Warbird Information Exchange

Im gona bite the bullet, Reno needs to be cancelled. Too much death and crashes.

The racing has had 3 crashes in 3 days.. something is going horribly wrong.

Ive mates there and i suspect at this rate some will become mentally sick by end of the week if it keeps going.

The USA airshow circut this year is going bad too many people are dying.

Its either bad luck, maintence failing or inexpereince at play in all issues.

Maybe people just need to step back , stop flying recheck everthing for any airshow and then carefully proceed...

Bad enough to loose planes, worse to loose rare planes, tragic to loose people

Anyone agree?

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Fighters pilots are born to make movies , bomber pilots make HISTORY, cargo crews haul their material and fame.

I suppose we should also stop driving our cars. God knows how many people are killed in those every day.

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real airplanes have round engines

How about we shut down all vehicular travel in the US (43,300 deaths or so last year)? How about we ban the internet? After all, it just brings closet crazies out into the light in forums where they can ramble freely while avoiding taking their medications.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

So your happy to see another 1000 deaths at airshows this year and untold planes wrecked for mere contining of airshows yet having no regards to oiverhaul for safety which is needed somehow.

Great then - so i expect to see you both flying at reno today?

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Fighters pilots are born to make movies , bomber pilots make HISTORY, cargo crews haul their material and fame.

Luckily the summer is nearly over.

Until all the NTSB rulings come out, it is generally unclear as to why some of these accidents occurred. Flight safety was designed to find the reason why accidents occur (and not to lay blame) and come up with ways to have them never occur again.

As for the Reno accidents lately, I think it would be best to cancel them for the year. I get the feeling some pilots there have a lot of thoughts and emotions in their minds with recent events and they may lose focus on what they are doing, potentially leading to more accidents. I think for the well being of everyone involved at the Reno races, they should step back and say "enough" and figure out what happened in all the accidents and try and figure out how they can be avoided in future years.

As for the airshows. Anything beyond straight and level flight is rather dangerous. There is that element. When comparing Cars to planes it is clear that there are more car crashes (and related deaths) than there are with airplanes, but the fact will always remain, that airplanes have a higher potential for disaster. I think that's easily understandable. It's the professionalism and attention to details of the pilots and maintenance crews that keep it safe.

I think we've just has a REALLY TERRIBLE string of bad luck this summer. Potential pilot error, mechanical failure, who knows. Whatever it is, I know it can be overcome. We just have to wait.

My 3 cents.

-David

1000 deaths at air shows this year? Come on, that is over-exaggeration. It is up to the officials at Reno to decide whether or not the racing will go on. Cancel future shows? I don't think that is necessary either. The emphasis has been on safety at all of the shows. There have been a number of accidents this year, and it has been a bad year, but none of them can be attributed to just one cause.

So what good do you think cancelling airshows will do? How will that ultimately improve safety? What is the common factor do you see between all of the crashes that you feel needs to be assessed? Bad luck, inexperience, and maintenance (things you cited) are three seperate things that really have very little relationship to each other.

Are you hinting that we need the FAA to step in and further limit recreational flying and what can be done at airshows? I hope not.

Personally, I don't see enough of a pattern between the crashes this year to suggest there is a factor that ties them all together, other than they have appeared at events where many people have witnessed them.

I simply think 2007 is just one of those tough years for airshows. We tend to get a year or two like this every decade where it seems that bad luck is rampant. But you also have airshows like Thunder Over Michigan that not only had an accident-free year, but haven't had a major accident in several years of operation (from what I can recall).

I will be the first to agree that this has been a horrible summer for the warbird and air racing community. I think that the air races made a very good decision to stand down this afternoon, as others have mentioned to give people some time to refocus and decide if they themselves desire to continue. As far as overall safety, air racing has been typically very safe, unfortunately because of the nature of the sport, when accidents happen, fatalities usually follow. There is considerable discussion occurring on the air racing boards about this as we speak. While I love air racing and warbirds a certain part of me is looking forward to the end of the season, as we have lost too many good people this year.
With that being said, if I were offered a ride in a SNJ (or anything else) this weekend, I would go up, then afterwards be a little sad for all those who are not with us, but also aware that part of what I did was for them. I just hope that I have the same passion that they do.

Everyone please fly safe and enjoy
Chris

You don't cancel the airshows, and don't cancel Reno.

If a pilot is mentally sick because of the recent events, he needs to be man enough to step up and say, "Guys, I can't do this". We aren't fighting a war, we're flying in a big circle with other planes. Nobody has to race, and if they don't feel up to par come race day, then they need to step down for the race. Nobody will call them a chicken or whatever, and I'm not saying there are pilots who need step down, it's just cancelling the races won't help.

The pilot's mentality will remain the same even if there aren't races and he flies home the next day.

2 cents: deposited...

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"There are two types of people here; airshow whores and airshow prostitutes. The whores, like you and I, do airshow stuff for free, whereas the prostitutes are paid" - Reg Urschler

Well said and thank you,

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"Hindsight is usually 20% off!"

I think the racing orginization should handle any changes. Like NASCAR when Earnhardt, Petty and Erwin all were killed in a fairly short time, they instituted a lot of safety changes that made a huge difference.
No cancellations, just try to make things safer. While the air racing gods can't make the aircraft more crashworthy in high speed impacts, they can make the racing itself safer by raising training standards, increasing penalties for wrecklessness, etc. There have been bad years before, we got through it, learned something, and kept going.
Same with airshows. We don't need a media driven knee jerk reaction like cancellations. Just calm things down a little. I bet not one single person at the Dayton airshow would have cared if Jim Leroi did two less rolls on that downline. Heck, I'm tired of seeing multiple rolls on every line these guys fly in a show. I'd rather see some smooth precise flying than the constant snapping and tumbling.
Just my 2 cents.

Steve G

No.

Personally I think that cancelling all races and airshows would be a typical knee jerk reaction that would not solve anything and give in to all the righteous people out there who are so good at hindsight but have absolutely no clue about our sport or activity, call it as you wish. I am not suggesting that it is your case, here. But we have all seen and heard those types everytime there is an accident somewhere.

It's just like Nascar ! Yikes, that is freeking dangerous and should be stopped immediately, no ? Who would ever dare suggesting that... Immagine the huge protests ?

Oh yes, accidents do happen and also, people die. It's part of the appeal, although very unfortunate. Life is a dangerous thing, we all die from practicing it ! Come on !

As a very civilized society, we need extreme sports and so called dangerous activities. All people who practice them know the inherent risks and try to limit them and make them manageable.

Heck, we can't even go for a bicycle ride these days without wearing body armor, because those same people managed to make the lawmakers beleive it is such a dangerous activity ! If we keep this up, we'll end up like a bunch of scared sissies !!!

Just my two cents, I'll get down my soap box now...

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Michel C
Thousands of a/c pics at Passion-Aviation

I think sabremechs thoughts are good. Don't bash the guy for voicing his opinion. That's what this forum is all about, ones ability to voice his or her opinion. I'm not sure why all the accidents have happened this year. It's been a horrible year not only for airshows but for ALL of aviation. I don't think that cancelling airshows is the answer but I feel like everyone has to be aware that no one is immune to this type of tragedy regarless of their experience either as a pilot, mechanic or any other way connected to aviation. I'm going to the Midland airshow in a couple of weeks and I expect to see a safe professional event. I enjoy going to airshows and always have. I've witnessed one fatal crash and it made me sick to my stomach because it was so avoidable. Who can say what tomorrow brings regarding ones life. It can end whether your flying, driving walking or swimming. Constant vigilance by everyone involved can certainly lessen the chance for accidents but by the very nature of man, we constantly strive perfection and sometimes that drive can push one beyond his limits. In the NHRA this past year, the death of Eric Medlin has caused several changes and upgraded safety equipment in the pro classes the same way Dale Earnharts death did with Nascar. I hope that the aviation community does the same and I believe that they do. I hope that airshows continue and that everyone can be flown safely but unfortunately, that is not always the case. Godspeed to all those we've lost this year.

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The more I learn about aircraft, the more I realize I still have to learn.

There has been 17 deaths in the 44 years that the reno air races have been held. As long as people want to race, it's up to them. I think they should keep having the races.