Slipstream October 2017

Chairman’s Message 

By Anele Brooks
There is New Year, Chinese New Year, Jewish New Year, all nice celebrations, but for me New Year starts at the National Championship Air Races held at Stead Field outside of Reno, Nevada, and it has been that way now for 39 years. For me the world stops for a week at Stead Field. The only things that matter are who is going to win whatever race I am watching at the moment, what planes are on the field and being surrounded by spectators who are there solely to watch airplanes race around the sky! A little bit of heaven on earth.
This year I forced (literally) Elizabeth Dinan to join me on my annual trek to Reno. In July she brought one of her scrapbooks and shared an air race program from the 1960's in Los Angeles and, of course, we all know she loves airplanes. 2016-2017 has been a “doozy” of a year for her – new widow and new grandma – I knew she needed a vacation and that Reno was the vacation she needed!
Kim Kolb and I had been watching the weather for a couple of weeks and we both realized that flying to Reno was not an option due to weather, dime size hail and thunderstorms were not risks either of us wanted to take. The three of us drove to Reno! The weather was as predicted – but it got better as the week went on, and so did the racing. We met our Rocket Scientist friend there, he is now an air race fan, and he joyfully explained the intricacies of how a Harrier Jet is able to hover and fly backwards.
RARA honored the memory of R.A. “Bob” Hoover with a Missing Man formation flight on Friday and Saturday. Clay Lacy was honored as “Man of the Year” and acknowledged as the “Greatest Living Aviator” on earth. The Texas Legacy Museum came with their fleet of WWII aircraft and entertained us with flybys of the North American B-25 Mitchell, an FG-1D Corsair, a Supermarine Spitfire that saw action in the Battle of Normandy, a Grumman TBM Avenger, a P-40 Warhawk and, of course, a P-51D Mustang. Amazing formation flying and aerobatic routines were the rule of the day. We walked through the pits daily to check out the aircraft (and to see if there was anything new to buy!) All the heat races, aerobatic routines and fly-bys led up to the final race on Sunday – the Unlimited Gold Race –  the “Bad Boys of Air Racing”, the fastest motor sport in the world! With Rare Bear out (divorce) it was a race between Bill Destefani's “Strega” flown by Jay Consalvi and Bob Buttons “VooDoo” flown by Steven Hinton, Jr. Strega won in an amazing come from behind victory that was, truly, the best race I have ever seen  - and over the past 40 years I have seen a lot of air races in Reno, Mojave and in Phoenix. There were also four Sea Furies (Dreadnought, Argonaught, 924 & Sawbones) and a Yakolev 3M. The Yak moved up from a victory in the Silver Race and the Sea Furies are all in it just in case the Mustang engines blow up! (Fortunately there were NO maydays this year).
The three of us had a wonderful time – introduced at least two new people to the joys of air racing – and had a relaxing week of nothing but airplanes, jet exhaust and aviation themed shopping – truly heaven on earth!

Dates and Schedules 

Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome. Fly-outs: any dates are flexible and we will confirm plans and set times at the chapter meeting before the scheduled fly-out. Seats will be available for non-pilots, students, and pilots without wings. We want every seat to be filled, so let us know if you want to come along.
October 4th
Chapter Meeting at the Spirit of San Luis at 6 pm, social gathering starts at 5:30 pm.
October (day t.b.d.)
Cal Fire Open House (date t.b.d.)
ATTENTION: There will be NO San Luis Obispo Airport Day this year !!
December 2nd
Toys for Tots & Poker Run at Oceano Airport. Details t.b.d.
(c) 2017 - Monthly Newsletter of the San Luis Obispo Section of the 99s - http://www.slo99s.org
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