I know we have some airplane nuts here. Reno air races.

I love those WW2 fighters! I can't help but think...how about letting them fly with the armament intact?

 

More Later....

 

Thanks for posting up the great series of pictures Rich Wright!
.

 

Thanks for the pics. My wife and I were there for the whole week last year. Had a blast, fortunately we had gone out to the ridge for the gold cup race saturday had we stayed on our seats we would have been less than 100 feet from the crash site. God smiled on us that day.
Really wanted to go back this year but work got in the way.

Thanks again for the pics.

 

YES!.........................................................is this heaven?

Doc.

 

Static display at the east end of the airport…




This Helicopter was on display last year and after the crash occurred the owners put it into immediate service transporting injured to Renown. Very big… Heroric… gesture on the part of the owner who I think is just a private citizen with no obligation to step up at that level.



I flew for the first time in 1978….. in this Ford trimotor. N414H. Scenic gave free rides over the Las Vegas valley for anyone whose birthday fell within that particular month.

 

That’s it for me…. Camera battery gave up before I got through the F-1 and Bi-plane hangers.

 

Great stuff. I always had a 'thing' for the F7F, wondered what might have been for it in WW2. Is that a shooting Star in Thunderbird colors? Thanks for all the pics.

 

Not a Shooting Star.... It's an Aero L-39 Albatros....a Czech high performance trainer. Most of the planes in the Jet class are L-39's.

 

Me too............................I dont love that a bunch of them have been cut up and painted like circus wagons.

 

Guess its kinda like the dumb asses that do the same things to cars.

 

Thanks Rich for the pics. I designed a bunch of graphics for the Sawbones Sea-Fury team. I never got to see it all done before it went out to Reno. Glad to hear everything went good this year!

Here is a video of its initial engine ignition after repairs just several days before Reno:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/R1SyCbWNcig" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Here's a picture of the Red Baron a couple years before her demise with their car, not sure what it is, but it looks cool. Notice the wheels either are or are replicas of the wheels from a Bf 109.

 

I had a poster of Rare Bear on my walls all through my chilhood. Dad sponsored them and hauled some of their stuff out to Reno one year.

 

Those are some great photos Rich, thanks so much for posting!

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Muttley
Me too............................I dont love that a bunch of them have been cut up and painted like circus wagons.


Guess its kinda like the dumb asses that do the same things to cars.



This controversy comes up periodically. I've even heard the argument that warbirds owners should not be allowed to fly their airplanes at all because of the rarity. As an example of that point of view is the recent fatal accident of Howard Pardue and his magnificent F-8-F that he's been flying for the last few decades. One of nicest examples around is now scrap.

The other side of the discussion is simple. "it's my airplane and my money that went into its preservation (or modification, as the case may be) and, since this IS America, I'll do what I want with it."

I've also heard the same argument from restoration fans when they see a restored or nice original car bought by a guy who then turns it into a hot rod.

The bottom line is always the same... It was for sale (car, plane, whatever the subject might be), the complainer had an equal opportunity to buy it and didn't.

As we speak Voodoo is for sale along with the entire Voodoo racing effort.
A perfect opportunity to "save one" of there ever was one

 

You're welcome....

I became a race fan in the early '70s and have followed the history of the planes that compete here from the inception of of Reno in '64.
Like most folks I thought the event was over after the crash last year.
I was pretty jazzed up to have gone this year and the promise of next years race is a lot more certain now that a safe, uneventful race has come and gone.

Hopefully, next year the missing crowds and missing racers will be back.

Next year is the 50th anniversary.

 

I remember when the "Red Baron" went in. If I remember correctly, they found Steve still in the seat . What probably saved his live was the wings had sheared allowing fuselage section to escape the fireball of the fuel going up.

Bill

 

WOW Rich. Those are awesome photos! Thanks for the effort to post them.

 

So am I...

Who can answer these questions...
How many times has "Precious Metal" race at Reno?
How many names has it raced under?
Who were the owners each time?
And what is the percentage of the races that ended up with a "May Day"?

 

Can't really answer the questions...at least not quickly...but I'm looking

In the meantime here's some interesting information about the airplane, it's original owners/builders, the Wittington Brothers, Excerpted from this website.

http://www.supercoolprops.com/articles/gwhitegearheads.php

"We normally think of P-51Ds being powered by Packard built Rolls-Royce Merlins. However, the last piston engine mass produced by Rolls-Royce was an even larger engine than the Merlin. Displacing 2,239 cubic inches, the V-12 Rolls-Royce Griffon entered service in the early 1940s. As good as the Merlin was, it still had some fundamental problems that would have been difficult to fix once the engine was in production. The Griffon recognized these problems and benefited from previous Rolls-Royce experience. Except for the pair of oil lines that feed the contra-rotating propellers, no external oil lines are to be seen on the Griffon. The profusion of external oil lines on Merlins have proved to be a maintenance headache over the years. Another key change made to the Griffon was to drive the camshafts from the front of the engine. Likewise, the single magneto is also driven from the front of the engine. This reduced the torsional vibration the cam drive and magneto drive gear trains are exposed to, particularly when driven for the rear of the crankshaft like the Merlin (see illustration). The Whittington brothers in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, originally modified this aircraft for Griffon power. Engine modifications follow the same concept as the race Merlins. Precious Metal uses a conglomerate of parts from different mark numbers of the Griffon. The power section and contra-rotating nose case is from a Griffon 58. The two-stage supercharger is from a Griffon 74 which normally would normally power a British Fleet Air Arm Fairy Firefly F.R. Mk. IV and N.F. Mk. IV. An adapter plate is required to mate the 74 blower to the 58 power section. Like the full race Merlins, the after cooler is removed and replaced with a tube. All charge temperature issues are dealt with by massive doses of ADI. Griffon 58s were normally used to power the Avro Shackelton, a British maritime patrol bomber. The engine drove a pair of contra-rotating propellers. Precious Metal retains this propeller and nose case, albeit in modified form. First off, the propeller diameter is dramatically reduced and at the same time more pitch is used. The engine runs at 3,200 rpm, stock redline is 2,750 rpm. A modified speeder spring in the propeller governor allows the higher engine speed. All stock Griffons used up-draft carburation. Precious Metal uses a down draft Bendix PR 100 carburetor originally used on Pratt & Whitney R-4360s. For the Griffon application, a PR 100 is overkill to the point of being over carburated. However, this may be due to its prior life as a power plant for the Miss Budweiser Unlimited hydroplane boat racer. Jeff Neff, the Budweiser crew chief during the Griffon era, built three engines for the Whittingtons. One of these engine was a stocker for ferrying the aircraft. The boat racers used to turn their engines up to much higher engine speeds than aircraft racers. In the future, I would not be surprised to see a PR 58 carburetor replace the present set-up. A ram air scoop on top of the cowl feeds air to the PR 100. Converting to the PR 100 carburetor requires the use of an adapter plate that rotates the intake elbow 180 degrees in order to accommodate the down draft set-up. An additional adapter plate is required to mate the PR 100 carburetor to the Rolls-Royce intake elbow. A modified radiator is augmented by spray bars. As with full race Merlins, lubrication is enhanced via an additional pump driven off one of the accessory pads. The Griffon, like late model Merlins, used what is known as an end-to-end crankshaft lubrication system. This means the oil is fed in at both ends of the hollow crankshaft rather than the more conventional method of feeding oil to the crank via each main bearing. The advantage with end-to-end lubrication is that it eliminates the necessity for oil distribution grooves in the main bearings in order to feed the connecting rod journals. Precious Metal's Griffon utilizes the additional oil pump to feed extra oil into each main bearing. Not only does this provide enhanced lubrication, it also carries away heat thus preserving the life of the grossly over loaded bearings.
Of course, modifications are not restricted to the engine and propeller, Precious Metal also has a radically modified airframe. A small bubble canopy replaces the stock one, wings are clipped and overall aerodynamic clean up has been done. "

 

Rich Wright, Thanks for the postings and photos. Well done.

 

The currant owner, Ron Buccarelli, bought the plane from the Whittingtions. Don't know when , but it was prior to 2001. Don Whittington first flew it at Reno (as Precious Metel) in '76 and either qualified or finished the race with a speed of 438.81. That was with a Merlin power plant. The Griffin wasn't installed till '83. (I think that's correct).
Buccarelli didn't get to race it till '02 and won the Bronze in '03 at 407..

That's all I've come up with on short notice and I can't be certain I'm completely accurate....

 

I think that windshield on that car is a rear window from a 61/62 Starliner

Cool pics!

 

Excellent photos Rich!!! I have been going to the Air Races for years and consider myslef lucky to get one good action shot each year.

 

I knew I wasn't the only one here who got a woodie from these things. It takes mega-cajones to fly one of these in competition.