Reno Air Races
Safe day of racing closes dramatic week
SUSAN VOYLES
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
Posted: 9/17/2007
Fans, racing teams and their families were relieved Sunday that no major incidents occurred on the final day of the National Championship Air Races in Reno.

"We want just a nice, quiet, safe day of racing," said Terry Hellickson, who witnessed one of the three fatal crashes in four days.

Everywhere on the race grounds, flags were flying at half staff in honor of the three dead pilots. Racers flew a commemorative lap at the end of racing, a first for the event.

Race officials expected attendance would surpass the 208,000 of last year.

The week began eerily with the continuing search for record-setting aviator Steve Fossett, who has been missing since takeoff Sept. 3 from a ranch near Yerington and was to have been a judge at the races.

In mid-August, a fault line that crosses the west end of the runway shifted at Reno Stead Airport, forcing airport manager Skip Polak to seal cracks big enough to fit a hand.

Michael Houghton, CEO and president of the races, said those events had nothing to do with the air races. He said the fatal crashes were in separate circumstances and would be studied by aviation safety officials.

Houghton said a safety review committee will meet within three weeks to determine whether operations need to be changed before the races next year.

In 44 years, the event has had 17 fatal crashes during race week and one a month earlier during practice. The three last week were the most for any year and the first in five years.

"It has just been a bad year," Robert "Hoot" Gibson, a former Space Shuttle commander and race pilot since 1998, said. "It has always been dangerous."

Gibson, 60, said it's bad luck to be superstitious about flying but he always says a little a prayer on his way to Reno each time asking for no fatalities.

"It's somewhat self-serving, I admit," he said.

Jonathon Gourley, 33, of Seattle, who started flying a glider when he was 14, flies Jonnie Rocket in the biplane races and is a Federal Express cargo pilot.

"I do think they do a top-notch job to ensure safety," he said.

Hellickson, who owns a 1949 Stinson plane, and his wife. Stephanie, have been coming from Portland, Ore., almost every year for 12 years.

"This is spectacular to watch," he said. "This is the only place where you can watch airplanes like this fly like this."

Not all pilots shun superstition.

Tom Dwelle and his son, Ken, of Auburn, Calif., both T-6 pilots, kiss a plastic toy goat before every race.

Dennis Buehn, of Carson City, keeps a toy cat with suction-cup feet on his side rear window.

"It's for fun," he said and reminds him of his pet cat.

Buehn, racing for 35 years, said he puts his trust in God to keep him safe.

"It's not my will," he said. "It's his will."

Chris Nobles, Tom Dwelle's daughter, is thankful her father, 70, agreed to retire Sunday after racing for two decades.

"The allure of racing is irresistible," she said.

Steve Dari, of Lemon Drive, Calif., died Tuesday while testing his biplane. His engine stalled shortly after take-off. Brad Morehouse, of Afton, Wyo., was killed Thursday when his jet plane was caught in the wake of another jet and crashed, Houghton said.

Videotapes will be replayed to see whether any safety rules were broken when Formula One planes piloted by Gary Hubler, 51, of Caldwell, Idaho, and Jason Somes, 36, of Simi Valley, Calif., collided going around a pylon Friday morning. Hubler's plane clipped Somes' tail. Hubler died immediately but Somes was back at the airport Sunday after hospitalization.

Races were suspended after the Thursday and Friday deaths. Mayor Bob Cashell and airport authority chief Krys Bart visited Houghton on Friday to express their concerns about the weekend. The airport authority owns Reno Stead Airport.

John Zayac, president of the T-6 class, said officials agreed to continue the races in honor of the fallen pilots.

"It's truly a brotherhood," he said. "They would have liked us to continue the race."

Zayac, of Denver, recalled his first race in 2000 when his engine blew three or four times.

"Every (racer) person was in the pit giving us parts," he said. "And I was a first-year rookie."

Zayac said pilots take five to 10 minutes on the ramp to collect their thoughts.

"I count on my crew and my family," he said, with his arms around his three young daughters.

Gibson's daughter, Julie Jamieson, is married to a pilot and said she can't imagine her father playing checkers in his retirement. He has been flying for 45 years, and his parents were aviators.

"Flying has been his whole life," she said. "I always give him a kiss and a big hug" before he takes off. And from the ramp, "he always waves to me."

If you didn't make it this year, consider trying to make it to the 2008 show. It's worth it!