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Since I’m waiting for my next flight. A few more pics!

Military arrivals from Friday.

I'm curious to see what you guys thought of Reno. Having been my 22nd year I don't really go based on who is racing or performing, I just go lol. It's a part of my life now. Of course it's a lot different than if your first year was something like 2015 when Strega, Voodoo, and Bear were racing (or a decade earlier than that), but hopefully the sound of Sport Gold and Dreadnought/Miss America was something different for your ears at least

GRNDP51 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 22, 2021 8:44 pm I'm curious to see what you guys thought of Reno. Having been my 22nd year I don't really go based on who is racing or performing, I just go lol. It's a part of my life now. Of course it's a lot different than if your first year was something like 2015 when Strega, Voodoo, and Bear were racing (or a decade earlier than that), but hopefully the sound of Sport Gold and Dreadnought/Miss America was something different for your ears at least

Well....I was completely underwhelmed. I don't have much good to say, lol. We spent the entire weekend cracking jokes about how much we wanted to leave. Skipping Sunday and finding something else to do was a very real possibility at one point.

I understand some of the thinking behind the pits/crowd area but it is very irritating to navigate. There is no great place to watch from except maybe the grandstands. Despite amazing lighting, the photos suck because the flying is very far away (understandable because of the crash), you only get to see bellys, and it is the most obstructed show line I have EVER seen. There were trucks, gators, people, and airplanes blocking our view CONSTANTLY. The sloping ramp and runway don't help.

The flying was also boring for the most part, which I sort of expected. Unless you come in knowing who the pilots are and why they might be rivals or whatever, it is just a bunch of random planes doing flybys. The first lap was usually ok with people sort of bunched up, but it quickly strung out into just single ships. The races were a bit more exciting on Sunday when they actually meant something - the Unlimited gold was pretty interesting because of the show down between Ms. America and Dreadnought. Then it ended in a DQ anyway so it was like WTF was the point of any of it then.

A lot of photographers said that getting out to the pylons would change our minds, and I got to go to a pylon on Saturday. Unfortunately it was only for 3 races before the rest of them were called off due to 50 mph winds. Setting the miserable weather aside, it was pretty cool but definitely not worth the hassle of dealing with the ridiculous media stuff. It was also really stupid to have to get back on the bus for ANY military performance, including the Osprey.

I can understand why some people get into it, but I have never been all that excited by the races and this trip just kind of confirmed that. A lot of people we talked to said the race experience has really gone down hill in recent years; I certainly would have been more interested if the real unlimiteds like Strega and Voodoo were there. In fact it probably demonstrates how little I follow the racing scene that I was surprised to see a couple weeks before the trip that none of the super modified planes were going. That was really disappointing. Our main reason for going was just to get there before the races might disappear for good, so we checked that bucket list item off but sadly it sounds like a number of years too late.

On a positive note - the military arrivals on Friday evening were awesome! Great light on great flybys and a lot more stuff than I expected.

I think we all pretty much agreed that the only reason we might return is to see the unlimiteds, should they race again. IF I do go, I will likely just keep it a short trip and buy grandstand tickets.

I finished my photos from Reno right before leaving town and never posted them. Here is a sample with the full album available in our gallery:
https://airshowstuff.smugmug.com/2021-A ... aces-2021/