Dealing with the smoke can be a pain, and for pilots at the Reno Air Races it can be dangerous.

Pilots out at the races tell us in the morning the wind shifted, helping them with visibility that was initially down to about a mile and a half. Faster planes in the smoke need to see about 6 miles out, while Biplanes and Formula 1’s can pass with 3 miles of visibility. While the first race was going, they were able to see about 7 to 8 miles out.

Scott McDonald, a Pilot of a Biplane Class Race 247 says, "As long as we have that minimum visibility to fly safely and legally for the FAA then we'll be out there racing all week." Alan Hoover, another Pilot of a Biplane Class Race 84 adds, "we lost hours and hours out of our day and it was a rush to finally be able to fly when it cleared up enough to where we had visibility."

The pilots told us everyone was able to qualify this morning, allowing the pilots to be set to race at the event they look forward to every year. McDonald says, "This is the race, there's really nothing in the world that compares to the Reno Air Races." Hoover also mentions, "It's my Christmas this is the best event of the year as far as I'm concerned it's our first one getting our feet back in the saddle getting the airplane dialed in and the goal is to be faster."

For the pilots, their airplanes aren’t just a piece of metal in the sky. Each plane holds a lot of sentimental value. Hoover shares, "She's painted up like the first Air Force airplane that ever had my name on it when I was flying F106's in the 1970's."

Hoover tells us the course is a pylon course, raced just like NASCAR. You have to make sure you don’t go too high or too low and you have to go around the Pylons in an oval route. Hoover says, "Winning is the goal we do everything we can to come in first we have a couple more tricks up our sleeve." McDonald adds, "I'm going to push it as fast as I can but we've got a Stalk Eagle, it's a great airplane but we don't push the performance level too much."

Besides the competition in the air, the pilots say it’s great to be back with their race families again.

McDonald says, "We come for the racing but we're really here for the people."