The end of Reno

Great find, Katamarino. Unfortunately, the Las Vegas Space Port does not yet exist:
www.reviewjournal.com

The next frontier of tourism: Las Vegas Spaceport proposed west of city

Rob Lauer, a commercial real estate investor, looks to raise $310 million to build a spaceport between Las Vegas and Pahrump within the next decade.
www.reviewjournal.com www.reviewjournal.com
www.reviewjournal.com

Las Vegas Spaceport lands deal to bring it closer to launch

The company that plans to build a spaceport on desert land between Las Vegas and Pahrump has a partnership with an airborne launching company.
www.reviewjournal.com www.reviewjournal.com

From the first article: "Las Vegas commercial real estate developer Rob Lauer envisions a private spaceport on 240 acres in Clark County. On Tuesday [June 20 or 27], he began soliciting investors to raise $310 million to build a launching pad, a runway for spaceplanes, a control tower, a flight school and a 200-room casino resort between Las Vegas and Pahrump. It’s a crowdsourcing effort to build an escrow account that eventually would lead to the formation of a publicly traded company to build Las Vegas Spaceport... Lauer’s timeline is to have the Las Vegas Spaceport licensed within two years enabling a groundbreaking for the runway. He expects the first rockets to be launched within five to seven years with spaceplane use within 10."

The article refers to it as a "ten-year plan."

While I'd love to attend the re-located Reno Air Races in Pahrump next year, that seems somewhat ambitious, at the very least...
 
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If you build it, they will come. ( a bit of a paraphrase)
??
 
schmookeeg said:
Nothing to do with skyrocketing insurance costs I'm sure.

If it's truly sprawl, then I'll look forward to the Tonopah/Elko/Winnemucca Air Races soon. It's not like airplanes are inconvenienced much by switching host airports.
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Let's hear more about the air races you mentioned
 
I don't know, all have pros and cons from my quick run down the list. If I were choosing I'd probably go with Roswell.
 
Sierra_Hotel said:
Casper, Wyoming
Buckeye, Arizona
Pueblo, Colorado
Roswell, New Mexico
Thermal, California
Wendover, Utah
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Just saw the email!

I said at the races that the most likely candidate could be Wendover.

Wide open spaces, plenty of emergency landing space, good weather, and lots of casino hotels very close by.
Not too mention all of the history.
 
The airspace around Wendover could be an issue, though.
 
Sierra_Hotel said:
Casper, Wyoming
Buckeye, Arizona
Pueblo, Colorado
Roswell, New Mexico
Thermal, California
Wendover, Utah
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Pueblo, Buckeye, and Thermal are the only places remotely easy to get to. Buckeye is closest to a major metro with logistical support for 20k or so visitors.
 
Sierra_Hotel said:
Casper, Wyoming
Buckeye, Arizona
Pueblo, Colorado
Roswell, New Mexico
Thermal, California
Wendover, Utah
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I live in Casper and have my 182 based at CPR. There's no way that we're a serious contender for this. There aren't enough hotels to handle the crowds, there aren't enough places to eat/drink that could handle everyone at the end of the day, and the nearest commercial service airport that can get those large crowds here is DEN, which is 4 hours away.
 
Yeah that was kind of my first thought on it, too. A couple on that list seem to be thrown in as filler options, with 2 or maybe 3 real choices.
 
Buckeye is up to 4 hours from the nearest commercial service airport, depending on what time of day and how many new lanes they’re in the process of adding to the 10 that week. But it is probably the best choice.
 
Sierra_Hotel said:
Casper, Wyoming
Buckeye, Arizona
Pueblo, Colorado
Roswell, New Mexico
Thermal, California
Wendover, Utah
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Pueblo and Thermal are probably the only two places that are realistic choices. The other locations don’t have the infrastructure (or proximity to a place with the infrastructure) to support an event of the air races size.
 
hindsight2020 said:
Isn't suburban sprawl just swell? :rolleyes:
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I remember Dulles (IAD) back in the day - it was, if I recall, at the end of a two-lane road (maybe two lanes in each direction?), a straight shot from the beltway to the airport, and there was almost nothing out there - desolate on the way, and nothing much around the airport. A high school buddy and I drove it one evening and saw maybe 4 -5 other cars. An older couple broke down and spent a dozen hours waiting for assistance overnight. Now it's a tech and housing "corridor", swelled by the massive increase in fed jobs and fed contracting over multiple decades - development is right up the airport fences, the "access road" is actually several multi-lane surface roads, along with train (Metro) service.
 
Sundancer said:
I remember Dulles (IAD) back in the day - it was, if I recall, at the end of a two-lane road (maybe two lanes in each direction?), a straight shot from the beltway to the airport, and there was almost nothing out there - desolate on the way, and nothing much around the airport. A high school buddy and I drove it one evening and saw maybe 4 -5 other cars. An older couple broke down and spent a dozen hours waiting for assistance overnight. Now it's a tech and housing "corridor", swelled by the massive increase in fed jobs and fed contracting over multiple decades - development is right up the airport fences, the "access road" is actually several multi-lane surface roads, along with train (Metro) service.
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I just can't help but think, every manner of my life that causes me grief or dissatisfaction in personal, recreational or even vocational life, I can probably causally trace it back to the presence of too many other apes competing against me. AITAH? :rofl:
 
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a572mike said:
I live in Casper and have my 182 based at CPR. There's no way that we're a serious contender for this. There aren't enough hotels to handle the crowds, there aren't enough places to eat/drink that could handle everyone at the end of the day, and the nearest commercial service airport that can get those large crowds here is DEN, which is 4 hours away.
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I was thinking the same thing, Surprised to even see it on the list.
I would certain like it though
 
I wonder to what extent the crowds were driven by the activity vs the location. Another way of saying, how many people traveled just for the race vs Reno residents or gambling tourists that just wandered over because it was the same week as their trip. I have no idea, but there might be a bit of chicken vs egg?
 
Hang 4 said:
I wonder to what extent the crowds were driven by the activity vs the location. Another way of saying, how many people traveled just for the race vs Reno residents or gambling tourists that just wandered over because it was the same week as their trip. I have no idea, but there might be a bit of chicken vs egg?
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Could be.

I still think Sebring could be a good location. Popular motorsports location, lots of accomodations and restaurants with a constant stream of visitors (seems like the area has some golf tournament very other weekend), reasonable driving distance from three major airports (Tampa, Orlando, Miami), plenty of other tourist attractions nearby to bookend the racing, nice fall and winter weather, etc., etc. The words "Sebring" and "racing" go together like eggs and grits.
 
Hang 4 said:
I wonder to what extent the crowds were driven by the activity vs the location. Another way of saying, how many people traveled just for the race vs Reno residents or gambling tourists that just wandered over because it was the same week as their trip. I have no idea, but there might be a bit of chicken vs egg?
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I received a survey after Reno asking pretty much exactly those types of questions.
 
I don't know about Reno fans, but if you put an SEC game on the moon, at least one team would manage to get ten thousand fans there. As far as the planes go, if you can afford and figure out how to race a P-51, I don't think 'venue' would be an issue.

I'd propose Plattsburgh. 11,000 ft runway on 5,000 acres in the middle of nowhere. Warbirds may be dangerous, but not much more than the stuff they used to fly out of there. I don't know anything about Reno, but I'm not really kidding. It's relatively close to Lake Placid, and they still talk about hosting the 1980 winter Olympics there. Only about an hour from Montreal, plenty of room for extra people there.
 
Albany Tom said:
I'd propose Plattsburgh. 11,000 ft runway on 5,000 acres in the middle of nowhere. Warbirds may be dangerous, but not much more than the stuff they used to fly out of there. I don't know anything about Reno, but I'm not really kidding. It's relatively close to Lake Placid, and they still talk about hosting the 1980 winter Olympics there. Only about an hour from Montreal, plenty of room for extra people there.
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Don't know whether the weather will work there.
 
cowboystatedaily.com

Casper One Of Three Finalists To Land National Air Championship Races

Casper has made the short list of three cities still in the running to become the new host for the National Championship Air Races, which could be a $100 million shot in the arm for the Cowboy State.
cowboystatedaily.com cowboystatedaily.com

Apparently it's down to Casper, Pueblo and Roswell in the running.
 
I loved Roswell. It’s a quirky little town. The exact kind of place GA should go and explore. They are going to need some nicer hotels to make it work though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
With Roswell, RARA could still be RARA. I learned to fly in Reno and will miss the races being here.
 
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