Anyone go to the Reno air races this year?

[Blown353]

Yep, ugly year, lots of expensive breakages, luckily nobody killed or any planes lost (although very close...)

Merlin's Magic had a very bad weekend. First, they had a rod let go about mid-span on their race motor which sliced about a 6" swath all the way through the block and pan and left gouges in the cylinder banks, the only thing holding the engine and prop on the plane was the cylinder banks, heads, and the valve covers. And if that wasn't bad enough the next morning, after putting in their ferry engine so it would at least by flying, while filling the oxygen bottle behind the cockpit it blew up. The explosion popped out several of the skins in the empennage and damaged the bulkheads of the O2 bottle compartment. They stripped the plane and trucked it away Sunday, they said they'd be back in 2 years or so.

Rare Bear melted a piston and lunched a jug on Saturday, lots of metal in the cuno filters so they were done.

Dago Red burned up 2 of their 3 engines and didn't make the race, wanting to keep one engine intact to fly it home.

On the other hand, Mike's Sea Fury was absolutely hauling ass... probably thanks to his new crew chief (Dago's former crew chief.)

One guy at Stead has almost a regular production shop going for Thunder Mustangs, he had 5 or 6 in various stages of completion, nice stuff and nice work.