WIX Archives

Reno Friday

Posted by Chuck on Fri Sep 13, 2002 07:43:20 PM

Well, I left the races early today because of a fatality. A Questar Venture had a structural failure and nose-dived into the ground directly in front of the crowd. The race finished on the next lap and the other Sport Class aircraft landed. At that point, another Questar Venture ground-looped and was damaged but the pilot was unijured. It is always traumatic to see a crash and even worse when someone dies. My deepest sympathies go to the pilots family and friends.
Other news: The Hughes racer H-1B flew this morning to break the speed record set by the orginal H-1 in the '30s. No word on the results, the crew was very secretive. It also flew this afternoon for a demo. It is a stunningly beautiful airplane in the air as well as on the ground.

Strega has it's new engine installed and they hope to run it tonight. Tiger seems very enthusiatic about the prospect of racing this weekend.
I met Rob Patterson who flies the TF-51 "Lady Joe" and is a very nice guy. He was one of the "Chino Kids" and grew up flying warbirds with the likes of Steve Hinton. Lucky guy!

Tomorrow, all of the top continders must fly and we will see Dego Red and September Fury race. Keep checking the News section of the WRG homepage for new pictures.

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