2010 Reno Air Races - Picstream #3 Sunday 9.19.10 (14 Pix)
Monday, September 20, 2010 at 02:42PM 
2010 Reno Air Races Unlimited champion Steven Hinton and team Strega
(14 pix)
The big finale Gold Unlimited race for Sunday was cancelled at the 2010 Reno Air Races for safety reasons due to high winds and accordingly, winners were announced based on race statistics from thru the week. The championship for the second year in a row goes to Steven Hinton and team Strega. Second place went to Rare Bear and third to the P-51 Miss America.
Steven Hinton and team Strega proved thru the week that they were fast and reliable on the race course. Tho I'm sure they would rather have won the 2010 Reno Championship with a race on Sunday, there's no doubt that they earned the right to hold the big trophy.
P-51, Racing, Rare Bear, Reno, homebuilt, taildragger Email Article 2010 Reno Air Races - Picstream #2 Saturday 9.18.10 (14 Pix)
Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 11:20AM 
Making the T-6 racer 'Gunslinger' sparkle in the Saturday morning sunshine
Saturday was a great day at the 2010 Reno Air Races - the weather was ideal and there was a lot great racing to watch too. Like in the picture above, a lot of time is spent by the race teams working on and cleaning up the airplanes. And as I've said before, being in the pit area to see all the work being done is simply amazing.
The big story for me continues to be the way Jimmy Leeward has kept The Galloping Ghost alive in the Unlimited Class. The race on Saturday was an easy win for the highly modified P-51 Mustang, giving lots of hope to the idea that it can be a real contender. The big test will be the final race of the day on Sunday against the seemingly unbeatable Strega; the 'always-a-contender' Rare Bear; and possibly the very fast Voodoo. However, after pulling up and out of the race on Saturday, Voodoo's ability to race today may be in question.
Here's a quick batch of pix from the day showing the wide diversity of flying machines, both in the air and on the ground, that make Reno's Stead Field a great place to be in mid September...
The first race of the day on Saturday was Formula One, and here the Biplane Class airplanes are watching as they are getting staged and waiting their turn.
Polar bear, and early A model P-51 that was crashed in Alaska back in 1944. It was eventually recovered and rebuilt, with first flight in 1985. It was a very nice addition the heritage-oriented fighters that were racing.
Video: 'Live Airshow TV' Reno Air Races Update: Friday
Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 01:49PM Some great video coverage of the activities on Friday at the Reno Air Races!
Racing, Reno, video Email Article 2010 Reno Air Races - Picstream #1 Friday 9.17.10 (14 Pix)
Friday, September 17, 2010 at 04:44PM 
Rare Bear humor: "Due to the economy we've had to downsize..."
(14 pix)
You gotta love when the people who race hardcore in the Unlimited Class at Reno have a sense of humor. I figured this pic of the Rare Bear pedal car was a perfect way to get things started. My Reno 2010 experience is beginning a little late - I arrived late last night and then got started checking things out today: Friday. I didn't see the real Bear early today, but I'm sure she'll be growling soon.
Kevin Eldredge; his Relentless NXT; and a pile of broken engine parts
The big story so far has certainly been the massive engine failure and mayday experienced by Kevin Eldredge in his Relentless NXT racer. It was great to see him spending some time with the people showing the airplane and the broken pieces. It would've been easy to pack and run, but I think it says a lot that he's not only still here, but putting as much of an upbeat face on this situation as could ever be expected. Be sure to check out his Relentless Reno 2010 blog for more details.
Answering questions from interested people about what happened with the NXT
Kevin explained that an oil line fitting appears to have failed first, leading to oil loss. When all pressure was lost, the prop went flat which allowed the engine to wildly overspeed. Imagine a high output race engine running at or near full power and then remove almost all the load from it. The extremely high rpm caused the counterbalance on the back of the engine to fail, and in the process of all these things happening, the engine locked up suddenly breaking off the shaft extension and throwing the prop off the airplane. Fortunately, even tho 3 of the engine mount lugs broke off the engine, it stayed attached to the airframe. For this very kind of reason, race engines are set up with safety cables that hopefully will at least keep the engine on the airplane in an emergency so the airplane will remain balanced.
Kevin is still trying to figure out what his next step is... but with a team called 'Relentless', I gotta think he'll be back at it as soon as he can. We also talked about maybe doing a podcast about the incident before long. Hopefully we'll find a way to work that out as it would be a fascinating event to better understand. Most important, it's great to see Kevin was completely unhurt by this dramatic event.
Nemesis, P-51, Racing, Reno, taildragger Email Article Caption Contest #35 Winner - Not So Fast Mister!
Friday, September 17, 2010 at 10:12AM 
The winner of the new and improved Caption Contest has been crowned! It was pretty hard to beat the humor in the caption from LIPOPILOT, great job! Hopefully he's got plans to be at Oshkosh 2011, cuz that's where his winner's 'bacon sandwich' will be presented. (mmm, bacon : )
This pic certainly has to rank right up there on the what-were-they-thinking scale. Crazy stuff indeed... it would sure be interesting to know what the point was to all of this. And I sure hope the girls survived it all ok.
Watch for another Caption Contest to start next Monday, and for some fab Reno Air Races coverage starting later tonight with some pix from the event on today, Friday, September 17, 2010.
Relentless NXT Loses Prop During Qualification!
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 06:07AM 
Kevin Eldredge's blog has more details on what happened during a qualifying run at Reno
photo: Kevin Eldredge
In the left and right corners of this amazing picture you can see parts of the prop from Kevin Eldredge's Relentless NXT that have left the airplane. Fortunately Kevin was able to make a safe deadstick landing on one of the runways at Stead Field. A small fire in the engine compartment broke out but was quickly extinguished. Get more details from Kevin's Reno 2010 blog.
The broken back end of the Relentless NXT race engine
photo: Everyday Tuesday
The early report is that the engine suffered a loss of oil allowing the prop to overspeed, then the engine to seize causing the prop to snap off. Fortunately the engine stayed on the airframe and Kevin was able to get the airplane on the ground safely.
This pic from the Everyday Tuesday Flickr page shows more of the damaged engine and some of the recovered prop parts.
I'm still en route to Reno so I don't have a lot of details to offer at the moment. The Reno Air Race website shows both the Relentless NXT and the GP-5 that I posted about yesterday as NO TIME, which I understand to mean they are not qualified for racing. In fact, only four airplanes are qualified for the Super Sport races at this time.
The Relentless NXT airframe with the damaged engine removed
photo: Everyday Tuesday
More info on the already very exciting 2010 Reno Air Races coming soon.
GP-5 At Reno 2010: Wooden It Be Great...
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 07:22AM 
(click pic to enlarge) The GP-5 finally comes to Reno (photo: SportClass.com)
The GP-5 is an all-wood racer that was begun in the early 90's by George Pereira, well known for his Osprey and GP-4 homebuilt aircraft. Originally intended to compete against the Unlimited racers (following attempts like Tsunami and the Pond Racer) - but a long and challenging journey ultimately has kept this airplane from ever having a chance to race at Reno. Finally, in 2010, the stars have aligned for the GP-5 to attempt to show the world what it was designed to do... now as a Super Sport class entrant.
I'll have more details to share once I get out to Reno on Friday. What I do know is that originally the GP-5 was being built around an approximate 500 hp Chevy V-8 engine. All of the primary structure was built of wood, and then the fuselage had foam glued on and shaped to get a nice compound curve. The the foam was then covered by a layer of fiberglass. With a wingspan of 22'-2", this sleek beauty was intended to have a gross weight around 1,800 pounds.
Early design drawings on the Pereira GP-5 racer
The drawing above shows the wood structure design as well as the basic concept for engine placement. Projects like this tend to evolve a lot as problems are solved and thinking is changed. The drawing below shows a variation of the engine installation with the V-8 raised slightly (with some cool bumps to make room for the valve covers) and radiators mounted under the engine. The idea at this point was to have an inlet right under the spinner for cooling air. The picture of the actual airplane at top, taken at Reno just a few days ago, shows a scoop more like a P-51 has mounted under the cockpit.
The GP-5 actually went thru several owners before it was ever completed, so there's no doubt a really interesting story that explains how it looks today. I plan to try to get as much info as possible on it and share those details here soon. But for now, I'm just thrilled to know that the GP-5 is at Stead Field and finally getting its chance to give racing a try. Wooden it be great if the GP-5 was a championship racer!
An early concept for mounting cooling radiators under the engine of the GP-5 racer
CoolPix - Misc: Fabulous Whirlybird View Of Oshkosh 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 07:35AM 
(click pic for hi-res)
Oshkosh 2010 was the year I finally went for a Bell 47 ride over the grounds. I've really grown to like the sound of those impeccably maintained whirlybirds flying over the event all week long, and this year, I decided I needed to see what the view was like from one of them. Bottom line: the view is really good. (Duh!)
My friend @adamcanfly and I had decided to walk from the campground out to where the Goodyear blimp was moored to get some pictures (which is when I got this blimp CoolPix) and that put us right on the path to the Bell 47's operating out of Pioneer Airport over by the EAA Museum. I had planned to work a ride in at some point so I could hopefully get a pic like the one above for you all to see, and that evening looked like my chance.
As with pretty much all the images I choose for the CoolPix feature, the idea is that you click it to make it big, and then you take a moment and look closely at the details. In this one, you get a great view of much of the commercial exhibit area, and then on to the east you can see AeroShell Square. This was Thursday evening after the airshow, so the Square is a little empty looking. The C-5 that took up a boatload of the Square late in the week was still about 2 hours away at this point. You can see 5 DC-3's toward the back right in the pic, and at the far left, being towed down the taxiway is the Erickson Air Crane named Goliath. There are several other aerobatic aircraft behind the Air Crane making their way to the other side of the airport for the night, including the last airplane in the lineup, Kyle Franklin's Waco Mystery Ship. At the very top of the pic is a little view of beautiful Lake Winnebago as well.
I was a little surprised how the route we flew gave such an awesome view of the grounds. I knew it had to be a good view, but I just didn't expect it to be this great. It was incredibly refreshing to get off the ground during the event, and getting such an amazing view at the same time, well, it was just perfect. I highly recommend you go for the ride when you can. It was an especially good experience after all the unique challenges that had been dealt with early in the week with the very wet grounds and delays getting thousands of airplanes into the event... seeing Oshkosh looking exactly like 'Oshkosh' from above was a really good thing thing to see : )