Reno Air Racing Press Conference 1/4/12

[Invader26]

Move to Australia where warbirds and warbird adventure flights are now controlled by an external organisation www.australianwarbirds.com.au as self-administering body. The regulator here, CASA, has handed this to us after years of hard work.

The US is wrapped in too much PC rules/regulations...

[mustanglover]

Looking at it logically, whatever rules and regulations were in place at the moment the accident occurred were obviously inadequate to cope with the physics involved allowing the accident aircraft to transition from its position in 3 dimensional space at the instant the failure occurred to its impact location.
Dudley Henriques

The scary part with all this is that the only way to absolutely ensure that an accident like this can never happen again, is to remove the spectators (and anything else in harms way like homes and businesses) from the area.

With an airplane that has some type of mechanical or structural failure, such as what happened to Jimmy, there is no way to work through every possible scenario of where the airplane will impact. In the past they have always considered a mid-air or major structural failure and it's scatter zone, to be what would place the spectators in harms way.

Now we have the potential for overhead missiles and considering the infinite numbers of scenarios that would have to be worked out, you basically just cannot have anyone anywhere close to the action.

And they cannot use the "1 in a billion chance" statement anymore. It has already happened now and it could happen again during the next heat race.

[jaybird]

No answers to anything specific, but just general thoughts that are surely shared my many:

You can't make life 100% safe. It's that simple. There's one thing, and one thing only, that's guaranteed in life - the end. No matter what the activity, there will be some element of risk. Managing to an acceptable level when it involves many is the tough part, because of the difficulty in reaching agreement. When it involves just you, you get to make the call and then take the risk associated.

If no changes were made, I, for one, would still accept what I perceive as a super minimal risk, and go to the air races. I'd even sit in the zone that was hit. I'd fly an air racer if I found myself in position to do so. I'll throw my leg over a motocross cycle again even though it's bitten me more than once (was airlifted once). I'll still purchase tickets and fly on airlines even though I know what's happened in history. I'll continue to fly aerobatics. I'll continue to get in my car.......

I just wish finger pointing wasn't such a deterent to people actually enjoying life. I wish others not involved in an activity, didn't have an interest in stopping it only because they feel there's no reason for other people to do such activity. Why is a higher risk activity only acceptable if everybody "has to do it"?

Let's just hope good ole' common sense prevails as much as possible.

[Roger Cain]

Move to Australia where warbirds and warbird adventure flights are now controlled by an external organisation http://www.australianwarbirds.com.au as self-administering body. The regulator here, CASA, has handed this to us after years of hard work.

The US is wrapped in too much PC rules/regulations...

So what time of year should I plan my vacation to go there to watch Unlimited racing with Mustangs, Sea Furies, Bearcats and Corsairs?

[andyman64]

if there is an air race in reno this year i will buy box seats not going would be like not going to a nascar race because a car might come into the stands! when are we going to stop letting the insurance companies and the accountants run our lives it was a freak accident however tragic! people come to this spectacle for the power and the glory of air racing to catch a small piece of the thrill that the pilots feel,its the same with moto gp and formula 1 the danger that the spectators face is a minute fraction of what the competitors are facing! in my opinion make the spectators sighn waivors if you don,t want to accept the risks involved with being at one of these events DON,T GO!!!!

[Invader26]

So what time of year should I plan my vacation to go there to watch Unlimited racing with Mustangs, Sea Furies, Bearcats and Corsairs?

When will I be able to see it again at Reno or elsewhere? I love the exchange rate right now...