Interesting Reno Arrival

[GregP]

Here's the 2013 arrival of Stenen Hinton Jr. at Reno. You can hear the stall horn in the CT-133 quite clearly, so they were conserving fuel VERY well and doing it right, but near the limits. 3 - 5 knots was the buffer.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYjWQYT20R0

 

[bent metal]

Cool video Greg!
I just missed a bomber of some kind taking off and flying over the house on Sunday. I heard it, but didn't get to see much. Is there some way I could know when these planes are going to be coming and going from either Ontario or Chino?

 

[GregP]

Hi Bent Metal,

They fly at irregular times. Unless you are on the tower frequency and are listening in at the time, I doubt it. And then, you'd have to listen clearly. The direction olf flight depends on the wind ... they USUALLY take off to the west.

Even on event days they fly the display anywhere from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm depending on how long-winded the speakers get.

By the way, that's Steve Hinton's P-51 "Wee Willy" flying beside Voodoo. Notice the difference in rpm? That's how clean Voodoo is compared with a stock P-51!

 

[rogerwilko]

How could they stand that racket!

 

[GregP]

Everyone has on noise-canceling headphones ... active noise reduction. Most pilots these days flying with them. It cancels out the sound almost entirely ot at least a large portion, whether you are in a Cessan 172 or a P-51. A good sets costs about $1,000 but is well worth it.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Ya know Greg, I could be wrong but I think the T-33 has a feature where when you are at landing gear extension speed, you get a horn. I have a few hours in the back of a T bird and somehow I don't remember the stall speed being so low that you couldn't keep formation with aircraft like P-51s, as a matter of fact I remember the stall speed to be around 115 gear and flaps down. It seems they're flying slow but I don't think slow enough to get a buffer, even in a t bird.

 

[FLYBOYJ]

GOT IT! In the T-33 when you retard the throttle below 65% you get a horn - you could hear the jet being spooled up to keep formation. That's what you're hearing!

 

[GregP]

OK, I'll buy that.

The racers cruise around slowly if the race eninge in in the palne and they aren't racing, but slowaly is still around 230 knots. I'm not sure if Voodoo had the race engine in it or not for the flight to Reno. Most of the top guys don't, but that was Stevo's first year with Voodoo, so I didn't know for sure. Since most of the top racers change to the race engine when they get there, maybe it's a sock "get home" Merlin. But it sure seems to be turning a different speed from Wee Willy! There's a reason for that since when you are in formation with similar stock ariplanes, the rpm is very close because most guys fly with factory-recommended pwoer settings for good engine life.

I was wondering when I didn't see any buffet or anything that looked like mushing motion, but sure enough, there's a clear horn ...

I'd have asked Steve, but he's in Duxford and Stevo is working on Voodoo! ... or maybe in Duxford, too. He's probably doing demo flights with Steve at Duxford.

I'll ask when he gets back, but I'm pretty assured that you are correct at this point. At low speed the T-bird is loafing along at low rpm and low power.