Awake too late on a layover, thought I would share some thoughts on what is now history
I was lucky enough to race for the first time this year at Reno. This is something I had been grinding for quietly over the last four years and not quite sure what to do now that it's over, but would like to share a rookie perspective from driving jets up at 390 to learning how to get down and dusty in the sagebrush.
Air racing (in my opinion) is very unique in that it is still competitive racing, and the fangs do come out, but the stakes are rather high compared to other motorsports: no roll cages, runoff, gravel, arco, tire stacks to save you in a mishap. The preparation and professionalism exhibited by my peers to pull it off safely was really extraordinary. I don't think I would have participated had I not experienced their attitudes first hand while crewing for another team in previous years. That whole saying "if you're not the dumbest person in the room, change the room" really rings true here for me- the amount of knowledge and experience in my class, and the willingness to share it with one another (even some competitors in my speed range), speaks to the integrity of the individuals. They understand the risks they are taking and freely provided mentorship to someone they may have only just met recently. Here's some background on what the learning process was.
In June all rookies and any racer who wants to practice makes the trip out to Stead to participate in Pylon Racing Seminar, which is the only event where anyone can practice going low and fast prior to race week in waivered airspace. For a rookie to show, they require an FFI/FAST card, mil formation experience, or a signoff from a current racer that they have been found competent in a 4 ship formation. All rookies are required to attend a formation warmup for three days prior to actual PRS beginning, flying 2-3 hops a day at a minimum. We would practice 8 ship flights and emergency procedures (upset recovery, formation abnormals) before getting down low- formation turns, changing positions in the flight, tailchase/knock it off, and the Flip Flop (wake turbulence recovery- lose no altitude while rolling inverted, simulating a wake turb encounter at 50' AGL/ensuring your instinct isn't to pull into the ground inverted).
PRS was the time to practice on the course, and for me my first time flying low and not climbing away from the ground. The first couple of hops we would do a 'direct entry' onto the course (an 8 ship flight would take off from the same runway in 1000' intervals, leaving the runway and turning straight onto the course at 50-250' at the first pylon), where Lead would take us around the pylons on the different courses to show us landmarks and get to see the terrain in different areas of the course, ending with lead commanding some scripted passing so we could see how that looked while in a lower speed/lower pressure environment. The second and third day began simulated races. We would depart in an 8 ship, rejoin, and proceed around Peavine mountain in an echelon to set us up for the "chute" entry, which would drag the flight into line abreast formation for descent from altitude down to the course that starts the race. Arguably this is one of the more dangerous parts of the race, with a lot of airplanes close together and unpredictable acceleration rates between dissimilar types once we were released by the Lead/Pace aircraft onto the course. Each aircraft has to maintain their 'lane' from release until reaching the 'guide pylon' down on the course, where the first turn began. Can get a little weird with wind drift/being -8 pointed straight at a mountain
After releasing the flight, pace/lead would climb to 1000 AGL and orbit the course to command practice maneuvers for the different racers in the flight below. This began the transition from instruction to evaluation. Several maneuvers are demonstrated for certification, mostly EPs but one especially important in racing: the pylon cut. You never turn right at Reno, EVER. If you roll in on a pylon and find that you're going to end up on the wrong side of it, resulting in a penalty, and decide to fix your bad line by rolling right while someone is on the perch just outside you- you're likely going to kill them and yourself. Taking the pylon cut is hammered into racers from day 1, the closure rate that results when someone unexpectedly rolls into their 'wing' during uncooperative formation is quite excessive and wing can lose separation if they so happen to blink at the same moment.
The next obvious killer flying low is an engine failure. Lead/Pace would command maydays for various aircraft on different parts of the course, and racers would have to pull towards the inside of the course (where there are no other airplanes, usually...) and trade as much smash as possible for altitude to maneuver inside the course perimeter for landing. Racing continues while maydays are in progress, so it is kind of important that you know where you are on the course and which runway you plan to recover on- there is no 'clear the airspace, emergency has priority' in this event. Obviously, the faster you go on the course, the more energy you have. It's really impressive to watch how much altitude some of the fast movers could grab compared to the slow guys. Speed is your friend!
This culminates in a checkride, which runs in a similar profile while lead checks off the boxes on our grade cards for task completion. Not everyone passes, a surprising list of names of very accomplished pilots have not made the cut to race. Your resume doesn't matter, either do the thing or come back next year after more practice and try again. But I made the cut, and acquired a hot, fresh, glorious laminated race license!
Another post to cover speed mod season/race week, with some photos
I was lucky enough to race for the first time this year at Reno. This is something I had been grinding for quietly over the last four years and not quite sure what to do now that it's over, but would like to share a rookie perspective from driving jets up at 390 to learning how to get down and dusty in the sagebrush.
Air racing (in my opinion) is very unique in that it is still competitive racing, and the fangs do come out, but the stakes are rather high compared to other motorsports: no roll cages, runoff, gravel, arco, tire stacks to save you in a mishap. The preparation and professionalism exhibited by my peers to pull it off safely was really extraordinary. I don't think I would have participated had I not experienced their attitudes first hand while crewing for another team in previous years. That whole saying "if you're not the dumbest person in the room, change the room" really rings true here for me- the amount of knowledge and experience in my class, and the willingness to share it with one another (even some competitors in my speed range), speaks to the integrity of the individuals. They understand the risks they are taking and freely provided mentorship to someone they may have only just met recently. Here's some background on what the learning process was.
In June all rookies and any racer who wants to practice makes the trip out to Stead to participate in Pylon Racing Seminar, which is the only event where anyone can practice going low and fast prior to race week in waivered airspace. For a rookie to show, they require an FFI/FAST card, mil formation experience, or a signoff from a current racer that they have been found competent in a 4 ship formation. All rookies are required to attend a formation warmup for three days prior to actual PRS beginning, flying 2-3 hops a day at a minimum. We would practice 8 ship flights and emergency procedures (upset recovery, formation abnormals) before getting down low- formation turns, changing positions in the flight, tailchase/knock it off, and the Flip Flop (wake turbulence recovery- lose no altitude while rolling inverted, simulating a wake turb encounter at 50' AGL/ensuring your instinct isn't to pull into the ground inverted).
PRS was the time to practice on the course, and for me my first time flying low and not climbing away from the ground. The first couple of hops we would do a 'direct entry' onto the course (an 8 ship flight would take off from the same runway in 1000' intervals, leaving the runway and turning straight onto the course at 50-250' at the first pylon), where Lead would take us around the pylons on the different courses to show us landmarks and get to see the terrain in different areas of the course, ending with lead commanding some scripted passing so we could see how that looked while in a lower speed/lower pressure environment. The second and third day began simulated races. We would depart in an 8 ship, rejoin, and proceed around Peavine mountain in an echelon to set us up for the "chute" entry, which would drag the flight into line abreast formation for descent from altitude down to the course that starts the race. Arguably this is one of the more dangerous parts of the race, with a lot of airplanes close together and unpredictable acceleration rates between dissimilar types once we were released by the Lead/Pace aircraft onto the course. Each aircraft has to maintain their 'lane' from release until reaching the 'guide pylon' down on the course, where the first turn began. Can get a little weird with wind drift/being -8 pointed straight at a mountain
After releasing the flight, pace/lead would climb to 1000 AGL and orbit the course to command practice maneuvers for the different racers in the flight below. This began the transition from instruction to evaluation. Several maneuvers are demonstrated for certification, mostly EPs but one especially important in racing: the pylon cut. You never turn right at Reno, EVER. If you roll in on a pylon and find that you're going to end up on the wrong side of it, resulting in a penalty, and decide to fix your bad line by rolling right while someone is on the perch just outside you- you're likely going to kill them and yourself. Taking the pylon cut is hammered into racers from day 1, the closure rate that results when someone unexpectedly rolls into their 'wing' during uncooperative formation is quite excessive and wing can lose separation if they so happen to blink at the same moment.
The next obvious killer flying low is an engine failure. Lead/Pace would command maydays for various aircraft on different parts of the course, and racers would have to pull towards the inside of the course (where there are no other airplanes, usually...) and trade as much smash as possible for altitude to maneuver inside the course perimeter for landing. Racing continues while maydays are in progress, so it is kind of important that you know where you are on the course and which runway you plan to recover on- there is no 'clear the airspace, emergency has priority' in this event. Obviously, the faster you go on the course, the more energy you have. It's really impressive to watch how much altitude some of the fast movers could grab compared to the slow guys. Speed is your friend!
This culminates in a checkride, which runs in a similar profile while lead checks off the boxes on our grade cards for task completion. Not everyone passes, a surprising list of names of very accomplished pilots have not made the cut to race. Your resume doesn't matter, either do the thing or come back next year after more practice and try again. But I made the cut, and acquired a hot, fresh, glorious laminated race license!
Another post to cover speed mod season/race week, with some photos
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