Hinton’s Days Of Watching, Working On, And Flying The Fastest Airplanes In The World.

Part 2 of 2 By Maria Morrison

For someone who is capable of so many flying feats at a relatively young age, Stevo is quite humble. His victories at Reno rarely, if ever, appear in a conversation unless the other person brings it up. He introduces himself as an airplane mechanic, the flying that he does being his “hobby”. And he, like other aviation enthusiasts, watches airshows and events. Much of his attendance can be accredited to his or his family’s involvement in the show itself. However, when Steve does have time to watch the acts, there are some that catch his eye.

A seemingly obvious first choice for someone that has grown up around WWII fighters, Stevo’s favorite performance is “any type of piston-driven warbird formation act. With a jet, you can move the throttle back and forth without having to worry about hurting the engine or the effects of the drag of the propeller.” Using a labor-intensive warbird for formation flying, you can’t just “throttle jockey” the airplane, you must account for what will happen when the power changes, and what that will do to the engine.

Steve also enjoys watching Sean Tucker and his aerobatic performance, that “goes well beyond what a normal airplane should do”, which anyone who sees the act, with aviation knowledge or not, can plainly see.

Although not to the caliber of aerobatic circuit pilots, Steve has done plenty of aerobatics himself: high, low, formation, solo, and in various aircraft. He has logged 50-100 hours in a stock Mustang 10,000 feet AGL, as well as low-level solo Mustang aerobatics and formation flying. Formation flying close to the ground is about the nearest one can get to being a race pilot without competing at Reno. “You’re close to other aircraft (within 10 feet, he says) and close to the ground.” Steve has also gotten the chance to fly both lead and wing in a formation, granting him the knowledge of responsibilities set upon different positions. “The lead thinks about his wingman all the time. He needs to make sure that the entry and exit speeds are comfortable. The wing is just trying to hang in there.”

Another part of aerobatics is building experience in different situations, and familiarizing oneself with the ins and outs of a certain aircraft. “Say you have a hundred hours in a P-51 but you only go point A to point B. Well, you only know one part of the airplane. Whether it’s in a 150 or a Mustang, until you do stalls, steep turns, and aerobatics if the airplane is certified, you don’t know what that airplane is capable of doing.” As part of a race environment, by nature, the airplanes are set up differently. “Race airplanes have CGs all over the place. They’re all modified, so they handle very differently than what the book tells you.” While a pilot can’t prepare themselves for all the modifications made to aircraft in a race, they can help by trying something different all the time. “The more experience you have, in regards to different experiences-not 1000 hours of one thing but 10 or 20 hours of one thing and then another thing and another thing-gives you more experience to build from.”

Some things, however, don’t need to be experienced. Steve has never performed a loop in Strega or Voodoo, and doesn’t plan to. Both aircraft, changed dramatically to gain speed, are tailored for a special task. “I want to go to the boundaries of what the airplane is built for but not beyond them.” He has done other aerobatics, though, in a Pitts S2C which would seem to be a big change from the WWII fighter he was accustomed to. However, it didn’t seem too different to the accomplished Hinton Jr. “It’s all the same type of headwork. You have to be mentally prepared to fly close to the ground and close to other airplanes.”

While aerobatic flying is good experience, Steve spends nearly every one of his days, especially the closer it gets to race season, in Yolo County with Voodoo and two or three other year-round volunteers of the crew. During Reno and the days prior, they have a full crew but at the shop, only a few members stay to make changes to the aircraft. “Competing at a very high level like Reno requires months and months and months of a dedicated effort to get it [the airplane] there. In my opinion, Reno is really won back at the shop.” As far as Stevo’s involvement: “The time I spend turning wrenches on the airplane versus flying it, probably 95% of my time is spent working, 5% flying.” When the Race season closes in, he takes time off from his normal job to do the volunteer work necessary to get Voodoo ready for the races. “I don’t hold a title other than Pilot on this team, but I am definitely one of the mechanics who work behind the scenes.”

When he’s not repairing, reworking, or racing Voodoo, six-time Reno champion and his Toyota pickup travel around working contract jobs on warbirds. He drives everywhere he goes, and considers home to be “whichever airport I'm at.”

Even though most of his time with Voodoo is spent as a mechanic, Steve Hinton finds enough time throughout the year to practice his flying skills, which includes maintaining a clean line around the course. In all his races, Steve is able to keep a consistent line around the pylons, conserving critical energy. If your line changes too much between laps, you suffer a loss of speed. As Steve proves: “If you flew a lap at 58 seconds, then a lap at one minute, you had a 15 mph decrease in speed.” In order to keep up that line, a pilot must be conscientious with their passing and avoid wake turbulence.

When close to another airplane, which all the racers at Reno are, wake turbulence becomes a concern. The amount of wake turbulence coming off any of the Unlimiteds at Reno is enough to throw their competition inverted in seconds if the trailing pilot doesn’t know what to do. A pilot must determine if they want to play safe and avoid the turbulence, or race, despite the wake, and go for first. “You have to balance between flying the best line for you, and remembering that you’re still racing. Nowadays, too many pilots seem to think that they are flying formation, but we should be racing each other.” Steve eludes to how too much of passing is going wider than the airplane ahead of you. “That means that the guy on the outside has to cover more ground, therefore have more speed to stay with or overtake the other aircraft. If I were in that situation, I would “stack” higher than the other person, so that you’re flying a smaller course. That way, if you’re a similar speed, you maximize the capabilities of your plane.”

For six-time Reno winner, though, the feeling of passing someone might be slightly unfamiliar. Out in front, wake turbulence is less of a factor, and passing rarely comes up. Instead, Steve must think of how to keep his consistent race line, not varying in altitude or proximity to the pylons. Since the accident in 2011, landmarks on the course have changed. Before, pylon four was hidden behind a hill. If a pilot started their turn once the pylon was in sight, they would be too wide on the course. Turning too early could result a pylon cut and time penalty. Before changes to the course, Steve had to judge where to begin the turn using whatever landmarks available. At pylon four, for example, he started at a motorcycle jump laying among the sagebrush. Now, with mandatory changes to the course, pylons are more visible and landmarks have all but disappeared.

In a race, pilots like Hinton are pulling several G’s, often near 90 degrees of bank, and approaching 500 mph. They have to split their time glancing between the next pylon, other aircraft, the ground, and their engine instruments. Rarely do they have time to nor would want to look behind at the racers on their tail. Even if he wanted to, though, Steve would be hard-pressed to get a look at even the top of Voodoo’s vertical stabilizer.

In a stock P-51 D, the pilot can turn and look at their horizontal stabilizer. With the cut canopies of race planes like Voodoo, the very top of the tail is viewable if the pilot makes an effort to turn themselves around. This means that the canopy cuts about six feet of the aft view. During a race, Steve’s scan, at most, goes from one trailing edge to another, about 180 degrees. Looking behind will seldom assist a race, and it is nearly impossible in Strega, Voodoo, or any other Unlimited. “In a race environment, being close to ground and everything going on, you’re really not looking behind you.”

The Reno National Championship Air Races stretch over a week, with qualifying beginning early on Sunday and the award not until late next Sunday night. One of the most amazing things about Reno is the fact that public can be within inches of these race planes, having to step out of the way to let the clipped wingtip of the fastest piston-powered aircraft in the world go by. This also means that the crews are constantly being watched by and talking to the public. With a full day of conversing, explaining, working, and racing, Steve Hinton hardly finds time to do anything not related to aircraft. For him, this includes eating. “It’s not nerves, I just don’t like to do anything on a full stomach. That being said, in the days before Reno and the week of Reno, I usually lose about 10 pounds.” Before racing in the afternoon, Stevo eats an apple for breakfast, a handful of whatever is being provided by the race crew that day, and sometimes a light dinner. The Unlimited pit crews alternate providing lunches every day, but Steve rarely eats much before an activity, including flying. At Reno, high in Nevada, water is also critical to stay hydrated and on your feet, so Steve, like others, carries a bottle everywhere he goes.

After the intensive week at Reno, Steve would love to go find a beach somewhere for a few weeks. Unfortunately, in the demanding world of air racing, there is no celebration period after winning the championship. The crew tries to catch up on sleep and get back into normal life. “Sunday’s race is our new year’s eve. After that is the start of next year. We never really celebrate winning Reno, your eyes are on the future, figuring out how we can make the airplane faster and do better next year.” This year, Steve did get a bit of fun on the Go Kart track Sunday night, where he was “very easily humbled” (pushed into the wall by everyone else on the track). “I think I’ll just stick to airplanes.”

For the world's fastest motorsport, Reno doesn’t get as much attendance as it deserves. At the Races, anyone can go out and see airplanes within feet of each other and the ground zooming around the course in excess of 480 mph. To keep this phenomenal event going, people need to attend. Watching online, though more convenient, doesn’t keep Reno going. Keep up the excitement of watching Steven Hinton, Jr. and Tiger Destefani battle for pole position, and the knowledge gained from just a few minutes in the pits with some of the most accomplished aircraft mechanics.  The air races, and the people who race there, are unlike anything else in racing or the airplane world.

(Images provided by the Author)

FMI: www.airrace.org