Dispatch from the Brickyard, Indianapolis, Indiana: I’m trying to decide if the 2014 California Avalon Cabernet or the 2017 Columbia Valley 14 Hands Merlot will go better with my goat cheese, pear, and micro arugula beet cup. Well, what the hell, it’s an open bar… I’ll start with the Cab and follow it up with the […]
Rain doesn’t dampen career expo
The guy from the National Weather Service was late because of the rain. You gotta love the irony. But the deluge from the heavens didn’t dampen the spirits of the thousands of soaked-to-the-skin young people who roamed the tarmac of White Sands Regional Airport in Alamogordo, N.M., popping into hangar after hangar as part of […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: Engine epilogue
Dispatch from KSAF, Santa Fe, N.M.: My chief mechanic and I are standing in his hangar, glumly staring at Race 53. Her engine is missing. Forward of the firewall, black fuel lines, orange air hoses, and white sensor wires dangle in mid air. Her new exhaust stack angles downward at a crazy angle. Her tails […]
The best way to watch the Reno Air Races
Wow. What a package. Catered meals. Open bar. A private sound system. An exclusive hangar set up for dining and socializing with guests from around the world. Noteworthy lunchtime speakers daily. Reserved close-in parking with exclusive shuttle service to the front door. A members-only sky view grandstand with individual bucket seats. Executive climate-controlled restrooms. Exclusive […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: The final chapter
This is the second part of a two-part series. Read the first story here. Dispatch from an oil-soaked tarmac at KSAF, Santa Fe, New Mexico: My chief mechanic, sitting in Race 53’s cockpit, slowly inches the throttle forward. The dull thrum of the engine changes in tempo, becoming an angry snarl. Then the snarl shifts into […]
A dangerous flight
Dispatch from KSAF, Santa Fe, New Mexico: By dawn’s early light I can see the silver fins of the stroker engine through the air intakes in the nose bowl, the front cylinders a pair of griffins in twin caves, ready to leap from their lairs and devour slower prey. The new engine is ready to […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: Downtime
Dispatch from my living room couch: I impatiently email my mechanic: “Is the engine back on the airplane yet or is it still on the crane?” The reply doesn’t come until the next day: “It is still on the crane as we mount sensors and things on the firewall.” Clearly, I won’t be flying — much […]
Changing horses mid-stream
Dispatch from KSAF, Santa Fe, New Mexico…three weeks ago: Faces solemn, my mechanics each rest a hand on one of my shoulders. One on my left and one on my right, they gently guide me across the crowded hangar floor, around Race 53, and to the north wall. There — SMACK — they smash my head […]
A clan gathering
Dispatch from M02, Dickson Municipal Airport, Dickson Tennessee: What has 26 propellers and 52 tails? A fleet of Ercoupes! This summer marked the 41st annual gathering of the twin-tailed birds of the Ercoupe Owners Club (EOC). Its fly-in convention, which is hosted in a different location each year, touched down this year in central Tennessee west […]