Dispatch from my kitchen table: It’s a bright clear day. I could be flying. But I’m tired. It’s been a long season. Instead, I’m sipping French roast coffee with my feet propped up on a chair, staring out my back door at the distant mesas. My flight journal lies open in my lap and I’m treating […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: A new national champion
Dispatch from T74, Taylor, Texas: I’m sitting in the cockpit, not ready to get out. The engine makes little pinging sounds as it cools. The canopy is open and the lightest of breezes ruffles my hair. Off to my right a growing line of planes is queuing up to refuel before the awards ceremony. I hear […]
Air Racing from the Cockpit: Back in the saddle again
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 […]