The end of Reno

So happy to have been able to attend it once.

it’s an awesome event
 
Had it on my bucket list . Unfortunately all good things come to an end.
 
kyleb said:
The Cleveland air races ended because someone put a P-51 (Beguine ?) into a house, leading to multiple fatalities. In Gary Levitz' crash at Reno 20 plus years ago, the wreckage hit two houses, but nobody was killed other than the pilot.

So, yeah. Dangerous business to conduct around residential areas, and Reno has clearly built up to the point where holding the races there is problematic at best.
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Not to mention the Galloping Ghost. Residential areas were not a factor, but certainly undermines arguments about how safe it is when the town fathers remember body parts on the tarmac.
 
I submit a recommendation to petition designating the mason city iowa airport as the new venue, long runways, currently undergoing a multimillion dollar upgrade, huge flat areas of open fields around it and local infrastructure and hospitality industry to support an event of its size. I’m sure that they would be enthusiastically welcome to it.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Not to mention the Galloping Ghost. Residential areas were not a factor, but certainly undermines arguments about how safe it is when the town fathers remember body parts on the tarmac.
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That one was indeed nasty. I didn't bring it up because it didn't create carnage outside the course. That's not much solace for the people who died there, but I assume all of them knew there was some level of risk spectating at a race of 550 mph airplanes built 70 years earlier, and substantially modified for racing in the in-between years.
 
kyleb said:
...I assume all of them knew there was some level of risk spectating at a race of 550 mph airplanes built 70 years earlier, and substantially modified for racing in the in-between years.
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I think we've had this discussion before. I'll concede that most of the crowd probably knew the outcome if an such an incident occurred, but I doubt that many if any knew the probability of occurrence of such an event given the maintenance and test practices (or lack thereof) on that airplane.

Nauga,
impromptu
 
Racerx said:
Salina also has a race track nearby. My two favorite things. Airports and race tracks!
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Speaking of Salina, don't forget The Garage auto museum and Leadsled in July. Old cars go good with old planes.
 
A co-worker of mine was killed when the Galloping Ghost crashed. His wife lived because she went for refreshments.
 
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This video, from a racer, doesn't make it sound good for the race. Sounds like dwindling numbers of spectators and lack of a purse big enough to get the big names are what's really going to doom it.

 
There were a lot of factors that cause this. It has been coming for years. Those of us on the inside have been saying it since the early 90’s. Sprawl is just a easy thing to blame. I truly doubt it will ever happen anywhere again. It takes a combination of open space with a suitable airport, close to a population center with hotels, restaurants and night life to make it work. It’s been tried a lot of places and failed every time. My 30 years of involvement was great. Met a lot of great people and had a lot of great times, but we all saw the end coming. To all my Reno family, thanks for the great memories.
 
unsafervguy said:
There were a lot of factors that cause this. It has been coming for years. Those of us on the inside have been saying it since the early 90’s. Sprawl is just a easy thing to blame. I truly doubt it will ever happen anywhere again. It takes a combination of open space with a suitable airport, close to a population center with hotels, restaurants and night life to make it work. It’s been tried a lot of places and failed every time.
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Unfortunately, I think you are right on the money. I've been going since 2014 and it has, sadly, been visibly less well-attended. Many thank yous to you and all the other people involved for great experiences and memories.
 
fasteddie said:
......we are currently exploring several other possible locations to host the event in the future.


Sad to see them leave Reno, but some local municipality out there in the USA is going to win big. After all, still plenty of former military installations out there in the US with big tarmacs, big runways, and low surrounding population density.

2024 National Championship Air Races at:
- Salina KS?
- Glasgow MT?
- Moses Lake WA?
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Moses Lake, WA would be great for me. I would guess that reason alone would rule it out. :)
 
WDD said:
This is sad - but hopefully they won't have much trouble taking the "Reno Air Show" name with them to a new location.

As much as I'd be a fan of Salina, I've been there. It's a long way from anywhere and would be hard to get people there.

Something similar though - like Topeka. 45 minutes from KC airport, has an old, unused Air Force base. It's across the street from Heartland Park racetrack and drag strip, so not going to have noise complaints. Oh yeah - with land that flat, no obstructions around until the CO border LOL.

Or heck - why not Oshkosh?
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Forbes Field (FOE) is what you’re referencing, and there is nothing unused about it. Army and Air Force Guard units stationed there, as well as the KS Gaurd HQ.
 
You mean these guys will be out of a job now.??

rs_600x600-191206094835-600-reno-911-cast.jpg
 
How many can remember that the first time you really found out about Reno was when it was the Wide World of Sports TV show?
 
skyking3286 said:
How many can remember that the first time you really found out about Reno was when it was the Wide World of Sports TV show?
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I was telling my wife about that over the weekend when I brought up the subject of going this year. I wish I could find an old WWOS episode to show her.
 
ILN. Huge minimally used facility including the east parallel that has been mothballed for years. Very minimal development to the east (farmland). Interstate highway access nearby for spectators. An hour from CVG/CMH/DAY (and the AF museum) and somewhat decent local hotel infrastructure because of equestrian stuff with tons more within 40 minutes.
 
TCABM said:
I was telling my wife about that over the weekend when I brought up the subject of going this year. I wish I could find an old WWOS episode to show her.
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YT has a two-part video of 79, although it’s the gold race where Hinton Sr crashed in the Red Baron (so possibly not the best example to show her, although he did survive it).

Sadly, although Reno has a ton of cool stuff other than unlimiteds, the reality is that planes like Dago, Strega, Voodoo, Rare Bear, etc were the big draw. When those started disappearing, so did the big draw. I can go to my local airshow and see a P-51. Reno was the only place you could see (and most importantly, feel/hear) a modified P-51 at 120” MP, etc.
 
I vote for blaming Karen’s, virtue signaling, entitlement and keeping up with the joneses on IG and ugh….Fake book. :) why not move to the airport and shut it down to make it environmentally friendly? Truly be a radical, right? :)
 
I grew up in Tahoe/Reno, so as a kid went to the races every year and never realized how unique they were until I was much older. It was just a normal September thing here. I think my first year was 1978 or so.
 
35 AoA said:
Here's another vote for MWH!
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We have a farm that is three miles from MWH. Insanely long runways and no commercial service. Interesting landing the Conquest there on 14L and aiming to land 1.8 miles down the runway to save the taxi time. Good place to help Boeing resolve the 737Max problem though. I was told that they had over 200 of them sitting there at one point mostly in foreign livery.

Screenshot 2023-03-20 092335.png
 
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nauga said:
I think we've had this discussion before. I'll concede that most of the crowd probably knew the outcome if an such an incident occurred, but I doubt that many if any knew the probability of occurrence of such an event given the maintenance and test practices (or lack thereof) on that airplane.

Nauga,
impromptu
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The willful violation of accepted engineering practices and egregious ignorance of proper operation and maintenance procedures that caused the crashes of Galloping Ghost and Nine-0-Nine were shocking. The decisions made by supposedly professional and qualified aviation organizations led to the multiple deaths of unsuspecting civilians.
 
James_Dean said:
We have a farm that is three miles from MWH. Insanely long runways and no commercial service. Interesting landing the Conquest there on 14L and aiming to land 1.8 miles down the runway to save the taxi time. Good place to help Boeing resolve the 737Max problem though. I was told that they had over 200 of them sitting there at one point mostly in foreign livery.

View attachment 115947
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Interesting actually looking at the photo you cued up. What is the history of the field? Those look like alert trees, in a NORAD/SAC/ADC sense. Buddy of mine from the Navy has a dad who was the chief test pilot for 737, who has lots of cool stories about flying there. He retired just prior to the MAX, though participated in the early sim evaluations, and apparently was enough of a dissident voice in those days to have been later interviewed as a witness by the feds, and made national cover story news as an interviewee. MWH is a really cool field for a lot of reasons, it actually would be perfect IMO. Though maybe a little less to do out in town after hours than Reno, however I imagine the local economy could rise to the occasion
 
MWH simply lacks the draw of a bustling city nearby and hundreds of hotel rooms. Other than that…lived in Othello for nearly 12 years and it was wonderful to see JAL pilots do short patterns at MWH in B747s.
 
35 AoA said:
Interesting actually looking at the photo you cued up. What is the history of the field? Those look like alert trees, in a NORAD/SAC/ADC sense. Buddy of mine from the Navy has a dad who was the chief test pilot for 737, who has lots of cool stories about flying there. He retired just prior to the MAX, though participated in the early sim evaluations, and apparently was enough of a dissident voice in those days to have been later interviewed as a witness by the feds, and made national cover story news as an interviewee. MWH is a really cool field for a lot of reasons, it actually would be perfect IMO. Though maybe a little less to do out in town after hours than Reno, however I imagine the local economy could rise to the occasion
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I figured it was something connected to the Hanford site, but went looking and found this.

https://www.historylink.org/File/10147
 
Thanks for that post. I have a friend that worked at a SAGE site directing F-106 Delta Dart interceptors against them Damned Rooskis ( Major T. J. "King" Kong reference :D ). His stories of life on the front lines of the Cold War are fascinating.
 
kayoh190 said:
I always said that if I had a spare half mil, I'd buy an old Lear and do a high drag 1000' pass over Santa Monica every morning at 3am until I ran out of money.
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That would give you about 250 hours. Good enough for a flight almost every night! I'll split it with you.
 
RyanShort1 said:
It’s become clear that the lawyers judges in this country can make any prior legal agreement useless. It’s really a bad place to be when no prior contract has any weight if some lawyer judge can undo it.
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Fixed it for you.
 
During the airshow today at S’nF, someone affiliated with the Reno Air Racing Association (didn’t catch their name) stated over the PA during a lull that the races will continue at a new location. Apparently after the announcement was made public about Reno declining to be the venue any longer, a number of locations contacted the association about becoming the future host. The association is now entering into a formal process to analyze the proposals.
 
Think of all of the possibilities for betting.
 
glad to hear a substitute locale agreed to continue to patronize that space in the hobby. From a tourism/logistics/room availability angle, I think the choice is excellent.
 
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