Wednesday, October 21, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Reno Air Races
The Reno Championship
Air Races are held on the
third weekend in September.
I’ve been there since they
started in 1964. More than
250,000 fans of air racing
come from all over the world
to take part, and my family
has been among them for
many of those 51 years.
My brother Don and his
son David met me at the
Riley Junction and we drove
down together. When we
arrived we met up with my
Air Force Reserve son, Col.
Ross Anderson, Commanding
Officer of the USAF Reserve
Wing at Nellis AFB, his wife,
Doni, and son, Connor.
There are aircraft from
around the world racing at
Reno; all of them modified
and slicked up to go fast.
But it’s the fans who are
also noisily involved; they
cheer, blow whistles, wave
their arms off, toot horns,
laugh when everything is
going as it should … and cry
when “Murphy’s Law” hits.
If it were possible to put
the energy of air racing fans
into the fuel tanks of the
aircraft that roar past them
on each race, those old World
War II fighters would go 900
mph.
For years, Bob Hoover,
fighter pilot, air racer, and
supreme air show acrobatic
pilot gave Reno air race fans
more than they ever expected
for the money they paid to
watch the show.
Hoover, looking spry in
his straw hat at 93 was at
the 2015 races, seated in the
shade of a hanger, hawking
his book “Forever Flying”
with the help of his loyal fans
and friends. I had the honor
of meeting him and Kim
Furst, the young lady who
was watching over his tired
old body, and who produced
a film about his life, “Flying
the Feathered Edge.”
Hoover’s good-old-days
of performances in the twin
engine Aero Commander
Shrike business aircraft
included loops, rolls and
landings on first the right and
then left wheel — with one
and both engines shut down.
He was one of the pilots who,
I’m sure, inspired my two
oldest boys to take up flying
as a career.
Hoover is still recognized
as one of the greatest air-
show pilots of all time, and he
probably made the engineers
who designed the Shrike
happy they put what they
did into that aircraft. What
the fans didn’t know was
that Hoover — because of
his knowledge of flight, and
skills as a “stick-and-rudder
man” — never exceeded the
design specs engineers put
into that beautiful airplane.
The Unlimited Class of
racers push the envelope to
the limits and unfortunately
go too far. There have been
three nasty wrecks at Reno,
two of which involved those
overworked fighter aircraft.
The wreck of a modified P-51
Mustang “Galloping Ghost”
in 2011 was a tragic example.
This year’s race only had
one “Murphy’s Moment:” A
North American T6 — per-
haps the noisiest aircraft to
race — had landing gear
problems, made a belly-land-
ing, damaging the left wing
to the point where it was
grounded.
Every time I go to the
Reno air races I run into
someone who makes that
long trip more than worth-
while. My son Ross intro-
duced me to a fellow Air
Force Reserve pilot he flew
with on several occasions,
and thinks the world of him.
Turned out he’s the T-6 pilot
who had the landing gear
problem, Kevin Sutterfield.
That led me to his dad,
64-year-old Stan Sutterfield,
who was racing an RV-8 in the
Sports Class (and took first
place on Friday’s race), and
Pat Sutterfield, wife of Stan
and mother of Kevin, who
holds everything together in
their mobile home/shop in the
pits at Reno. Truly, air racing
at Reno is a family event.
Kevin’s life is an example
of how many race pilots end
up doing what they love to
do. Lt. Col Kevin Sutterfield
learned to fly before he had
a driver’s license, soloing
on his 16th birthday from
Vandenberg Airport while
25
photo by Conner anderson
Race of the Big One — The Unlimited — Pilots in old WWII fighters
fighting to stay in the lead, and racing fans loving it!
attending Bloomingdale
Senior High School.
After graduating from the
USAF Academy in 1997, he
was commissioned as a sec-
ond lieutenant and attended
jet-pilot training. While
at pilot training, he swept
the awards, winning the
Distinguished Graduate (#1
Order of Merit), Outstanding
Flying Award, and the AETC
Commander’s trophy.
Then he was hand-picked
to fly the Air Force’s top air-
superiority fighter, the F-15C
for 10 years throughout the
Middle East and Asia. In
2004, he attended the pres-
tigious Fighter Weapons
School at Nellis AFB in
Nevada (as did my two sons
Dean and Ross), and in 2007,
he was selected to transi-
tion to the F-22 Raptor. He’s
currently commander of the
USAF’s most experienced
F-22 fighter squadron, the
302d FS, and the Air Force
(reluctantly) looks the other
way as he races a T-6 for the
fun of it!
Flying is, literally, in
his blood. His dad, Stan, is
a retired airline pilot, and
also an FAA Certified Flight
Instructor. When Kevin was 8
years old he would sit on his
mom’s lap in the right set of
the family’s trusty old Piper
Tri-Pacer. From that seat he
could see out the windshield
and hold the control wheel
in both hands as his dad
had him turn right and left.
Kevin has an enduring
love of historic aviation,
which led to his involvement
at the Reno Air Races. He’ll
tell you, “It’s a real privilege
to fly these amazing aircraft
and to be part of a this leg-
endary aviation event. For
a kid that grew up looking
through the airport fence, this
is a dream come true.”