RandolphB wrote:
Everyone seems to forget that Precious Metal is slowly but surely being rebuilt.
Not I!
I didn't ask about PM as I follow along through Thom and his team's social media.
RandolphB wrote:
All Motorsports are having terrible times- more because today's youth would much rather hot rod a Gamebox than a car or aircraft.....
Again, not I! But I am 30 now so possibly not youth anymore...and I would LOVE an air racing game on Xbox or back on my cellphone...
K5DH wrote:
I'd love to see Unlimited air racing shift to running purpose-built "prototype" airframes, still prop-driven, of course, but no longer based on surplus warplane designs.
Like the Pond Racer? Serious question (and this isn't the place to discuss or debate that design). I too would love to see more purpose-built aircraft but that needs the funding to make it happen. There are three or four Unlimited projects around the USA that have been underway for a long time, in one case since the 1970s (GRNDP51 will know which one I'm talking about), that I think are testament to the "No bucks, no Buck Rogers" aspect of air racing. The Pond Racer and Tsunami are, I think, the only purpose-built Unlimiteds to have made it to Reno or any other event.
I would love to see a separate Warbird/Stock class at Reno. This year's Bronze was almost that, I think each of the Sunday Bronze aircraft were Texas Flying Legends Museum aircraft (and Silver was all unmodified P-51s).
K5DH wrote:
Seeing a truly competitive batch of 8 or 10 mostly stock warbirds battling their way around the course sounds pretty exciting to me. Contrast that idea with today's Unlimited racing where only 2 to 3 airframes make up "the race" and the rest are more or less along for a Sunday cruise.
I wasn't there but many who were have said this year's Gold race was the best they'd ever seen. And that's with the two lead aircraft lapping the last placed machines twice before the checkered flag!
_________________
Zac in NZ#avgeek, modelbuilder, photographer, writer. Callsign: "HANDBAG".
https://linktr.ee/zacyates"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." -
kalamazookid, 20/08/2013"The more time you spend around warbirds the sooner you learn
nothing, is simple." -
JohnB, 24/02/22