Instead of moving the spectators, officials organizing this year’s Reno National Championship Air Races will change the course for the fastest races to take the aircraft away from the crowds in the hopes of avoiding a repeat of last year’s deadly crash.
“We had a choice of moving the grandstands or some of the racing, so we are pushing some of the racing farther away,” Mike Houghton, executive director of the Reno Air Racing Association said at a news conference at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.
By moving a few pylons out, the course will be easier to navigate and will place lighter gravitational demands on the pilots, he said. The changes will “make it softer and safer and will pull the aircraft farther away from the crowds,” he said.
Houghton said they will also make the pilots go through special G-force training to ensure they can handle the physical stresses they’ll experience during the event. He also said they will look more closely at pilot age and medical certification and possibly add more barriers in front of spectators.
The association has already decided to move a fuel tank away from the runway and has added a safety director to the board, he said. These changes and others were recommended by a special “Blue Ribbon” panel the association formed to review the event to look for safety improvements.
The panel released its report on Tuesday.
But it’s not clear whether the association will limit or regulate the sometimes elaborate modifications that are made to some aircraft in an effort to make them fly faster.
“We still remain very saddened and focused on the tragedy that took place in September,” Houghton said. “That day will be forever emblazoned in our minds, and we will never forget the victims and the heroes of Sept. 16, 2011.”
Pilot Jimmy Leeward, 74, and 10 spectators died when his P-51 Mustang crashed, sending debris into the VIP box seating in front of the grandstands. At least 70 people were seriously injured.
Leeward had banked around Pylon 8 at about 530 mph when his aircraft, the Galloping Ghost, suddenly banked at about 90 degrees, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The G-forces likely knocked Leeward out, the agency said. His plane rolled, right and over, then crashed into the tarmac.
Some wondered if the air races would ever return to Reno.
In the months that followed the crash, Houghton said he focused less on the races but more on the fans, the victims, their friends, the participants and the community. But in January, Houghton announced that the association would hold an event from Sept. 12-16 at Reno Stead Airport.
The crash “was one of the most horrifying scenarios we could ever imagine,” Houghton said. But with the help of numerous experts, they will do “everything in our power to ensure this never happens again,” he said.
Safety remains No. 1, he said.
The Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority, which controls Reno Stead Airport, has granted the association a permit to hold the event there, but officials still must secure a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration.
As the association continues to implement improvements in the interest of safety, Houghton announced that they have secured a mandatory $100 million insurance policy, but said “it comes with a cost.”
The association faces a $1.7 million premium increase that has made this year’s finances tight, he said.
“We don’t usually ask for help,” Houghton said, but added that he needs the community to “step up to the plate — buy tickets.”
The event brings about $80 million to the Northern Nevada economy, he said, therefore the association will look to the community, to sponsors and to the casinos for support.
“We need that local support,” he said.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the races have been an important part of the Northern Nevada community for nearly 50 years and is confident it will continue.
“I have attended the races over the years and my former colleague, the late Senator Ted Stevens, attended the Reno show many times and always told me it was the best of its kind,” Reid said in a statement.
The panel’s recommendations and those made by the NTSB in April “will ensure the tens of thousands of spectators can safety watch and enjoy these races,” Reid said.
The NTSB has not completed its investigation into the crash but announced seven recommendations in April to help guide the association as it plans for the event, and the airport authority mandated those be carried out as conditions of the permit.
Houghton said many of the Reno Air Races panel’s findings were similar to the NTSB’s, and some have already been implemented.
The association has appointed Mike Stollings, a former flying supervisor with the Air Force, as the director of safety.
When presenting its recommendations on April 10 in Reno, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman urged the association to require each aircraft to undergo an engineering evaluation to confirm that the airplane can handle race speeds and stresses.
Hersman pointed out that Leeward had never flown his aircraft at those speeds on that course before the day of the crash.
“We are issuing a safety recommendation to ensure that pilots and their modified airplanes are put through their paces prior to race day,” Hersman said in April.
The Reno Air Races panel addressed that concern, saying that the association should revise its procedures for any aircraft that has been altered in the area of weight, balance, structural strength, performance and other areas.
“RARA should require that any such aircraft must provide, as part of the RARA application process, the FAA approved substantiation, testing and approvals for said alterations,” the panel’s report said.
They also said that if a discrepancy is found during a technical inspection, the racing team should have to provide documentation that the problem has been corrected.
“To the extend necessary, RARA documentation should be changed to assure that uncorrected discrepancies do not ‘slip through’ the system,” the report said.
Source: http://www.rgj.com
