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Reno 2015 - Jet Race - The winner is - a DH115!

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Reno 2015 - Jet Race - The winner is - a DH115!

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Old 27th Sep 2015, 15:22
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Reno 2015 - Jet Race - The winner is - a DH115!

I had planned to drive from Santa Monica to Reno, but an unexpected business trip intervened. So while I'm here in Saigon, I thought I would check to see what happened.

I'm glad I did. The jet race was won by my favourite jet - a DH Vampire T11, at an average speed of 502.3 mph. Not bad for a 75 year old design.


2015 Jet Races Conclude | Racing Jets Incorporated

It is difficult to find photos but I did find this video compilation. The Vampire features very prominently in the first two minutes and again in the race at 1:42:10



The video graphically illustrates the difficulty of tracking a desert-camouflaged aircraft flying over desert!

Last edited by India Four Two; 27th Sep 2015 at 16:03.
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Old 27th Sep 2015, 18:17
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Originally Posted by India Four Two
The video graphically illustrates the difficulty of tracking a desert-camouflaged aircraft flying over desert!
A T.11 in camouflage? Hmmm ...

Great video, though!
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Old 27th Sep 2015, 19:00
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.........and not a single fluorescent-waistcoat in sight. Hmmmm..... Good for them..!
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Old 27th Sep 2015, 19:44
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Absolutly amazing. The CAA would have a heart attack!!
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Old 27th Sep 2015, 20:34
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My father was stationed at RAAF Pearce from late '57 to late '63. I grew up to the sound of Vampires, and I'm sure they were a factor in my deciding to take up this crazy aviation business. Lovely to see one still in its natural element.
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Old 27th Sep 2015, 20:56
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[QUOTE].........and not a single fluorescent-waistcoat in sight. Hmmmm..... Good for them..! [QUOTE]


No, but the red shirts stand out..........!!!
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Old 27th Sep 2015, 21:55
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The Vampire in question is N4861K and is an ex-Irish Air Corps T.55 (serial 186). It left Ireland for the USA in the mid-1970s and I'm not sure how active it has been since then - until recently, of course. As well as now sporting a pseudo-RAF colour scheme it wears a fake British serial, WD186 (which was never used).
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Old 28th Sep 2015, 15:23
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For Herod

This is a still from a video I took of NZ5712 starting up at Tauranga three years ago. You'll just have to imagine the noise for now. I'll post the video when I get my laptop back from being repaired.



Incidentally, this T11 is also wearing a fake serial number. This is an ex-Swiss aircraft, and so when painting it, Brett Emeny, the owner, decided to add one more Vampire to the Kiwi fleet - the last RNZAF T11 was NZ5711.
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Old 28th Sep 2015, 19:52
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Ejector seats

No ejector seats - just the rails ???.
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Old 28th Sep 2015, 20:31
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Originally Posted by Liffy 1M
The Vampire in question is N4861K and is an ex-Irish Air Corps T.55 (serial 186). It left Ireland for the USA in the mid-1970s and I'm not sure how active it has been since then - until recently, of course. As well as now sporting a pseudo-RAF colour scheme it wears a fake British serial, WD186 (which was never used).
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Old 28th Sep 2015, 23:13
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a fake British serial, WD186 (which was never used).
According to UK Serials, WD186 was pre-assigned to a Valetta C1. One of a large contiguous batch of about 60 Valettas (WD172 to WD275) about 1951 vintage, that were all "cancelled and not built."
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Old 29th Sep 2015, 05:18
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No ejector seats - just the rails ???.
I wondered about that too. What is the pilot sitting on? Did they remove the MB seats to save weight
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Old 29th Sep 2015, 07:30
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When I did my training on Vampires in the late fifties there were no ejector seats.
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Old 29th Sep 2015, 22:07
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.........and not a single fluorescent-waistcoat in sight.
I worked on Vampires, and we didn't dress any different to when we worked on any other a/c!

Waistcoats, of any colour, were never part of my RAF uniform. But I did have a natty brown leather one, that I wore under my working blue in winter.
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Old 30th Sep 2015, 02:32
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Camouflage finish seemed quite effective though. The guy filming lost it against the backdrop!
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Old 1st Oct 2015, 19:30
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Yep we all cheered loudly when it won the Gold Race against much more modern machinery. Apparently it doesn't have a Goblin engine though, perhaps a Ghost.............
Still impressive at over 500mph!

NGJ
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Old 2nd Oct 2015, 16:07
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Apparently it doesn't have a Goblin engine though, perhaps a Ghost.............
NGJ,
Are you sure? The rules state that the jets have to be stock.
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Old 2nd Oct 2015, 17:35
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If they've managed to shoehorn a Ghost into a Vampire fuselage, which sounds fairly challenging, then they have kept quiet about it ...
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Old 3rd Oct 2015, 06:48
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Are you sure? The rules state that the jets have to be stock.
They do say that, which had me wonder about the L139 with the Garrett TFE731 engine.
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Old 3rd Oct 2015, 07:02
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Daysleeper,

Perhaps it is stock as in "stock car" racing!
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