[Not a pilot, so I will not attempt any jargon. Please delete this if it is just adding to the noise.] I have not been to Reno for some years. When I was last there, planes would pass in front of and behind the grandstands. There were penalties for cutting pylons, but I had never heard that there was a minimum height necessary to cross the deadline. Perhaps if one crossed beyond the painted end of the deadline (i. e., to the west of Runway 8/26), they would be allowed to pass behind the grandstands, but could not cross the physically painted deadline, otherwise. No one ever crossed over the grandstands.
A minimum height above the ground was instituted some years ago, around the time Lefty Gardner's P-38 came back with barbed wire in one of the wings. [I understand that his day job was crop dusting.] There were reports of a Mustang [was it Skip Holmes'? ] hitting a rabbit, and I do recall spectators diving to the ground on the back course before the minimum height rule was instituted. From memory, below 1500 feet (above sea level?) altitude was considered the active race course and above that was reserved for emergency use and for slower traffic (e. g., overheating planes that wished to cool down before resuming the race). If a pilot declared a mayday, the remaining planes would circle above the race course until the emergency was resolved.
Incidentally, the AT-6 Texan/Harvard planes are so evenly matched that they fly in tight formation. I believe that they honored the deadline, but I always feared what might happen if a few of them touched wingtips at the point where Mr. Leeward lost control.
Last edited by fotoguzzi; 19th Sep 2011 at 15:21.
Reason: add info from map