I have returned from Reno and had a great time hanging out with my dad for a few days and enjoying the Reno National Championship Air Races.  The trip seemed to fly by even though each day felt quite long at the time.

Dad and I each flew into Reno on Thursday. He got there pretty early in the morning, I got in around 1pm. We each caught the free airport shuttle to the Atlantis Casino/Resort. We stayed in the motor lodge of the hotel—which is basically the old, cheap part of the hotel not connected to the main building. The rooms were just fine and we were happy to save some money. After settling into the hotel room, we headed to the casino to enjoy the huge buffet for lunch.

Much fried food and dessert later, we wandered about the casino. It was a fairly good sized casino, but not huge. Of course there were no clocks, lots of flashy lights, skimpily dressed cocktail waitresses and hidious carpet—all designed to keep us shoving money into machines. I spent about $15 over a few hours on the penny slots. I had never played before, but it was a lot more fun that I thought it would be. That is not a good thing. J

After deciding we had spent enough money for the day (and getting comped a few drinks, big spenders as we were playing the pennies) we headed outside to walk down to the casino where we would have to catch the bus to the Air Races the next day. It was 5-6 blocks from one hotel to the other. It didn’t take that long, but man it seemed like a journey after we spent all day walking around in the hot sun and then had to trek back home!

The rest of the night was rather low key, we watch golf on tv and channel surfed until we went to bed. We went to bed early so we could get up and be ready to catch the first shuttle at 7am—we didn’t want to miss anything at the races.

It was quite the process to get to the Air Races. First we walk to the other hotel, then wait for the bus. We can’t buy shuttle tickets there, but we can get on the bus. That bus will take us to another hotel/casino where we have to get off the bus, go inside and buy bus tickets, then come back outside, get on a different bus that will take us to the races. To make matters easier we bought round trip bus passes for both Friday and Saturday at the same time. We still had to go to 2 casinos, but we didn’t have to go inside on Saturday, just transfer to the other bus.

The trip to the airfield took probably 35 minutes. Traffic wasn’t bad and we got dropped off right in front of the main gates. We wandered around the grounds for a bit, then caught the first biplane race. They say the Air Races are like NASCAR but with airplanes, but that is only true at the very highest level—machines racing…..that is about it. these races are much cooler than NASCAR. The biplanes go in the 200mph range and groups of 7 or 8 fly low around an oval track. You can take inside lines, outside lines, or above and below lines—just don’t clip the pylones or another competitor.

After watching a few races we went over to the showplane area where we saw lot of restored airplanes all vyying for people’s choice awards. Then we headed into the military section where we saw past and present military aircraft. Loads of Air Force recruiters around for this. I didn’t sign up….

After another race or two and some fancy acrobatic airshow displays (including a small single engine plane landing on a moving pickup truck—and then taking off from the truck) dad and I headed to get into the Pit area. This is where all the fancy vendors, dealers and racers are. We walked around and saw the latest in personal airplanes and jets (of course we couldn’t come close to affording anything!) and saw all the racing planes getting polished or worked on. We spent the bulk of our day in this area as we didn’t pay for the privledge on Saturday—Friday was our only day in the pits.

After some time in the Pit we realized we hadn’t heard any airplanes racing for awhile. We checked around and, sure enough, there had been another crash. A formula one racer had clippled the tail of another plane in a turn. The plane that got clipped was able to land (though the pilot was taken to the hospital for surgery to repair his eyesight), the plane that ran into the other one was not so lucky. He immediately crashed and was killed.

While Air Racing is inherently dangerous (just like any motorized racing), in the 44 years of the Air Races in Reno, only 18 people have died. 3 of them died this week. The day we were there marked the 3^rd day in a row that someone was killed. They ended up suspending the rest of the day’s races to get back with all the pilots to go over safety and all that. there wasn’t any common thread to the 3 crashes, 1 one mechanical, the other 2 were pilot error on different parts of the course.

Since the races were cancelled, they had to scramble to fill the rest of the afternoon and keep everyone happy. There was a full airshow that filled space between all the races, but they had to scramble to get people ready since much of the afternoon was cancelled.

The showcase of the air show was the performance by the Canadian Forces Snowbirds (think 10 person version of the Blue Angels). These guys were truly amazing. It was so awe-inspiring to see 10 planes flying in such tight formations all turning and looping together. They did a 30 minute show that was awesome from strart to finish. Definitely check them out if you get a chance.

Around 3 or so dad and I had had enough of the sun and walking around. We hopped on a shuttle and headed back to the hotel. On the walk from one hotel to the other we stopped and picked up a six pack and ice cream bars. We got back to the room, cracked open the beer, ordered a pizza, and didn’t get off the beds until the next morning. We were beat!

On Saturday we didn’t get up as early as we realized we didn’t need to catch the first shuttle. This was the first weekend day of the races, and you could tell there were a lot more families and people there than during the week. Since we had no Pit Pass, we found good seats and held on to them as long as we could—taking turns getting up for food, the bathroom and walking to stretch the legs and get feeling back in our butts (metal bleachers w/ no backs will take its toll over the day!). All the races went on without incident on Saturday. We saw the biplanes, formula one, super sport, T-6’s and Unlimited. The last two were my favorite. The T-6 is a stock class of T-6 Texans, the WWII fighter trainers. All planes being equal (and big and powerful), these races were the most closely contested races. All the planes were within a few seconds of each other. It was awesome! The unlimited class should be retitled as the warbird race as all the planes were good old WWII fighters. Loads of P-51 Mustangs, Bearcats, etc. Man it is still awesome to hear 4 Mustangs coming roaring by with their distinctive sound!

But the absolute highlight of my entire trip were the heritage flights. These flights were nothing but simple flyovers in different formations. But the formations were made up by different generations of military aircraft. On Friday there was a heritage flight with a F-16 Fighting Falcon, an A-1 SkyRaider and a P-38 Lightning (from youngest to oldest). They all took turns flying lead in formation. It was awesome to see the F-16 struggling to go slow enough to stay inline with the other two. Especially because not 5 minutes before he put on quite the show zipping around and kicking in the afterburner for a deafening roar and a straight-into-the –sky climb. The F-16 was by far the loudest plane of the weekend.

At this point I must explain about the P-38. This is a special plane. This is my favorite warbird. There are only 4 in the world flying today. This particular P-38 has an extrodinary story. In 1942 it was flying in a squadron over Greenland when bad weather forced the group to land. The crew was rescued, but the planes had to be abandoned. Flash forward to 1992 when a salvage operation starts trying to recover the plane. They find it buried 287 feet inside a glacier. They have to melt tunnels straight down to the airplane, then melt out a cavern around the plane. Then they dismantle the plane piece by piece, hauling the pieces up through the ice. Then they take the plane back to the US, clean, fix or recast the parts, and put the plane back together. They named the plane Glacier Girl—a very fitting name for an awesome plane.

The same 3 planes took part in Saturday’s heritage flight. However, this time they were joined by an A-10 Thunderbolt II (AKA the warthog). This is an absolute bruiser of a machine: 35,000 lbs of heavily armoured fury designed to offer close combat support. Most of the tanks of Iraq and Afghanistan are now piles of scrap because of this bad boy. He did a lengthy military demonstration by himself before joining the others for a great set of flybys.

After another full day of racing fun, we caught the shuttle back to our hotel. We were able to convince the bus driver to drop us on a side street (that he already had to drive up) near our hotel, cutting out most of our extra walking! We crashed in the hotel for a little while, before hitting the casino to do some gambling. This time around we hit the live action tables. I went in with $20 (I’m a very cheap guy and hate taking risks, so gambling is not very easy for me). First we hit the roulette table. I had recently learned a strategy for this game that I employed. My dad played whilly-nilly. He busted out very quickly. I lasted a good long time. I finally cashed out with $44. I had more than doubled my money! Then I decided to take $15 and try the $5 blackjack tables. That was the smallest bet table they had, much to my dismay. I played there for 20 minutes and walked away with $25. So my $20 investment yielded $54—not too shabby for my first time in a casino.

Dad and I took a break to dine in one of the restaraunts. We both wolfed down some very tasty open faced hot beef sandwhiches (made with real pot roast!). Then it was back to the casino. I decided I’d keep most of my winnings, but take a chance with my original $20. I went back to roulette since I did better there (and the betting was smaller). Dad decided to play my strategy with me. we both lasted for quite some time. But then, in 2 rolls in about 5, the ball lands on the green 0. The chances of hitting this are very slim (that is why it pays 35 to 1). It hits 2 in a short order and of course neither dad nor I are covering it, so we get cleaned out. I decide I’m done, dad wants to play the slots.

We go and find him a game he looks like he’ll like. It is a 2 cent slot called magic dragon or something like that. lots of flashy lights and pretty pictures. He is playing and winning a bit, then losing a bit, but staying about even. Then he gets some random game called up on the screen with treasure chests and monkeys and dragons. Of course there are no rules or explanations for anything, so dad and I do our best to figure out what he is supposed to do. He keeps touching treasure chests and numbers appear. When all is said and done, it gives hime 1700 or so in credits. He try to figure this out and both determine it is about $11. He only started with $3, so I tell him to cash out and play something else. He hits the cash out button and it tells us that it is printing up a voucher for $45!! We couldn’t believe it, but didn’t complain. We both walked away winners that night! Eat your heart out—the house doesn’t always win. J

We head back to the room after that exitement to start packig for home. My flight leaves at 10:45am, dad’s leaves around 4pm. He decides to just come with me to the airport since he has to check out of the hotel that morning anyway.

We get to the airport and I check in just fine. He tries to check in, and they tell him he can’t check in more than 6 hours before his flight! It is like 7:45 in the morning. Niether of us really thought about it like that. luckily there are loads of shops and slot machines in the airport, and the airline allowed him to check in his checked baggage, so he didn’t have to lug it around all day.

We have breakfast together and then I decide to try my luck with the last 3 dollar bills I have in my wallet. Dad plays next to me and we pass probably an hour or so playing penny poker. Then I leave to get through security and get to my gate. I call dad on the other side of security to tell him what is up on the concourse level and he informs me he just one around $20 on a slot machine. The guy is crazy!!

The rest of my trip was uneventful. I made it home on time, my luggage arrived with me, and Abi was there to pick me up.

I had a great time and really enjoyed the races. I would go back next year in a heartbeat….

be sure to check out all the photos from my trip!

ddv