Nuuumannn's quick trip to Reno!

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Snautzer01 said:
Wonderfull stuff. Last on will be my new pc background.

Edit. Just noticed the nose art girl being black.
I find that very refreshing. Not for political correct reasons but just nice.
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Bunny (Doris) was Lt. Robert Friend's wife and that P-51D sports Lt. Friend's scheme of the 332nd FG "Tuskegee Airmen".
 


nuuumannn said:
Tight on Miss America.
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nuuumannn said:
View attachment 745285
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Grant -- What day was that for Miss America? IIRC she Maydayed out or was penalized on Saturday for cutting pylons and other violations. With the cooling system they had installed the door should have been closed under race conditions. I wonder if he was having problems.

It's interesting how many of these stock Mustangs are running with the exit door open with the resultant large drag increase. The Mustang cooling system will not keep things within limits at Reno altitude for the ten minutes or so of racing. Spray bars spraying water on the radiator face are the only remedy, and many stockers are unwilling to mess with their Mustang that much for a one time event.

This has been a great thread -- Thank you...
 

This was Saturday afternoon. We were watching her with interest as one of the guys I was with was an old hand and was giving us a commentary of what was going on. We watched as Miss America cut the course going away from us at Pylon Two and the knowledgeable guys said she'd be disqualified...
 
Thanks again, everyone for following along, despite my inattention becos, well, life stuff. So we are still a few races short of finishing Saturday at the air races, with Sport, Jets and Unlimited heats to go. Here is the last Sport heat for the day, with Lancair Super Legacy Race 4 "Too Much" flown by Tom McNerny.

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Great to see some Thunder Mustangs racing, this is Race 777 "Guardian Angel" flown by Matt Ramsey. These guys in this heat were doing blistering speeds.

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Lancair Legacy Race 15 "Lucky Girl" flown by Vicky Benzing, who flew later in the day, as we'll soon see.

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Lancair Legacy Race 5 "Breathless" flown by Conrad Huffstutler.

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Glasair III Race 39 flown by Jeff Lavelle.

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Thunder Mustang Race 51 "Clas Thunder One" flown by Mathias Haid.

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Too Much looking very slick.

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Guardian Angel...



Lucky Girl...

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Breathless...

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Finally, Clas Thunder One.

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Now the jets. The overcast got progressively worse, but I managed to get one or two shots of the jets. Easier to shoot as I didn't need the low shutter speeds that I did for the prop aircraft. Mosty of these aircraft we've seen before. Race 5 American Spirit.

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L-39C Race 8 flown by David Sterling.

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Alpine Thunder.

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American Spirit.

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Race 8.

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Alpine Thunder close in.

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L-29 Race 24 Just Lucky flown by Pete Zaccagnino.

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Lastly, Tumbling Goose rounding off.

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Next time, the last Unlimited heat of the day and, as it turned out, the last I'd photograph of the races.
 
Last edited:
Great stuff!
 

Not into jets but those are great photos and almost all clearly show the compression loads on the tops of the wings.
 
Today, the last Unlimited racing I photographed at least, before the races were dramatically and suddenly called off on Sunday, although I wasn't to know this at the time. Because of the failing weather, some of these photos leave a lot to be desired and on review of them that evening back at my hotel I made the decision to go back to Pylon Two the next day to get some more images of these aircraft, as I'd never get the opportunity again. Sadly, it was not to be and these were the last that I got of the Unlimiteds in flight, such as they are. Miss Trinidad the Yak curving round the pylon.

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This was the aircraft I was really looking forward to capturing, Bardahl Special, the hot favourite to take the Gold Unlimited. It's too bad the lighting was terrible.

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Vicky Benzing returning after her Sports heat in the garish Plum Crazy.

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Ah, the Furies. This is Argonout.

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The Centaurus-engined T.20 Race 924.

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Bardahil getting tighter. During this race, Hinton's pace was unbeatable as he began to lap the course.

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Miss Trinidad never stood a chance, but was still cool to see...

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Benzing getting close in...

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Bardahl in hot pursuit to take the Chequered flag...

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...with the Furies for the Two and Three. Argonaut second.

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...And Race 924 Third place.

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Plum Crazy a creditable fourth...

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...with Miss Trinidad bringing up the rear.

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...And so that was the placings of Heat 3A, which ultimately became the final placings for the Unlimiteds at the last Reno Air Races. Race 924 getting up close during a final pass before joining the circuit to land.

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As we boarded the bus to go back to the airport, we had no idea that was the order of the last Unlimited race placing as we all happily thought we'd do it all again the next day. It had been a very long hot time, but it had been great fun, memories never to be forgotten. Here's a quick selfie snapped by a compadre. At bottom left, Will from Canada but living in California, making damn sure his media pass ID is visible, Steve from the USA, second row, Zac from New Zealand, Tony from the USA, and Me with the Led Zeppelin Tee on, with Martin from the UK directly behind me. A proliferation of facial growth after several days out at Reno!

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After arriving back at the airport, the public had already left, bar a few stragglers who knew stuff happened afterward, we bolted down to the far end of the flightline as there was a special photo opportunity being organised. Martin and I got there first to see what was going on. While we waited, I got some shots of P-47 Bonnie in the glorious light.

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As we waited out on the tarmac, some of the jets went out for a flight, but one of the crew got a bit flustered by the photographers on the ramp, hurling abuse in our general direction. Typical of entitled media, we just stared back at him in confusion. The reality was we were nowhere near the taxiway despite being on the ramp and there was no way at all that we were obstructing them. We just shrugged our shoulders and waited...

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Next, the most wonderful photoshoot...
 
Thanks again everyone. Last time we were on the ramp awaiting a set up for an evening photo shoot. This was involving two air racing legends, Bob Hoover's Ole Yeller and Thunderbird. The former was in the static display at Heritage Row and had to be moved out onto the ramp, which took a bit of negotiating. Meanwhile us photographers waited patiently.

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As we waited for Ole Yeller to be positioned, a noisy woman drove up to us and told us we would have to leave and that the photo shoot was not going ahead. What was happening was that it was taking place some distance from where we were waiting, so we all moved further along the ramp. There was some kerfuffle as several people were wandering around giving orders but nothing was happening, which was quite annoying as someone should have come and taken control of these guys. The aircraft were moved along to where the shoot was taking place while someone had told the annoying woman to bugger off, as this photoshoot was happening, and we waited again while the two aircraft were strategically positioned.

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With the light fading, the opportunity to get the photographs and take advantage of the light was also fading, so we grew ever more impatient with all the so-called experts throwing their weight around. For heaven's sake, someone take charge...

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Finally, things were ready for photography to begin in earnest. Despite the early annoyances, the shoot was splendid and yielded some fantastic photographic opportunities. Largely organised by Will, whom we saw in the last post, the aircraft were finally where he wanted them.

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The previous image was unedited and I couldn't resist adding a little editorial flair to the image.

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The aircraft were carefully positioned with the Reno start pylon between them.

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Worm's eye view.

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Perfect timing...

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There are three Mustangs in this picture.

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Shifting position...

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The overcast that had resulted in rubbish lighting out at the pylons soon came to the fore and resulted in the money shots...

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One final look at these two legends.

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That was a wrap! Next, the last day of the Reno Air Races. Ever.
 

Some of those shots deserved bacon with a couple of sides of bacon on their own.
 
manta22 said:
The last photo looks like an AgCat crop duster.
Click to expand...
Ag Cat is a biplane more akin to a Stearman or N3N. Sorry I'm late to the party.

Really great pictures Grant. I've only been to Reno twice. The first time in '84 my buddy who lived in Carson City, had a friend that was a paramedic in Reno. He gave my son and I go anywhere do anything wrist bands. Being airshow junkies, we were there 12 hours. The second time in '86, I was there on a Press Pass shooting video for my production company. It was the climax event of the air show season, having shot 6 shows starting at Shafter, Madera, Merced, Stockton, Rancho Murietta and Reno. I got to Reno on Wednesday, and stated shooting Thursday morning, I was rack focusing the front of a Sea Fury, emulating the sunrise through the prop, when I realized I burned a tube out of my 3-tube camera. I had to pack up my gear and head home 300 miles to get my back up rig (rookie), stopping off in Sac to drop of my primary camera at the techs. The next 3 days the weather was really crappy for any good photo work, especially after 10. But I was able to salvage some decent footage of the T6s. I shot out at the pylon, can't recall the number, the last one before the straight. As you say it's tough to get the close shot at the pylon. What I did was follow focus the birds inbound, widening the shot until the pylon was in view, then let the fly out. The next lap I would catch them coming into view going away (not following), coming into view over my shoulder. Then in post I edited the sound to carry the shot. I also used other footage of Lefty Gardner's P38. At Madera I had a camera mounted over his left shoulder pointing forward one day, then aft the next. At Reno I got a great shot of him approaching the pylon in a bank and edited that all together as part of my demo reel, combined with Carlos Santana in the City (SF) at Carnival. Got me a few gigs. Sad to see Reno end but glad I was there, PAX
 
You have never seen a low-wing Ag-Cat monoplane?
 
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