Reno Air Races trip

We had a fantastic weekend in Reno. Seeing the Air Races had been on my bucket list for years and this year we made the trek from Ramona, CA up the Owens Valley to Reno. The weather was gorgeous. We had a good experience flying into Reno International. Atlantic Aviation took care of getting us a rental car, and we had a free hotel room using my Marriott points. We got up to Reno in just under 3 hours and made it in time for the opening ceremonies. The airshow was amazing with the Breitling Jets, F-16 and the Tora, Tora, Tora reenactment. Racing was exciting as well. After the show we made it over to the RV party and got to meet some faces from here on VAF.
Our trek home took us out over Lake Tahoe and on to the scenic California Coast south of Monterey and into some very unusual hot weather.

Photo album is here.

Thanks

Great pictures. Thank you for sharing those with us.

Bruuuuuuce!

Bruce:

You're sure getting around! Way to go!!

Reno and a tour of California

One of the most interesting photo posts I have ever seen on this forum. Thank you.
I can't stop staring at the photo of the monster radial. Can you imagine the number of moving parts in that thing.

NYTOM said:

I can't stop staring at the photo of the monster radial. Can you imagine the number of moving parts in that thing.

Click to expand...

That is a joke--------------folks from the aviation school took two 4360s and bolted the cases together.

Just a conversation piece.

Big engine

I believe that's a Pratt and Whitney 5600.

Never know what you'll see at Reno

Mike S said:

That is a joke--------------folks from the aviation school took two 4360s and bolted the cases together.

Just a conversation piece.

Click to expand...

That makes sense Mike. I saw a cut a way slow turning model of what was supposed to be the largest radial engine ever produced at the Science Muesum in Boston a few years back and that blew my mind. As I stared at the picture I kept asking myself why I wasn't aware of this monster. They got me!

Hayseed Air Force mechanic

I worked with a guy who was an Air Force mechanic in the 50s. He told this story for the truth from his Air Force days.

The Engine instructor had finished the introductory class on the overall workings of the Pratt and Whitney Wasp R-4360 engine which had four rows of seven cylinders for a total of 28 cylinders, and he asked if there were any questions.

There was one guy in the class who was "fresh from the farm" who raised his hand and asked, "Sir, I understand how that piston gets from cylinder to cylinder, but how does it get from row to row?"

rv7boy said:

There was one guy in the class who was "fresh from the farm" who raised his hand and asked, "Sir, I understand how that piston gets from cylinder to cylinder, but how does it get from row to row?"

Click to expand...

I used to wonder the same thing until I was told that the piston was connected to a telescoping connecting rod via a universal joint wrist pin. Keep in mind, this set up only works with an elastic crankshaft........

Makes complete sense to me now!

rv7boy said:

There was one guy in the class who was "fresh from the farm" who raised his hand and asked, "Sir, I understand how that piston gets from cylinder to cylinder, but how does it get from row to row?"

Click to expand...

I bet that guy is a congressman now.

The guy that was packing up that big radial display today told me it moves 28,000 pounds of air per minute when at full power?yikes! Then again, it was almost as big as my car!

Cheers,
Bob