (relative to ground). His takeoff was essentially vertical. I love flying R/C in the wind (we call it "kite flying"), and the show looked very much like that. He was not able to land on the ambulance at the end, which didn't surprise me at all. I have a huge amount of respect for his skills. He really knows how to fly that airplane.
I enjoyed the F35 demo, both yesterday and today. Even though it was windy, there was far less haze and smoke, so visibility was much better. In yesterday's show, the pilot did a very impressive flat turn. I've seen the F22 do it, but the F35 doesn't have vectored thrust, so I appreciated the technical aspect. We were looking forward to the same maneuver today, but she didn't do it. At the end of the F35 demo, Steve Hinton flew a P51 for the heritage flight. I was surprised by how small the F35 is. In other heritage flights, I've seen the jet dwarf the Mustang. The F35 is definitely much larger than the P51, but it just seemed like much less so than F22's or F15's.
I also enjoyed the V22 demo. I've seen it fly before, but only on arrival to the static display. I know what the flight envelope looks like on paper, but it doesn't have the same impact as seeing it in person.
I'm disappointed with the scratched races because it leaves both Miss America and Race 39 as trailers in their respective gold races tomorrow. I wanted to see Dreadnought and Miss America as 1 & 2, with One Moment, Race 24 and Race 39 as 1,2,3 in their respective races. But I am happy to see them make the safe call.
The wind was calm early, but picked up around 9 or 10. They made up the biplane race that scratched yesterday and then ran mostly normal for the first few hours.
The STOL Drag racers had already finished their competition, but they ran some exhibition races. Due to wind restrictions, there were able to fly upwind, but not downwind, so they didn't do the return part of each race. They just ran one way.
As for racing, I think that most of the races scratched. The ones that did run played out pretty much as expected. I'm trying to remember if I saw any passes today, and I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Some of the performers were quite a bit of fun. Eric Tucker did both his dead stick and his comedy routines. For me, the comedy routine was one of the most fun things that I've seen at Reno, ever. I fly both full scale and radio control Cubs. The wind was such that he could hover and fly backwards (relative to ground). His takeoff was essentially vertical. I love flying R/C in the wind (we call it "kite flying"), and the show looked very much like that. He was not able to land on the ambulance at the end, which didn't surprise me at all. I have a huge amount of respect for his skills. He really knows how to fly that airplane.
I enjoyed the F35 demo, both yesterday and today. Even though it was windy, there was far less haze and smoke, so visibility was much better. In yesterday's show, the pilot did a very impressive flat turn. I've seen the F22 do it, but the F35 doesn't have vectored thrust, so I appreciated the technical aspect. We were looking forward to the same maneuver today, but she didn't do it. At the end of the F35 demo, Steve Hinton flew a P51 for the heritage flight. I was surprised by how small the F35 is. In other heritage flights, I've seen the jet dwarf the Mustang. The F35 is definitely much larger than the P51, but it just seemed like much less so than F22's or F15's.
I also enjoyed the V22 demo. I've seen it fly before, but only on arrival to the static display. I know what the flight envelope looks like on paper, but it doesn't have the same impact as seeing it in person.
I'm disappointed with the scratched races because it leaves both Miss America and Race 39 as trailers in their respective gold races tomorrow. I wanted to see Dreadnought and Miss America as 1 & 2, with One Moment, Race 24 and Race 39 as 1,2,3 in their respective races. But I am happy to see them make the safe call.
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