"Flying is safe. Racing is not safe."

This is a truly excellent on-scene report by Don Cox of the Reno Gazette-Journal. The Reno air races are great fun for all, but no one denies they're hazardous for the participants. Cox interviews race pilot Ron Buccarelli, who flies the modified P-51 Precious Metal in the Unlimited class, and Buccarelli is frank and forthright. 

He has decided to quit racing. His reason: his family. "It's selfish for me to come race," he says. 

Certainly this year's bad fortune is a factor. Three pilots died in three separate accidents in three different race classes.

Unlimited racer Bob Odegaard also unlimbered his thoughts to Cox. Cox apparently didn't know that Odegaard's son Casey was involved in a runway collision at Oshkosh, flying Bob's P-51 (Casey was struck from behind by the P-51A of Gerry Beck. Casey escaped without serious injury and the Odegaard P-51 was repairable, but Beck perished and his plane was destroyed by impact and fire). 

Not many reporters can get Unlimited pilots to open up about their risks, and hardly any can write such a story without a lot of sensationalism. Cox deserves credit for what he has done. Read the whole thing!

The three crash victims were

• Steve Dari, of Lemon Grove, CA, who died in a biplane in practice on Tuesday, Sept. 11. 
• Brad Morehouse of Afton, WY, who died in his L-39 jet at the start of the jet race on Thursday, Sept. 13. 
• Gary Hubler of Caldwell, ID, who died in a Formula One midair in a heat race on Friday, Sept. 14. The other pilot, Jason Somes of Simi Valley, CA, was not seriously injured. 

Another Reno Gazette-Journal article on the mishaps is here. 

As is often my practice, I have put the text of the Don Cox story in here, in case the RGJ scrolls it off their website. As long as it remains there I prefer that you read it on their site. 

'Racing is not safe': Pilots know the risks, but they keep going up

DON COX RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

Posted: 9/15/2007

Before the flying, before the accidents, before the deaths, veteran pilot Ron Buccarelli had made up his mind.

"I turned 50 years old in January," Buccarelli said early this week, one day after the first crash killed the first pilot. "This is my last year racing."

When asked why, Buccarelli, sitting under a canopy near his World War II-era fighter at Reno Stead Airport, pointed to some snapshots.

"Because of these," he said.

The photos were of Buccarelli's wife Meg and two young daughters, Tess, 7, and Paige, 2, back home in Hollywood, Fla.

"Anything can happen," said Buccarelli. "We're pushing the limit. Out here, we're going 500 miles per hour. It's a very dangerous thing."

Tuesday's fatal accident at the Reno National Championship Air Races, the first of three this week, killed Steve Dari, a biplane pilot from Lemon Grove, Calif. Afterward, Buccarelli and some other racers gathered and talked among themselves about how fast they fly and how dangerous it can be.

"We had a discussion," said Buccarelli, who knows how to fly fast. "Why do we do this? ... If I get through it without getting scraped up, I'll be happy."

This is Buccarelli's eighth year flying in the Reno Air Races. He competes in the unlimited class, where the biggest and fastest planes fly. In a qualifying heat this week, Buccarelli averaged more than 410 miles per hour in his P-51 Mustang named "Precious Metal."

Buccarelli isn't some crazy kid. He's not cocky. He's serious about what he does.

"It scares me," Buccarelli said.

Buccarelli flies for a living. He owns a small aviation business in Florida. But racing a plane is different than flying one, Buccarelli said.

"The (airplanes) are safe," he said. "Racing is not safe."

But pilots keep going up. One of them, Robert Odegaard of Kindred, N.D., tries to explain why,

"It's quite a rush, obviously," said Odegaard, who, like Buccarelli, competes in the unlimited class. "It's serious business. It's not to be taken lightly at all."

Odegaard, 61, who's been flying the big planes since 1985, doesn't know how long he'll continue.

"We don't decide those things," Odegaard said. "If you lose your health."

After Friday's crash killed another pilot, this time in the Formula One division, some spectators on the ground who've been in the air talked about the risks of racing.

"This is probably the most dangerous part of aviation, racing," said Richard Porter of Lakeland, Fla., who retired from speed racing, one plane against the clock. "What we're seeing right now is the most dangerous part of aviation."

Until this week, Porter had never seen this many pilots killed in race crashes.

"It's an incredible fluke of numbers to get three," he said. "This is the last thing they want. I feel sorry for these (race) promoters. This is a nightmare."

Jim Nowlin of Incline Village, a pilot and flight safety officer during his six years in the Air Force, watched Thursday's accident in which a jet crashed, killing its pilot, Brad Morehouse of Afton, Wyo.

"Flying, it's the safest way to travel," Nowlin said. "This is racing. You're pushing everything to the limit. You're pushing pilots and planes to the very limit, and sometimes beyond."

When Buccarelli is racing, he fights the temptation to glance inside the cockpit at his instrument panel.

"I want to so badly look," Buccarelli said. "I can't. As soon as I look down ..."

At the speeds he's flying in a race, Buccarelli figures he covers the length of three football fields every second. He can't lose focus, even for an instant.

"If I do, I'll hit somebody, or the ground," Buccarelli said.

Randy Bailey, 39, who grew up in Winnemucca, stopped racing in 2004. He still visits with Buccarelli and other friends at the Reno event.

"There were many facets to it," Bailey said of stopping. "Sometimes you know when to quit."

It's that time for Buccarelli.

"They don't like me being here," Buccarelli said of his family. "It's selfish for me to come race."