Reno Air Races -- 2600 Miles in 2 Days!

Jay Honeck wrote:

We missed you, we missed Jim & Gail, we missed my best friend from college
(who lives just north of Jim & Gail) -- hell, we even missed meeting folks
from Iowa City who flew to Reno commercial!


Wow, I'm in good company then! Hmmm, maybe I should start a "Who got
stood up by the Honecks" thread and see just how many people didn't get
to see you. :-)

Dunno about flying from Iowa commercial though. Not nearly as much fun.
To quote my brother on our first OSH trip, "We could have flown
commercial and stayed in the Hilton for less money...but we had a hell
of a lot more fun". There's just something about a really long cross
country flight that, despite the cost (especially for a rental guy like
me), that is a ton of fun.

This "Winter Storm" (BTW it's still officially Summer till
tomorrow) was a surprise, and more than a month early.
However, after all the dire warnings the weekend turned out
to be rather nice where I sit (almost within sight of the
Pacific Ocean). All the precip we got was a couple of little
showers - both at night. I did take a look at the satellite
photos on Weather Underground on Sunday, and saw an exceptional
amount of cloudiness over all the western U.S. - except right
along the coast. Most unusual.

David Johnson

Wow!! Great Story!!! I have seen a circular rainbow too but only after
I got too close to a thunderstorm and was not happy about it!

Keep writing and do submit this as a travelogue/trip report to someone,
this is too good not to be published.

Thanks for the story.
Bruce.

Hi Jay,

Thanks for giving us a chance to tag along on your trip. Great story!
I'll take an opportunity here to make a suggestion for the next trip
coming out this way. You wrote:

Occasionally we'd hit
a smoothly rising pocket of air, and I'd have to push over to maintain
altitude. During these brief spells, our ground speed would approach a
more
normal 135 knots -- but the inevitable sinking pocket of air would soon
follow, necessitating a pull back to maintain altitude. During these
spells, ground speed would decay to an abysmal 85 knots.

Most of us just "ride the wave." It took me a couple of trips and some
hangar flying with an old timer to get the idea. If you're VFR, why worry
about going uphill for a while as long as its free. Sometimes, we'll even
pull the speed back a little on the way up to make it last longer. Then, on
the down side, power back up and go through the 'sink' faster. The net
result is usually a little free altitude and some gas savings. Try it next
time -- and I'm betting there will be a next time.

Regards,

Casey

Most of us just "ride the wave." It took me a couple of trips and
some
hangar flying with an old timer to get the idea. If you're VFR, why worry
about going uphill for a while as long as its free.

Well, if I had been at 9500 or lower, I'd have done just that, probably.
But at 10.5 or 11.5, we're already close to an altitude where oxygen would
be good to have (I know this flat-lander was awfully tired after spending an
entire workday above 11,000 feet), and I didn't want to go any higher.

I thought about riding the downdrafts down, but I didn't know where they
would stop! And that cumulo-granite sure looked hard...

;-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:kiK3d.227481$Fg5.84932@attbi_s53...
Most of us just "ride the wave." It took me a couple of trips and
some
hangar flying with an old timer to get the idea. If you're VFR, why worry
about going uphill for a while as long as its free.

Well, if I had been at 9500 or lower, I'd have done just that, probably.
But at 10.5 or 11.5, we're already close to an altitude where oxygen would
be good to have (I know this flat-lander was awfully tired after spending an
entire workday above 11,000 feet), and I didn't want to go any higher.

I thought about riding the downdrafts down, but I didn't know where they
would stop! And that cumulo-granite sure looked hard...

;-)

Generally the up and down drafts will be well under 1000 ft of change.
So running between 10,000 and 12,000 would have been pretty easy.
500ft change even more common.

In our gliders most of us have fancy (or even not so fancy,Airspeeds
marked on the rate of climb indicator (vario)) computers to tell us
the best speed to fly through the lift and sink. In the Glider we slow
way down or even circle in the up and go like stink through the down
to get out if it.

More practical (and easier) in power aircraft is to just trim out for
level flight and let the currents raise and lower you. Adjust the
trim slightly if you would rather be higher or lower. If you want to
push a little in the sink and pull a little in the lift you will
improve you fuel economy and speed.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

The most amazing part, to me, was how approachable everyone was.

In Reno, everyone is utterly accessible, even the biggest names. Ask a
mechanic what he's working on, and he'll actually tell you!

This is truely the best part of Reno Racing!
VL

Thanks for sharing this story with us. I enjoyed it.

Toks Desalu

You might want to consider pressure system flying if the alignments are
close to your eventual destination. When flying the distance you did,
the tailwinds can sometimes make up for the extra milage.

john smith wrote:

You might want to consider pressure system flying if the alignments are
close to your eventual destination.

Could you elaborate on this? I think I know what you mean, but this is
the first time I read of this concept.

--
Peter