Sorry for the absense of any posts lately... I had to attend my favorite Aunt's funeral, and before that I had spent a week off of work to go up to help a squadron-bro~ qualify his Harmon Rocket II up at the Reno Air Races (http://www.airrace.org/). Spent several days up there enjoying myself helping "Coach" & his "X-Ray" to qualify to race at Reno.

I was also able to spend a couple of days with some friends/blokes from the UK; Martin, Mitch & sons Mark & Ben. They flew all the way from the UK just to spend 3 days (weekend) watching the races - what a trip! Both Martin & Mitch "Race" their stock general avaition aeroplanes in the UK, but using the handicap technique. Handicapping is where you determine the slowest to the fastest and allow the slowest to takeoff first and the fastest to takeoff last and, in theory, if all the aircraft flew the same line, would all cross the finish line together - sort of a mad dash at the end. Conversely, racing at Reno is the opposite of the handicaped style where everyone starts together and they get strung-out over the course so the fastest one wins.

Check out Mitch & his boys' website at: http://theflyingmonkey.co.uk/

Here's the overall winner for the Unlimited Gold race at Reno 2005 (there were mostly Sea Furys, one Bearcat-"Rare-Bear", and only ONE P-51 that blew up it's engine on the last race/heat)

RARE BEAR!

People keep asking me if the Prowler / Jaguar is a single or two seat... The correct answer is ...

TWO SEAT - Tandem!


Back to Reno I go to watch the finals this weekend! Check out the pictures and results at: http://www.airrace.org

RACE WEEK at RENO/Stead Field

Watched Doctor Brent Hisey blow up his V-1650 Rolls Royce Merlin engine during qualifying heats today... He was "smokin" through the course when he suddenly heard a "bang" and engine oil started to spew out leaving a trail of smoke. He was fortunate to get immediately lined up to runway 14 and was able to safely land, but not until an engine backfire blew off his lower engine cowling along with all the cold air inlet ducting. The liberated ducting and cowl parts flew aft and also took out his coolant heat exchanger (ratiator). The result was a big mess, but, Doc Hisey safely landed! Check out: http://www.airrace.org/ for updates and pictures, and also some P-51 Mustang images at: http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/survivors/pages/44-74536.shtml

I'll be at Reno all week helping a squadron Bro~ & Friend flying in the Sport Class (Experimental Homebuilts) - Race#22 "X-Ray" (Maj.) Greg Nelson in his Harmon Rocket II

Another 4 day weekend (Labor day) has come and gone - in a blink of an eye! I'll have to post some pics from the trip later. But first - here are some good before/after images (satelite mostly) of the New Orleans area I found on the Internet. These are pretty interesting images.

http://oregonstate.edu/~holtt/

http://www.globexplorer.com/disasterimages/index.shtml

Unfortunately, the images we took of the area for FEMA are "FOUO"(For Official Use Only) and I cannot legally post them here, though these links above are well worth the effort. Pretty messy business these Hurricanes!