Reno Air Races

We departed on Wednesday morning and planned on a fuel stop in Klamath Falls (KLMT) enroute to Reno (KRNO). The morning was overcast so we departed IFR and after a climb through 4000’ we broke out on top for the sunny flight southbound. KMTH was reporting VFR but there was a cloud layer right in our descent path to runway 14. The controller asked us to report the airport in sight, but that wasn’t possible, so we requested a clearance for the RNAV 14 and that approach got us down to a point where we could see the airport and land. We took on fuel and switched pilots for the next leg to KRNO. An interesting site while we were getting fuel was the taxiing and departure of about eight F15’s from the Kingsley Air Guard Base at KLMT.

The leg from KLMT to KRNO was via V452 and the IFR minimum enroute altitude (MEA) is 11000’, and there is no radar coverage for most of the 182 nm flight so we elected to file a VFR flight plan so that someone would come searching for us if we encountered a problem and had to land in the Nevada desert. The other kink in the route to KRNO was the fact that there was a fire TFR adjacent to V452, the air race TFR just north west of KRNO, and another fire TFR north east of KRNO. About 30 miles from Reno, NorCal Approach was able to see us on Radar and asked us to join the runway 16R localizer into KRNO. Coincidentally the two TFRs are on opposite sides of the localizer so this flight path kept us out of restricted airspace. About 10 miles out we contacted Reno tower and they cleared us to land on 16R. Since this is a fairly busy commercial airport, listening to ATC for how they were spacing our 172 with 737’s was entertaining. The 737 in trail to us, requested s-turns for spacing and was initially denied and told to either slow it down or execute a missed approach. Turned out fine for the 737 as they were granted s-turns and we kept blazing along until short final to help out with spacing. After taxing to Atlantic Air, we unloaded, put in a fuel order for the return trip and boarded a shuttle to our hotel.

Thursday morning, we headed over to Stead (KRTS) for a day at the air races. If you haven’t been to Reno for the air races, there are static displays, merchandise vendors, and always some type of aircraft in the air throughout the day. They alternate all day between race heats and aerial performances. Some of the highlights of the day we’re STOL drag races. This event pits two STOL aircraft head-to-head and they take off, land, come to a complete stop, pivot 180 degrees and do the same in the opposite direction. They are confined to specific landing spots and the race is timed. More info here: http://www.stoldrag.com

Another highlight was the Thunderbirds’ arrival. They didn’t perform their full show on Thursday,

but still showed off their precision flying skills with some formation flying and high-speed passes. After a day in the sun and lots of junk food, we headed back to the hotel for some rest for the return flight the next day. On Friday we arranged for the FBO shuttle to pick us up at the hotel and return to KRNO. After a pre-flight inspection we started up and got our VFR clearance for departing the KRNO class C airspace. After departure ATC gave us some vectors away from the KRNO 16R final approach course and we proceeded on course for our fuel stop at KMTH. After landing at Klamath Falls, we fueled up the airplane and grabbed some snacks from 

the vending machine for the flight to KSLE. The skies from Reno to Eugene were clear VFR, but north of Eugene the ceilings were MVFR to IFR. Our plan was to depart VFR from KMTH and pick up an IFR clearance around Eugene for the descent into KLSE.  We contacted cascade approach over Creswell and negotiated a pop-up clearance direct to KSLE for the ILS 31. We encountered about 15-minutes of IMC conditions during the descent and vectors into Salem. All-in-all total Hobbs time for the round trip was 8.7 hours and 76 gallons of 100LL consumed.