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. :ok: Not bad for a 75 year old design.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps9k8bqznl.jpg
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!

A T.11 in camouflage? Hmmm ...

Great video, though!

.........and not a single fluorescent-waistcoat in sight. Hmmmm..... Good for them..! :D

Absolutly amazing. The CAA would have a heart attack!!

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.

[QUOTE].........and not a single fluorescent-waistcoat in sight. Hmmmm..... Good for them..! :D [QUOTE]


No, but the red shirts stand out..........!!!

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).

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.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...30at235850.png

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. :ok:

Ejector seats
 

No ejector seats - just the rails ???.

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."

I wondered about that too. What is the pilot sitting on? Did they remove the MB seats to save weight

When I did my training on Vampires in the late fifties there were no ejector seats.

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.

Camouflage finish seemed quite effective though. The guy filming lost it against the backdrop!

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!:D:D:D

NGJ

NGJ,
Are you sure? The rules state that the jets have to be stock.

If they've managed to shoehorn a Ghost into a Vampire fuselage, which sounds fairly challenging, then they have kept quiet about it ...

They do say that, which had me wonder about the L139 with the Garrett TFE731 engine.

Daysleeper,

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