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TCinLA's avatar

Chris is the third guy I knew who died at Reno.

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Elizabeth M. (Massachusetts)'s avatar

I'm so sorry, T.C. It sounds like you also knew the pilot whose stabilizer fluttered and detached, such that he unavoidably crashed into the spectator seating area, sometime in the past ten years. I'm so sorry for the losses of your friends. Are the organizers of Reno looking into procedures they could institute that would increase safety?

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Elizabeth M. (Massachusetts)'s avatar

I just read your comment further down that it was a pilot named Jimmy Leeward--also your friend, I gather--who crashed into the seated crowd at Reno. Again my condolences. I'm very sorry for the friends you have lost, and relieved to hear that no more races will be held at Reno due to the new suburbs that are too close to the action.

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TCinLA's avatar

He wasn't a friend, more an acquaintance, but definitely not a stranger. Also Gary Levitz seven years before that.

Fortunately the Reno Air Races are done. These were the last. Stead Field used to be out in the desert boonies, but now it's surrounded by "suburbia." Insurance won't cover them anymore.

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