Geedee's 2022 adventures :-)

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Saturday a lot more racers turned up and there was a lot of pre-race prep such as cleaning, applying speed -) ) tape to joints and a bit of psychological fun to be had here and there
No turbine powered planes this year but we did have two forced induction RV's...one turbocharged and one supercharged for the first time.
Next post will have some pics from the race day...and that was something else !!

So, again, not all the racers but a selection. The pics don't really show the comradeship and fun that was had by all as I'm not showing any with faces. You just need to be there next year !!
 

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Cheers all

Following a very extensive and detailed briefing to all taking part in the race...both in the air and to the ground staff / crews...it was off out to the start line and await the procession of racers coming down to the active. Each racer was signalled into position of the 'start-line' and as the flagged dropped, their respective time was captured start time was captured. This type of start meant that ease of controlling the aircraft and calling them into position one by one and maintaining safety at all times was never an issue. The start-line crew did a fantastic job and soon all 52 racers were on their way.

There was a really good mix of light aircraft out there racing, from the exotic composites though to your standard models and it made for a very good spread of photo opportunities.

I did plan on posting pics of each racer with aircraft type, but as I'm limited to 20 pics a post I've decided to post random shots from the start...if you want to find out what each aircraft is just put their registration number in on google...and this isn't really meant to be a blow by blow account of the whole race

Not far from the start line on the right hand side of the runway as you take off, was a puddle that got dispersed quite quickly with the prop wash from the first few on their way. There's a few pics that show the spray being blasted as the planes go over the puddle .

 
With all the racers away it was time to jump into the cars and head to finish line at Merrill Municipal airport then when everyone was over the line, back to Wausau.

The fastest time to complete the course was 1:27 and the slowest 3:07. The fastest racer was Race #70 at 293.61 mph and when he screamed over the finish line, the noise bugling from his exhaust was simply stunning !. And the noise from the following 'planes was just wowzer !. OK, it's not Reno...and nope, I haven't been there yet so this was just as exciting to me but you know what I had a bl**dy awesome time. You see and hear a fast light aircraft at a couple of thousand feet above you and its sounds neat...now stand almost in front of it as it comes barreling towards you at low level with the loud levers firewalled and its just...horny !

Now the racers had to cross the finish line at Merrill and that entailed flying low level at 200ft the length of Runway 16 / 34. This was the fun part as with full radio comms at various reporting points the finish line crew and timers knew who was coming down the runway before they came into sight. I tell ya what...looking at a bunch of low flying fast airplanes barrelling down the 'chute' thru a 100 / 400 telephoto was deffo a highlight of the day !.

Again, a random selection. It was a bit disconcerting looking at a few of them thru the camera lens and I start seeing smoke bellowing out behind them...and I'm there thinking the motors have blown but nope...smoke systems fitted and no-one told me !!


This was Race #70 at full bore



This one had a smoke system installed
 
Now the real fun started

So my ride from Wausau to Osh was to be courtesy of a DeHavilland Chipmunk...a breed of 'plane I haven't flown in since I was a Cadet waaay back '76...or thereabouts .

126 is owned and flown by my great friend Eric and it was an honor to be invited to fly that awesome little trainer. We launched as a 3 ship and flew off in loose formation to an airfield around 75 miles away where we all came in for a refuel ready for Osh. I had a go at formation flying and things were reasonable for about 4 mins then the other guys in the group stared going up and down like they were in an express elevator !. Errrr, nope, they were cruising along slow and steady with undercart an flaps dangling to keep some control at the speed they were forced to fly to stay with us...and I was over controlling like a real tyro. Deciding that it would be better to let Eric fly as he knows what he's doing, I sat back and started to take some pics and vids.

And all the time grinning like the village idiot because 1, I hadn't flown in a chippie for 47 odd years, 2, I was in a formation flight with a great bunch of friends and 3....I was going to fly in to Osh for the very first time !!
I was higher than cloud 9 !


And now the vids won't upload ...grrrrrr. Can anyone advise the maximum file size and preferred video format for uploading please ?
 
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