2016 Reno Air Races, a different perspective

At this year's Reno National Championship Air Races, I enjoyed the honor of participating in the Sport Class's first ever Slalom Match Racing exhibition. I finally got around to making a short video from some of my GoPro footage:

https://youtu.be/FmXAbintNY8

This is my first attempt at a YouTube video, so please excuse my use of a GoPro template and music...

Skylor
RV-8 "Sport 80"

Thanks for posting that, Skylor. I enjoyed watching you from the stands. Your turns were quick! Watching the video it seemed you put in a bit of bank before you pulled up, and then another time it seemed you pulled before putting in the bank. Did you have a specific technique or did you just let it flow? Or maybe you'd rather not say

First place! Good for you! Cool to see it from that perspective. We watched it from the north-side of the field.

What is the max gs you pulled?

SMO said:

Watching the video it seemed you put in a bit of bank before you pulled up, and then another time it seemed you pulled before putting in the bank. Did you have a specific technique or did you just let it flow? Or maybe you'd rather not say

Click to expand...

Mark,

The technique that was originally recommended and practiced by the match racers was the pitch-roll-pull or essentially a wingover turn. After PRS in June, I adjusted and developed my technique to bank before the pull so I was sort of doing a high-G Chandelle. I found this to be a little faster than the wingover. During one of my pairings, I found I had a healthy lead at the finish of the first match so on the second match I decided to revert back to the wingover because it's more fun to fly and I think a little more graceful looking to observers...

plehrke said:

What is the max gs you pulled?

Click to expand...

Philip,

I was maxing out at 5.7-5.8 G, about midway through the turn. In the video segments where the instrument panel is visible, you can see the G-Meter on the PFD on the left side of the attitude indicater. You can't read the G-Meter, but occasionally in the turns you can see it become "highlighted". Thats the "G" caution which I have set to 5.5 G. In some of the video segments you can see the wings skins distort slightly.

Skylor

Awesome job.....I really want to get into air racing