rje@cae780.UUCP (Bob Evans) (09/25/85)
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Wow ! After dreaming about going to Reno for the air races ever since
I was about 12 years old, I finally got to go this year. I absolutely
enjoyed every minute at the races. If you love airplanes, air shows,
or loud noises - try it ! I took my wife along ... she wasn't too thrilled
with the idea but by the end of the second Unlimited heat see was getting
into it, and by the end of Sunday she was at the "Are we coming back next
year ?" stage.
My favorite air show acts were the Canadian Snowbirds, and the Hilton
Grob sailplane flown by a fellow from the Bay Area named ?? - both acts
were pure class - grace, style, emotional music ...
The races are pure thrill. I loved every minute of it. Despite some _very_
stiff crosswinds om Saturday there was only one accident - a P-51 was
blown off the runway (!) and into the sand, resulting in some wing damage
and a bent engine when it nosed over.
The crowd control was so good it wasn't really noticable. The only real
surprise was having to sign a waiver for insurance purposes in order to get
into the pit area. This liability stuff is getting out of hand.
The only real problem came when we tried to leave Reno-Cannon on Sunday
evening. There were probably 200 general aviation aircraft trying to leave
at the same time. Calling clearance control was very frustrating. Imagine
20 pilots calling at once on the same frequency, with only 3 or 4 of them
being polite enough not to call in the middle of someone elses transmission.
Once you got a clearance, getting to the ground control was like duck soup.
Unfortunately, having taxi permission didn't _necessarily_ mean you were
going anywhere. After calling ground, I tried to taxi out of the parking
area. A very nice ground crewperson waved me into line behind two other planes
who had obviously taxied out of the parking spot without clearance - you
could see them repeatedly calling ... I told the ground crew that I had my
taxi clearance and went around the other two planes. Once you got to a taxi
way, you had the fun of waiting in line (double lines at that) to get to
be number one for take off. The drill was supposed to go like this ...
Take offs were happening on 34L and 34R. 34L was being used for both
intersection and full runway takeoffs by both G.A. and commercial carriers.
(No, the jets were _not_ making intersection takeoffs :-) )
When you got to be number one in the queue, you were to call the tower,
stating position, call sign, and "ready to go". Simple, right ? Well,
about 50 % of the pilots there just _couldn't_ handle this. The tower
was repeatedly having to call "Mooney at taxiway Bravo, 34L are you
ready ?", etc ... My wife (a non-pilot) said "what is wrong with these
people ? Do we really want to be in the air with turkeys who can't even
run a radio ?" When it came time to go, the Bonanza next to me and I were
cleared "into position left and right side of 34L ". The bonanza sat on the
taxiway while I taxied out, did a quick run-up and lean, and was cleared
for take off. He didn't get rolling until I was turning cross wind !!
Next year we will stay over Sunday evening for dinner in Reno and fly home
late that evening.
At any rate, I loved the races, I'm going again, and I recommend it for
a _fun_ weekend.
Bob
FROM: Robert J. Evans, CAE Systems Division of Tektronix, Inc.
UUCP: tektronix!teklds!cae780!rje
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