The practice races on Thursday began with a balls to the wall course run by all the pilots. Seeing this for the first time is very amazing! I've been to many airshows in the past, seen the Reno Air Races on TV, but seeing planes hammer gates at 240+ mph pulling 10 g's 400 feet in front of you is simply NUTS!! The course was very challenging for the pilots, and during the practice runs, we saw Southern California local Mike Mangold get DQ'd for erratic flying. Hrm. Erratic flying seems to be required to fly any of this stuff, and we salute Mike's erratic-ness!
Steve Nelson, local San Diego uber big cheese at the FAA met us at the water front and gave us a great perspective into how the FAA helps keep the event safe, airspace restrictions, and more. Totally interesting conversation we had. Oh yeah, Steve is also an avid modeler, and IMAC friend in these parts.
After all 13 ran through, we packed 'er up, went home for some much needed relaxation in preperation for the next two days of the RBAR. Enjoy these shots, I'll get my Friday and Saturday perspective up soon. Some of the photos in the newly added FG RBAR Big Events Gallery are dark due to the location of the sun. Folks on the Coronado side had the advantage for photos.
Videos are burnin' as we speak folks, we'll have 'em all up by Sunday.
