Dispatch from KGMJ, Grove, Oklahoma: I click the mic button with my thumb and I roll the yoke to the left. One smooth motion. The horizon cartwheels right. I call “Race Five-Three, Turn One.” Suddenly a gorilla is sitting on the nose. I pull the heavy yoke back as the turn steepens and I lose lift. […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: An ill-timed breakdown
Dispatch from KCVN, Clovis, New Mexico: It’s chilly. It’s nearly noon and I’m wearing my winter flight jacket. As we walk across the tarmac to Race 53, above our heads the sky is solid overcast. It’s pale gray. Low, kissing the edge of marginal VFR, but slowly rising. Not even 100 miles from home yet, […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: Omens
Dispatch from my kitchen table: The sun is well above the horizon. Outside it’s the most beautiful day you’ve ever seen. Cool. Not a cloud in the sky. Not a breath of wind. My bags are packed and I’m ready to go. But I’m not flying anywhere today. My plane sits at KSXU in her […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: A chain of bad decisions
Dispatch from 1V0, Navajo Lake State Park, New Mexico: The wind howls through Race 53’s twin tails. A high-pitched whine. Ghosts shrieking. Her wings rock back and forth, straining against the tie-down straps. The sky above is an evil dark grey-green. Fast-moving ash-grey clouds scuttle across the horizon. The rain comes in waves, never stopping. Sometimes […]
Reno: Air racing from the grandstands
As if on cue from an invisible orchestra conductor, everyone stands. Thousands of men, women, and children. As one, they turn their heads to the southeast, faces to the sky. No, it isn’t for the national anthem. It’s for the start of the Unlimited Gold Race at the National Championship Air Races at Reno, Nevada. […]
Reno, Part 2: Air racing from the pylons
The sun has just risen over the rim of the desert. The moon hangs over the dry, treeless mountains. It’s chilly. I hunker down in my windbreaker. It’s deathly quiet, except for the occasional far away rumble of an aircraft engine, wafting over the desert like distant thunder. The soil is chalky white, populated only […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: The best worst time ever
Dispatch from P14, Holbrook, Arizona: Looking down off my wing, I can see the ramp is nearly empty. Most of the race planes have already left. Gone home. I know I’m slow, but geez, couldn’t the other racers have at least waited until the last plane landed before they called it a day? I key the […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: Expect the Unexpected
Dispatch from KTYQ, Indianapolis, Indiana: Holy crap my airspeed is good. I’m pushing the yellow arc. In level flight. The two latest speed mods are paying off in spades. I’m 600 feet up, low enough that the lush, vibrant greens of the Indiana countryside seem to be flashing by beneath my wings. High above, and to […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: Family Jewels
Dispatch from KMHE, Mitchell, South Dakota: An airplane. High above me and slightly to the left. I nudge my 14-year-old son, Rio, with my elbow and point up through the canopy. His dark brown eyes, hawk-like when he’s flying, narrow as he studies the silhouette. “It’s white,” his voice crackles through my headset. “It’s not him.” […]