Just when you think that everything's finally going right.

David Rose arrived at Reno with new wings on his new biplane, Frightful. Rags, the machine that had taken him to the last three bipe championships, was finally declared illegal. (The old rules said that the short wing had to be at least 30% as long as the long wing, and his was. Well, a monoplane is faster than a biplane, other things being equal, and Rags was soooo dominant, that they changed the rules.)

Frightful was sporting new wings, top and bottom. They were high aspect-ratio, beautiful aluminum jobbies, with a gorgeous fit and finish.

The engine, as usual, was pumping out btus and horses for all it was worth. Rose was ready, and ready to dominate.

He didn't dominate qualifying, though. Tom Aberle (right) had built his dream machine, Phantom, and it was a couple miles an hour faster than Frightful. Not unexpectedly, Norman Way, in Magic (the world's fastest Pitts S-1S), was just a couple miles an hour slower. The rest of the field was five mph or more, behind. Those three planes were clearly the ones to beat.

Rose thought his luck must have been improving, although nobody wants a competitor to run into bad luck. Aberle [racing at Reno since 1967, Gold champion in 1987, 89, and top 4 in the last three Gold races], though, ran smack into bad luck, with a pair of propellers that didn't want to stay together. [We're looking into that, by the way. There may have been some unusual features in the cowling, that set up unexpected harmonics at certain rpms -- the prop itself may have been just fine... but not on that airplane --ed.] At any rate, after two props got lunched in Tom's fast-lapping exercises, Phantom went back on the trailer.

Rose was ready.

Frightful was "great, just great," according to one crewmember. Rose was ahead in the Gold championship race, making it look easy, when something happened to his oil pressure. [No, it didn't suddenly rise --ed.]

Rose, seconds away from the win, kept the throttle in as far as he dared. He won the race, but had to land right away. Biplanes being the poor gliders they are, Rose didn't take any chance of landing short; he scorched it in, and kept rolling... and rolling. Then he rolled some more, until he ran right off the end of the runway, into the soft stuff. Still on its feet, Frightful bounced along, its little 'racer' gear doing a good job, until it hit some pipes, or poles, that were on the ground, crosswise to the runway.

Up and over David Rose and Frightful went, coming to rest inverted and mostly backwards. David wasn't hurt. Frightful was another story.

There's heavy damage to the lower wing and gear ("not too bad," a crew member offered), and the vertical tail parts are wrecked. "It's not so much structure, though, as [damage to] foam and skin," the cheery guide said.

Next year, Rose will be back. We were thinking... Racing is hard on equipment: if this is what the winner looks like...

FMI: www.airrace.org