Jay Honeck wrote:
For those who want to jump straight to the pictures:

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/2008_-_...in_detroit.htm

We intended to fly to YIP (Ypsilanti, MI) last Friday, to meet this
group's own Jim & Tami Burns (& Family) for a fun weekend at the races.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature brought a line of Level 5s to bear on our
route of flight, and we reluctantly made the decision to drive to
Detroit -- a 1,000 mile round-trip.

The no-go decision was the right one, though -- I ended up driving in
torrential rains like few I've seen before, and flying would've been
suicidal. Luckily, Jim (coming from WI) was able to fly his Aztec over
the big lake, and pulled a neat northerly end-around the line of storms.

We stayed at the GM Renaissance Center's Marriott. Normally I avoid
big-box chain hotels like the plague, but this facility was "show
center" for the entire weekend, so I gritted my teeth and paid over
$200/night for a room less than half the size of one of our 2-bedroom
suites. As expected, it was a huge rip-off, with no continental
breakfast, a one-cup (!) coffee maker, and NO wireless internet.

But it *was* centrally located. We were able to simply walk out the
front door and watch the races, which was marvelous. Had we opted to
stay at a better (cheaper) hotel, any savings would have been offset by
additional parking and gas expenses.

In the evening we found the hotel bar to be chock-full of "Red Bull
Beautiful People" -- mostly young, blonde floozies apparently recruited
for the event. They mostly hung all over the pilots and Red Bull
big-wheels, but Jim and I enjoyed our time in the bar, and were even
treated to a round of drinks purchased by one of the floozies who
flashed us from the bar! (Our wives complained, but didn't send the
drinks back... :-)

Saturday dawned promising, but the winds following the storms were
impressive, gusting to 59 mph. Unfortunately, the announcers (Red Bull
sets up speakers and giant-screen TVs everywhere in the viewing area)
kept up a steady, optimistic banter that pretty well promised that
racing *would* occur...eventually. So, we sat, and sat, and waited.
Every now and then a couple of T-6s would fly by, and the B-25 was fun,
and the Heritage Flight with an F/A-18 and Corsair was cool -- but, for
the most part, there was not much to do but watch the boats go past...

When one of the pylons broke loose from it's moorings and started
rolling down-river, we knew the writing was on the wall. It was a lot
of fun, watching them try to corral the damned thing with boats, but at
3 PM they called it due to wind.

So, we did what every red-blooded American would do -- we sent the kids
back to the room with pizza and pop, and went bar hopping! Detroit
comes equipped with a wonderful "People Mover" system that aids and
abets this sort of behavior, and -- for just 50 cents -- you can ride
all over downtown Detroit in style.

Now, I know what you're thinking. I was expecting Detroit to be an open
sewer, with gang-bangers and trash everywhere, but we were pleasantly
surprised to find a clean, modern, nice riverfront area, and some fun
bars to visit. We never felt the least bit threatened, and, in fact, we
walked back to our hotel from the bars, enjoying the night air. They've
spent HUGE amounts of money cleaning up the area, and it shows.

We eventually settled into the Hard Rock Cafe, where (for reasons that
may become clear at the HOPS Party in Oshkosh) we endeavored to explore
and discover the perfect Long Island Iced Tea recipe. It was hell, but
someone had to do it -- and we eventually discovered the LIITs can be
made both with and without tequila.

This seemed incredibly important at the time, for some reason... I
don't know why.

Sunday dawned sunny and nice, in the 70s. The organizers had to pack
two days of racing into a single day, and it was chock-full of good
stuff. Once the racing got started, they were very good at keeping
things moving, with very small gaps between each racer. (Prior to
racing, however, they lagged badly. They need to study Oshkosh, and
learn how to keep the crowds entertained...)

The races themselves are fabulous, with real danger and excitement at
every pylon. For those who may not know, they don't race head-to-head,
but rather against the clock through a complex course made up of 60-foot
inflatable pylons mounted on anchored barges in the Detroit River.
Some pylons must be split in knife-edge flight, while others must be
done wings-level.

The consistency of these competition pilots is simply incredible. Kirby
Chambliss ended up winning by a scant fraction of a second (like, .015
of a second), over a course that takes between 1:12 and 1:20 to
complete. To say it's exciting is an understatement, and even the
"NASCAR crowd" (meaning non-aviation folk) was able to appreciate the
skill that went into flying the course.

Surprisingly, the Red Bull organizers muffed some pretty basic stuff.
For example, there was just one (1) vendor selling shirts and T-shirts
for a crowd of thousands, and the lines were interminable. They
could've sold many more, if they had the foresight to place more vendors
in the area.

Ditto with race souvenirs -- there simply weren't any. With all the
down-time waiting, Red Bull left tens of thousands of dollars on the
table by not catering to the crowd.

The biggest rip-off of the weekend surely had to be the upscale $200
seats that were placed inside a cordoned-off area right up against the
hotel. Unfortunately, tens of thousands of people continually walked the
sidewalk in front of these poor saps, meaning that they were unable to
see anything most of the time. I would have been furious, and demanded
to be "upgraded" to the $30 riverfront seats like ours...

Still, these were minor glitches in an overall wonderful weekend. If
you EVER get the chance to see this international "World Series" of air
racing, jump at it. I had seen their first "exhibition race" at Reno,
back in '04, so I knew what it was about -- and I'm here to tell you
that they were worth every hour of that horrible, 1000-mile drive to see
them.

I saw some of these races on TV and you are correct, they are great,
especially then in cockpit cameras. What a rush. On the TV they can
overlay one pilot's course to the other and you see quite clearly why
the winer won. Some of these races are pretty much in open areas, but
there was one last year somewhere in Europe that they had to watch out
for the mountains.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI