Arlene & Julia's Great Air Race Adventure

Final Report

2010-07-03T13:48:00.007-05:00

Sorry to be so tardy in writing the final chapter, but work and weather got in the way. So, if you are waiting to find out how we did, the answer is - not well at all, but we did have a great time. Race results later in this posting.

Having arrived at terminus, the next two days were spent enjoying the area while waiting on the Sunday night awards banquet for the results. Saturday morning, all racers had to go over their score sheets with the race officials. This was the test for my most critical co-pilot duty as timer. Julia is much more organized and methodical than I, so I was very pleased to be within 2 or 3 seconds of the official time. Saturday afternoon, Becky was occupied with additional handicapping duties, so Robin accompanied us on a tour of the Frederick County wine country. It was so relaxing to drive through the beautiful countryside.

This winery was called the Black Ankle. Look at the roof of the attachment to the left of the main building, and you will see that it has vegetation growing on it. Very "wine country." There were acres and acres of vinyards on the drive to to the winery down Black Ankle road. Bet there is a story behind that name.

We had a very special event on Saturday night. Hood College hosted for us the premier of a documentary, "Breaking Through the Clouds," about the first All Women's Air Derby of 1929 - predecessor of today's Air Race Classic. The film maker is shown here speaking to us before the movie, and many of the people involved in its making were in attendance. The movie has original footage and does a wonderful job of describing aviation of the day and the biographies of the racers. Of course, we all LOVED IT!!! If you want to see it, you can borrow my copy. :)

Sunday morning was the mandatory breakfast & debriefing - several good suggestions for making the race even better. The way it was run this year was a tremendous improvement over the 2008 race, and we frequently expressed our appreciation to the officers.

That afternoon, Becky, Robin, Julia and I drove to Dulles Airport to go through the new (2003) Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The photos give you an idea of the enormous size of the hangar. Much aviation history. Of interest to me was after the Wright brothers accomplished the first flight, they actually retarded the growth of aviation in the U.S. through their patent. It was not until World War I that their logjam was broken and aviation took off (pun intended).

Our Sunday night banquet was well attended and very exciting for the contestants. Competition among the college teams was especially fierce, and Purdue University won. They also placed fourth overall. The first place winner was Terry Carbonell's team in her Cessna 182 RG. Second place had a Texas pilot/first-time racer, and third place was an all-Texas team. The new rules and handicapping really changed the top ten winner's circle.

We placed way down - 33rd out of the 51 teams. We received a third place on one of the legs, much to our surprise. Our friends, Becky and Robin were one notch above us, and Becky has won it before. Judy and Ruby, both frequently in the top ten, were in 45th place.

Classic 29, Sandi and Heather, received the prize for last place, but they were the stars for their tenacity in completing the race. Two other teams did not complete and two switched to the non-competition category.

The weather for the return to Texas looked very bad for Monday. Aligning perfectly with our course and slightly west (moving eastward) was a cold front with a band of thunderstorms - all the way to Texas. We knew that the earlier we could get in the air, the better our chances. Julia spent a long time on the phone Sunday niht with the Flight Service weather briefer and decided that as we encountered bad weather, we would turn south. Of course, we would be fighting a strong headwind all the way. If you look at the SPOT tracker, you will see that we flew west, then south, then west, then south all day, staying at low altitude for the least headwind.

We lucked out that our first fuel stop had a restaurant that opened just as we got there. Since we had not had breakfast...again....we were very happy to get lunch.

By mid-afternoon, we were hot, tired, and ready to stop. We landed at Holly Springs, southeast of Memphis. They were very nice, but the airport was for a maintenance shop and had no FBO services. Back in the airplane to the big airport in Memphis to overnight. Blessing upon blessing, the next morning we had a tailwind into Austin. By leaving early again, we were able to beat the thunderstorms and arrive safely home.

Total flight time for the trip - 37 hours. Good flying, great teammate - can hardly wait until Fly Camp, a.k.a. Air Race Classic 2012. Thanks for following our blog and sharing the adventure with us. --- Julia & Arlene

Race Day 4 - Terminus

2010-06-25T20:21:00.007-05:00

Up early again and engine going by 6:30 am. We still had the final three legs to make - Carbondale, Illinois to Elkhart, Indiana to Parkersburg, W. Virginia, and to terminus at Frederick Maryland. We were successful in completing the race, but unsuccessful in our strategy. Our time was so bad on the first leg for today that we lost the points we had built up and feel pretty certain we are out of the running.

It was a most enjoyable trip, though. The scenery is simply beautiful - from the rivers and lakes to the hills of West Virginia. Our last leg took us over the Allegheny Mountains and into Maryland. Lots of nuclear power plants.

The winner of the favorite airport name contest was the North Central West Virginia Airport.

Speaking of winners - Team 29 has to be given The Most Determined Team prize. At Waycross, Georgia - the very first stop on Day 1, Sandi & Heather developed engine problems. The airport was so small, there was no mechanic on the field. A volunteer, Mitch, from an airport 40 miles away where he and his wife run a FBO came over and started working on the problem. Now, it's Day 2. Turns out the carburetor needed serious work. Mitch was also an EMT and got a call which turned into several calls. Meanwhile, he helped them find the necessary part. Another man volunteered to fly Heather to another airport to pick up the part, and Mitch had returned when they got back. The volunteer pilot was also an auto mechanic. He and Mitch worked until 9:30 that night to get the repairs done, Heather test flew the airplane and got it signed off, and they left Thursday morning at 6:30. They flew four legs in one day in a plane much slower than Julia's. We were delighted to see them on the ramp this morning at Carbondale getting ready to go. They had landed 20 minutes before "legal" sunset the night before and made it to terminus today with only 40 minutes left before the deadline. When Sandi and Heather showed up tonight at the "Meltdown Party", everyone stood and cheered. They had started the race calling their team the Warrior Women and said they had earned the title on this, their first race.

There will be activities for the next two days plus sight seeing in between. The banquet on Sunday night will be where the winners are announced and we get to see everyone's score. We'll let you know then which of the 51 teams won.

Race Day 3 - The Chess Game

2010-06-24T16:59:00.007-05:00

We were up early, early for departure - hoping for the best winds. We left the hotel at 5:45 so we could be in the air at the first "legal" time - 6:30 a.m. George is both the owner of the Acorn Inn, where we stayed, and a volunteer driver for the Air Race. He was up early to drive us to the airport in spite of being at a swim meet last night that lasted until 11:00 pm.

Becky and Robin are using the same weather person, so we ended up traveling along together and having lots of fun together. They are flying Robin's Cirrus and have a 13 kt. advantage over us, but we have a fuel capacity over them. Since our strategy is almost the same, the competition between our two teams will be who coaxes the better performance out of their plane, I suppose.

We crossed the Missouri River two more times. This photo showed the flood stage well.

We had to take a picture of the GPS. It was the best ground speed we've seen on the whole race - 162 knots. Didn't last long, but it was beautiful for a while.

If you were following on SPOT, I turned it off before it sent the signal for the Carbondale Airport. For a while, the track stopped in a field. Sorry, we didn't mean to alarm anyone. I turned it back on at the motel. Now, it looks like we landed in the Hampton Inn parking lot.

More waiting, and more waiting. Okay, since we didn't have anything to do, we decided that we may as well go get a pedicure. To embellish on our fashion photo yesterday, Classic 7 team had their toenails painted blue to match their airplane & shirts. We, Classic 15, went for purple. Cristen said that if your toenails don't match your transportation, you're not really girls. We agreed.

Now for the race strategy. Yes, in spite of two days of little or no activity, we are still in the Air Race. Our delays have not been because the weather was too bad to fly. Instead, we have been waiting on optimal winds. Mikeal said this is more like a chess game than a race, and that is a very good description. Just like in a chess game, you have to get everything set up for the kill. We are really hoping that we have everything in place. Tomorrow morning, we hope to leave again at sun up. If we have played our cards right, we will be able to make all three remaining legs and arrive at Frederick, Maryland with the best time. We think there are only three planes at the airport here in Carbondale, so we are definitely in the minority with this strategy. Right now, we just hope to make it without incident to Terminus.

Race Day 2

2010-06-23T18:13:00.002-05:00

This is what happens when women are left unsupervised at the airport all day with marginal cell service and sporadic internet service. This artistic rendition is called "Teva Moment." You are probably wondering who the outlier is - the one with green Tevas instead blue. Yes, it is Julia. And look. She is not even standing with her feet side-by-side like everyone else.

Obviously, we were pretty bored today. The airplane was ready, and we were more than ready. But, our weather briefer thought our chances for better wind would be tomorrow morning. It is a high risk game at this point. We are only 1/2 way and the worst weather is still ahead of us. Our big position advantage has disappeared. 90% of the teams went on, but if our gamble is right, we will make better time tomorrow. And, IF we can complete the entire race and do so with a better time, it will have been a good decision. Otherwise....we'll try again another year.

Our decision to stay was finally made about 2:30, so we came back to the Acorn Inn along with two other teams. We will meet in the lobby at 5:45 am to be ready for a 6:30 take-off. We really, really, REALLY hope to be able to get in the air.

Race Day 2

2010-06-23T13:19:00.002-05:00

All is well with the airplane. Paul, the mechanic, got the vacuum pump replaced exactly as advertised. However, the weather is not giving us optimal winds/thunderstorm probability. We're currently waiting and waiting.

2010-06-22T21:17:00.004-05:00

Racer's final briefing and breakfast - a good early start, especially considering that there were 51 teams to get in the air.
By the end of the day, we were very grateful for that big breakfast.

That was also a lot of people to the airport, but everyone was in their airplane and ready to start by 8:00 a.m. We were off by 8:30 (7:30 Central) and on our way to Waycross. Julia's traffic avoidance works only in the vacinity of the larger airports. We were very grateful that it was active almost the entire route to Waycross because that was, by far, the most congested with racers. We were overtaken once, but we also overtook another racer - something that never happened in my C-172.

We didn't have much of a tailwind, but it was enough that we didn't have to land at Waycross - "fly by to continue" was another first. Winds were not quite as good as forecasted, but considering all the bad wx around, our slight tailwind was welcomed.

Four hours after take-off, we arrived at Tuscaloosa for our first stop. Though we were hot and ready for a break, we quickly checked the weather, fueled the airplane, cleaned it up a bit, and once again tried to secure our numbers. Because Julia's airplane has slick paint and a good wax job, the adhesive won't stick. Or...it could be that we were going sooo fast through the sky that they couldn't stay on the airplane. We're using white contact paper to get the required 2" of white around the 3" numbers; now, we're using it to patch.

The blog comments were right on - we did try to forge on to Cameron. Combining legs three and four would be the tightest combination of any, so we were closely monitoring the fuel flow. The decision was made shortly before the Hot Springs fly-by that we could make it (barely) with our required 30 minutes reserve.

About 3 or 4 minutes after the fly-by, we lost our vacuum pump. Was not an issue that would ground us, but we definitely want to get it repaired. We were concerned that the maintenance shop would be shut down by the time we got to Cameron. I was able to send a text message to Cristen with instructions to call the airport with our request - airplane model & year - to see if they could repair or replace it. Cristen was at the end of a committee meeting when she received the text and told the others, "Sorry, I have to leave. I have to go order a vacuum pump for my mom." They were amused.

As we neared Kansas City, we were amazed at the flooding of the Missouri River.

We received a Royal Welcome at Cameron. Ladies walked out to the airplane with a tray of ginger ale and fresh, home-grown strawberries. We had flown low for better winds and were really, really hot and tired. What a delight they were. They had snacks (also welcomed since we had not had lunch) and drinks in the hangar.

The ladies even made our hotel reservations for us. The mechanic came in a few minutes. He didn't have the part in stock but he ordered it and had it shipped overnight. We should be ready to fly again by 10:00 a.m.

After Julia & I drew straws for the shower, we went in search of supper. The truck stop next door had pretty good food. Of course, we were so hungry, just about anything would have tasted good. We then discovered this lovely, huge garden right across the drive from our room. Great place to stay.

Days 4 & 5

2010-06-21T19:57:00.006-05:00

What has happened to the time? Tomorrow is race day!!! It hardly seems possible.

Yesterday (Sunday) was our first briefing. I had great sympathy for all the new racers. It is soooo much information that you leave just hoping to be able to finish the race without being penalized or disqualified.

Speaking of new racers, this year there are 51 teams, well above the usual 40. Even more noteworthy, the usual composition is 2/3 returning racers and 1/3 new racers. This time it is just the opposite. It's made the briefings very interesting. The returning racers are asked to volunteer to be "mother birds" to the "baby birds." There must have been quite a number of babies who had no mama this year and then a few who didn't realize until yesterday just how much they needed their mama.

Our presenters are quite good and all very experienced racers. With great patience they answered lots of questions. The lady in the middle of this photo is Gretchen Jahn who headed up Mooney Aircraft Company for a few years. Standing at the mic is Marolyn Wilson, the president. All board members are volunteers. No one is paid in this organization, so we all greatly appreciate the sacrifice of time and money made to keep the race going. Guess it's been that way since 1929.

We spent the remainder of the day doing laundry and doing more flight planning. The Take-Off Banquet was last night. A few have said this race is like going to summer camp. That's a fairly good description. Lots of fun, lots of new friends, and lots of fierce competition.

Most of today was devoted to briefings - the fly-by instructions and waivers for each stop. Another new thing this year is the dual fly-bys. Oh, wow - should be interesting. The first stop is always the most congested since everyone had to take off at close to the same time. With all the new racers, Waycross, Georgia is likely to be a zoo. We were encouraged to "fly by to continue" rather than land if at all possible. In my airplane, it would not have been possible. But Julia's faster airplane and long-range fuel tanks makes it a possiblity if the winds treat us right. We're keeping our fingers crossed on that.

Spent the rest of the day re-packing for the race and shipping extra clothing and anything not absolutely necessary to the other end. We'll be minimalists for the race.

Final briefing tomorrow at 6:00 a.m.

Day 3

2010-06-20T06:48:00.012-05:00

First order of the day was the handicap flight test - a new procedure to the race this year. Julia was scheduled for 9:00 am so we caught a ride to the airport about 7:30 to get the airplane ready. The requirements were very specific: full fuel, equivalent weight for co-pilot and test pilot (we were about the same), tie downs, 12 sectional charts, water bottles filled, and everything else out of the airplane. The flight test was conducted at 6,000' density altitude, aircraft trimmed and stabilized, and flight on the four cardinal headings for four or six minutes. Since there were so many airplanes doing the same thing, at one point the controller asked what they were doing and if there was a reason everyone had to be at the same altitude (4,900' MSL). He was having separation difficulty but allowed them to continue. We will probably find out our handicap on Monday.

There were lots of teams waiting in the terminal for flight tests, inspections, or to go through credentialing.

These ladies held team members lives in their hands. If your paperwork was not complete and up to FAA regulations, you would be disqualified. Ruby, who is now 92, had not yet received her laminated pilot certificate and only had her paper certificate. She was able to call the FAA, and they faxed a document that made her legal. Ruby is again the oldest, but Elaine is not far behind at 89. Both have had remarkable aviation careers.

At 2:00, we gathered back at the airport for a Girl Scout presentation and activities. We never knew what happened, but the Scouts didn't show up. Carolyn had asked various racers to talk about their aviation experiences, so she went ahead with the program. There are some VERY interesting women who participate in the Air Race. To pick out just three:

Becky Hempel is from Spicewood, Texas - one of the 14 pilots from Texas this year (four teams with another six teams having one member from Texas). Becky is currently a full time flight instructor while on furlough from FlexJet where she flew a Challenger 605 & various King Airs. She also works part time as a physician's assistant.

Christine is a graduate of and a current flight instructor for Southern Illinois University. She enlisted in the Air National Guard and will be going to Officer Training School in October. Christine also enjoys competitive handgun shooting. Her team is one of the nine college teams.

Another military pilot, a 16 year veteran, is Camille (Cami) from El Paso. She learned to fly as an Army helicopter pilot and then transitioned to aircraft. Usually, it's the other way around and Cami told funny stories about trying to bring an airplane to a hover when landing. She is now a King Air instructor at Fort Bliss. Her husband is also an Army officer.

Men from a local flying club, the Cub Club, volunteered to drive shuttles - Yukon's donated by Hertz for our use. When we didn't catch a ride with other racers, they were always available to take us back and forth - thankfully, since we had to be back at the airport for the third time for the Welcome BBQ 6:00. Just so you know, Floridians can actually BBQ quite well.

The mayor spoke and as a new pilot himself, he was quite entertaining.

Judy, pictured in the middle, is a director of the Air Race and participating in her 16th race. She and Ruby, also a director, finished second last year and have frequently been in the top ten. Sadly, this will be their last race. Judy is selling her airplane after this race, and she and her husband will be moving to a continuous care community. I would love to see them finish first this year.

Julia and I enjoyed visiting with the college teams; this is another Southern Illinois team - Katie and Ashley. One of our stops on the race will be to their home airport.

Race briefings start tomorrow at 10:00 am.

Day 2

2010-06-18T20:47:00.006-05:00

As one would expect, the motel in Bogalusa didn't offer breakfast of any variety. Jerry, the taxi driver, delivered us back to the airport which was still deserted. I checked the weather and options for our flight plan while Julia attempted to fuel the airplane. Totally in keeping with the rest of our experience in Bogalusa, the self-serve pumps wouldn't work. We were just about to give up and hop over to another airport when the airport manager arrived. Thankfully, he was able to coax the pump back to life, and we were off.

The weather forecast had indicated that we would be in pretty good shape until, of course, Florida. The XM weather showed thunderstorms that stayed out in the Gulf as we passed over Mobile and Pensacola. Getting around the Pensacola military operations areas was interesting. You could either go considerably north or enter an east/west corridor that hugged the coastline. You can tell from our course on the Spot which we chose. Again, the address for the Spot is http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=4191, password shadow.

Some had expressed interest in the oil spill and the beaches around Pensacola, so we took pictures of the coastline. According to the NOAA website, Pensacola and points west have light oiling and to the east no observed oil. Though we were only 5500', it was very hazy, and we could not detect any oil. NOAA says it's just offshore.

As soon as we rounded the bend at Panama City, we could see building thunderstorms lined up along the western coast of Florida. There was one huge cell over Tampa that just kept growing in size and in severity. We were weaving through smaller, more isolated storms trying to push as far as we could before things got too bad. As that big cell kept growing, we had to fly farther and farther east to get around it. Finally, east and south of the cell, we felt comfortable landing long enough to fuel at Winter Haven. Short time on the ground, though long enough to ogle all the amphibious aircraft but not enough for lunch, and off again for the last 89 miles.

It was hard to tell from the chart whether this was a lake or a bay, but it is a bay – just north of the airport.

One of our greeters was Rhonda who flew with Terry Carbonell in 2007 – the first year to race for both teams. It was fun to be greeted by someone we knew. Terry is the energy and organization behind this year's race which is in her home country.

Julia had talked our friend, Vern, who was in charge into putting us on today's list for an inspection. No inspection without the numbers on the airplane, so we got right on it…..again, no time for lunch. It was soooo hot out on the ramp!!! One of the locals said it was 105 deg. You see that we survived and are now officially Classic 15.

It took only a few minutes to go through credentialing and Julia was ready for inspection. While she was in the inspection hangar, it started pouring rain. Our timing had been good, and we were glad to have all that behind us. A volunteer gave us a ride to the hotel – a wonderful and welcome change from Bogalusa. Nice hotel, nice shower, and finally our first meal of the day about 5:30.

Up early to go to the airport for the handicap flight.

Day 1

2010-06-18T06:46:00.006-05:00

True to the title of our blog, today was a bona fide adventure after we landed. But, I’m ahead of the story.

As the chronicle of our 2010 race begins, we thought it appropriate to have our picture taken at Austin Bergstrom Airport. Julia decided to fly to Austin to pick me up rather than meeting in Waco so we could get started sooner to Mobile, AL. Afternoon thunderstorms along the Gulf threatened to build as the day went on. With the plane loaded and our water bottles filled, we were ready for take-off.

You can see, we didn’t make it out of Texas before the thunderstorms began to be a problem. The cumulus cloud tops kept getting higher and higher with what would soon be cumulonimbus clouds, pouring rain out the bottom. Crossing the Neches River, we diverted to the south to miss this one. We stayed high – 9500’-- where it is cool as long as we could but before we got to Baton Rouge, we had to descend to 3000’.

Flying over the Mighty Mississippi. 3000’ is great for picture taking.

The trouble begins. At the top of the screen is Mobile. Diverting to another airport was the only option. The best choice appeared to be Bogalusa, LA. We thought we would land, refuel, and go on to Mobile. Not so. The thunderstorm we had just gone around followed us to the airport. The best choice was to get the airplane tied down and seek shelter in the FBO. Good decision; the bottom fell out and it rained long and hard accompanied by lots of thunder and lightning. After checking every weather source we knew, we decided to spend the night. There were several airplanes tied down, but the airport was deserted – so, no one to ask about lodging and transportation. Julia found a motel on her iPhone, called, and they said they would come pick us up. Driving up to the Budget Inn, we look at each other – eyes getting larger all the time. The Indian couple had been so nice about picking us up, we were obligated to pay. Then, on our way to our room a car drove by, confirming that we really were at the Bates Motel and definitely not where we should be. The room was $40. Julia said she had never stayed anywhere that was only $40. I said I’d never stayed anywhere that didn’t charge any tax! We zipped across the street to grab something to eat at Popeye’s and called a taxi. Jerry, the taxi driver, was horrified, murmuring something about drugs and prostitutes. He was happy to take us to the best place to stay in Bogalusa. Nothing to write home about, but we will be able to sleep tonight. Jerry will be back at 6:00 AM to take us back to the airport.

BTW, you might not want to put Bogalusa, LA on your vacation list.

Another race coming!!!!

2010-06-10T11:09:00.002-05:00

Julia and I are preparing for the 2010 Air Race Classic! You can read about the race on the sidebar to the right and at www.airraceclassic.org

The postings below chronicle the first two races. As with any blog, the postings are from most recent and down to the beginning.

Finale

2008-07-03T18:19:00.036-05:00

We wanted to complete the travelogue of Julia and Arlene’s Air Race Adventure by telling you about our return trip and filling in the gap of our delightful trip to Boston.

Sunday, after a mandatory de-briefing session, we squeezed in our Boston trip. How lucky can you be to have your own private tour guide? Caroline’s husband, Bill, picked us up and off we went to catch the 1:10 PM commuter train. We were bound for South Station, downtown Boston. Bill said there is also a North Station, but to get from one to the other, you had to take the subway. You could also connect at South Station to trains and buses. One of Bill’s grandfathers had worked as a postal mail sorter on a train to New York that left this station every night.

We were in the heart of Boston where Bill had worked in international banking. He not only grew up in Hingham and lived there when they were not overseas, but he also graduated from Harvard. Definitely knew the area, so off we went at a brisk pace to see as much as possible in the time allowed.

Looking from the site of the Boston Tea Party, Julia took this shot of the part of the old warehouse district with its very old, refurbished buildings, interspersed with new buildings.

This old swing bridge in the background was still operational when Bill was working in this area, and he said it made an absolutely awful noise. The middle section (where it arches) swung 90 degrees to allow boats to pass on either side.

We enjoyed the view off the old bridge of the harbor and were amused by the sign. (There were NO signs of efforts toward a re-opening of the bridge.)

You can see the clock tower of the old customs house in the background. A rather curious structure, with a lower level of one style of architecture and the upper part another. It has now been turned into a Marriott Hotel (building is the Greek columns in the center of the photo).

Some of the buildings were stone-fronted and

brick elsewhere. The one you can see in the background was stone-fronted on both sides and built on a pier. It and others like it would have been occupied by shippers and traders during the Boston Harbor heyday.

Bill told us that the plaza where we were standing was on top of the Big Dig – a 6 lane or more freeway that is underground, replacing the overhead the separated Boston and was a real eye-sore. The children are playing in a fountain right on top of the freeway, so I guess in Boston, it’s okay to tell your children to go play on the freeway.

Next, we saw the Old State House where the British ruled this area. Unfortunately, they were working on the steeple, so it lost a little of the ambience. It is completely surrounded by modern structures – amazing that it survived.

Faneuil Hall (1742) where much of the Revolution was planned is now a market center with shops and food court, etc. Quincy Market was added in the 1800s.

The historic churches were beautiful and still active. King’s Chapel was the first Episcopal Church in the U.S., formed in 1686. A church built on this location in 1689.

Park Street Church is an active Congregational Church formed in 1809 and the adjacent cemetery was the burial site of many famous Revolutionary figures.

Last, the Common and the State Capitol.

We rode the subway over the Charles River and back, caught a glimpse of M.I.T., and went back to Mansfield. Thank you, Bill, for a very interesting day.

THE TRIP HOME!

1374 nautical miles to Cleburne - 1581 statute miles. We knew it would take well over 13 hours of flight time and two days. Our first fuel stop was Altoona, PA. Amusing – our prize money did not quite cover the cost of the fill-up. We borrowed the courtesy car and drove to a Mennonite-run restaurant for lunch. The food was the best we’d had in a few days. The countryside is beautiful. The river is the Susquehanna.

Back to the airport and, as we thought, the line of thunderstorms between us and the Pittsburg area was impassable. We waited for about 3 hours for a break, and now nightfall was quickly approaching. We decided we would be better off to get as close as we could to Pittsburg to overnight. There was a break in the first line, but another one was behind it. So, we started off for one airport and diverted to the Arnold Palmer Airport in LaTrobe – IFR. Great service and good accommodations, and it is definitely an Arnold Palmer town – pictures everywhere – airport and hotel. Next morning, we filed IFR and were in the clouds for about an hour before the skies became clear blue. We crossed the Ohio River about mid-morning. You can see the barges in the river.

Going West, one can almost count on significant headwinds. By going up to 8500’, we were able to get no headwind or a very slight tailwind and were very pleased to get to Bardstown, KY just before noon. Again, we borrowed the courtesy car and went into town to eat at a 200 year old Tavern and read a lot of the historical markers. While we were eating, Julia discovered that the Abbey of Gethsemani was only about 15 miles away. One of her favorite authors is Thomas Merton, who was a monk at the Abbey for many years. So, off we go to see the Monastery (pictures copied from their website since we forgot the camera).

Next stop – Search, Arkansas.

Then, the most beautiful sight – DFW and HOME. We landed about 9:30 PM, July 1. Exhausted, but well-pleased.

Our total flight time home was 14.2 hours. Our total race time was 18.9 hours. Total trip was 45.4 hours. Our thanks to Sarah Hambly for her many hours of blog posting while we were traveling, and our thanks to each of you who took the time to post on our blog. Another adventure, and we thank you for sharing it with us.

2008 Classic 18 – Julia & Arlene

Awards Banquet

2008-06-30T08:57:00.003-05:00

We had a great time seeing Boston this afternoon but know that you are more interested in the outcome of the race. Team #18 came in 12th this year - quite an improvement from 24th place last year! And, we won the most leg prizes!
1st place – Leg 8
2nd place – Leg 6
3rd place – Leg 1
4th place – Leg 3
4th place – Leg 4

Not too bad – placing in 5 out of 8 legs. Prize money totaled $160.00. That will help with hotel expenses on our way home. :)

Last year, some of you wanted to know what type of airplanes were flown by the top ten racers:

Piper PA 28, 180 hp – 2
Piper PA 28, 160 hp – 1
Cessna 182 RG, 235 hp – 2
Cessna 182, 230 hp – 2
Cessna 172, 180 hp – 2
Cessna 172, 160 hp – 1

All were flown by very experienced racers except the seventh place team who were in their second year. Our three most senior pilots - Ruby, age 90, Margaret, age 87, and Elaine, age 87 - all placed in the top ten. Is that inspirational, or what? The winner of the Collegiate Trophy was Embry-Riddle – Marisha and Mandy from Florida.

Julia and I had on our Texas outfits, complete with boots, and definitely would have gotten the prize for best dressed. We tried to represent our state well. Had a great time and will give more details tomorrow with lots of pictures of the trip to Boston.

We expect to be able to head home tomorrow about mid-morning, after the fog lifts. It will be at least a two day trip home.

The Morning After

2008-06-28T22:47:00.010-05:00

Julia had just finished her shower and I had just awakened when we received THE CALL. Oh, my goodness. We were in the top 13 and had to be at the airport by 9:00 to have our plane inspected! Oh, my goodness. We quickly dressed and were out there by 8:30. Not that we were excited or anything. Again, we waited and waited and finally were told that they had everything they needed and we could go. Evidently, our presence was requested only to answer any questions when the inspection was done. But, at least we know that we did better than last year which was goal #1. While we waited, we calculated our score. We knew all the times, but Julia was receiving instruction in this picture from Marisha Falk from the Embry-Riddle team on exactly how to do the calculation. We had to get back to the hotel to sign off on our score before 12:00 noon.

We came back to the hotel, met with Jim, the official scorer, and ate breakfast. The buffet was a bit cold and dry, but we were starving. The mundane parts of life entered the picture – the laundry HAD to be done. Since we were trying to minimize this year, we had no more clean clothes.

I had an opportunity to visit with Elaine Roehrig from Deerfield, NY, another 87 year old pilot. I asked her to tell me about when she learned to fly. She had one year of college when she decided she just had to learn to fly. It took working three jobs to earn enough money, and she had to take the train, then the bus, and then walk to the airport. There was only one other person in town who was a pilot, and he was about 10 years older than Elaine with a family. Elaine had not told her parents that she was learning to fly and was feeling very guilty about it. The other pilot, not knowing that it was a secret, told his wife who worked for Elaine’s mother’s hair dresser. The next week, her mother was getting her hair shampooed, and her hairdresser said, “Isn’t it nice that Elaine is flying?” Her mom came up out of the chair, “WHAT! Elaine is flying!?!”
Well, she did continue, got her instructor’s license and began teaching. She is still an active instructor, has more than 14,700 hours, and was honored with the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award in 2004. She’s a delightful lady. It was also interesting to hear her talk about how many engine failures they had in the early days. She said that engines did not become reliable until about the 1960s. I’m glad I didn’t start flying until the 1970s!

The community had a Family Fair this afternoon at the airport as part of the festivities for the Air Race. The local antique car club had their cars on display as were the local war birds and unique aircraft. There were the usual booths set up with trinkets for sale along with the ice cream truck and other food booths. About 700 people came. You can see the fair in the background behind me and Terry Carbonell, a racer and assistant board director from Florida.

Tonight’s function was the lobster bake along with music by a local band. The Terminus committee has done an excellent job of using the Air Race as a means of highlighting aviation to the community. Several of the locals had been invited to join us, and there is never a lack of conversation since there is nothing pilots had rather do than talk about their flying experiences.

Enjoying the lobster is Pam Palmieri, a first time racer from Michigan. Pam and her husband own a commercial embroidery company, and she is a professional skydiver and a paralegal. How’s that for variety in your life?

We have made good friends with a couple of the other teams this year – Joyce and Kathy, Classic #4 beside me, and Caroline and Linda, Classic #14 beside Julia. In the middle is our mutual friend, Susan. The Air Race is about building friendships, and it has been a lot of fun to do exactly that this year. We started out saying that we were only going to race every other year. Now, we’ll just have to see.

Tomorrow night – the awards banquet! We know we’re not first, but we still have hopes of making the top 10. Even if we are 13th, it will still be a big improvement over being 24th last year. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

Day Four – Final Day!

2008-06-28T22:17:00.016-05:00

This year’s race found us in exactly the same spot as last year’s – only one leg left but having to wait at the airport for the weather to improve. Last year we needed improvement at Terminus; this year, we were waiting for the fog to lift at Saratoga Springs. We were at the airport by 6:00 AM, hopeful of the earliest take-off time of 6:30. Didn’t happen.

7:30….8:00….finally at 8:30 the visibility improved enough for the Stop Chair to see the second ridge of hills, and he declared the airport VFR. A quick call to the Mansfield Airport found them to be clear. Our favorable winds were only supposed to last until about 11:00 AM, and the thunderstorms would be developing early afternoon. We were ready and were the second plane to take off. We landed at Terminus about 10:00 AM. WE MADE IT!!!

We were greeted by a photographer and the Terminus welcoming committee. We will get the CD after the Sunday night Awards Banquet, so take a look on Monday or Tuesday for lots of good pictures. Meanwhile, we have to tie down the airplane, take all our belongings and hand in the key. The airplanes are impounded.

Congratulations were extended among the racers and our host committee for having completed the race. On Thursday night 11 race teams over-nighted in Saratoga Springs NY and 20 were left in Franklin PA. As we compared weather conditions with other racers, we discovered we were very fortunate to have made Leg Seven when we did. Two of the early teams on Day Three had to divert to other airports via an IFR clearance and were disqualified. Those who flew that leg on Friday morning had very low ceilings and were flying too low for comfort. That also made them have to deal with thunderstorm avoidance on Leg Eight. All in all, we feel that we have flown a good race.

The Girl Scouts had been very busy getting ready for our arrival, as well. They had painted the map of our race route on the sidewalk into the FBO and on the big above-ground fuel storage tank. Made us feel very appreciated and special.

We got our rental car and headed for the hotel. Caroline Baldwin from Silver City, NM had not only grown up in nearby Hingham, MA but also her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had grown up there as well. She was gracious enough to give us a quick guided tour of Hingham. It’s a beautiful town and quite old. Some of the homes were built in the late 1600s, and many in the 1700s. The homes are still lived in and have plaques on the front saying when they were built. Beautiful homes on very large lots. Workmen were in the Old Ship Meeting House, so we took ourselves on a tour.

The church is the oldest in the U.S. that has been in continuous use and is an amazing structure. There were no pews; instead, each family had a box – much like a box at the theater but all on the ground floor. In the winter, they would bring a warmer from home filled with hot coals and put it in their box to keep warm.

The pulpit was then quite high so that everyone could see. There was also a balcony that did not have boxes, and I’m sure they also had a good view of the preacher. The rope you see in the picture was the bell pull.

Today, the church is a Unitarian Universalist church but others have services there also. From Wikipedia – “Unitarian Universalism (UUism) is a theologically liberal religion characterized by its support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning." Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth. Unitarian Universalists draw on many different theological sources and have a wide range of beliefs and practices.

“Unitarian Universalist congregations and fellowships tend to retain some Christian traditions such as Sunday worship that includes a sermon and singing of hymns, but they do not necessarily identify themselves as Christians nor do they necessarily subscribe to Christian beliefs.” We were told the Unitarian religion began in this region.

Caroline had played in an orchestra in high school that performed a concert from the balcony of the church. We then went behind the church to see the old cemetery with dates back into the early 1700s.

When driving through town, it was difficult not to take pictures of every building, but this one deserved photographing. It is the Catholic Church, and the steeple and roofs were a mosaic.
Caroline also showed us the house where she grew up, and then the house her grandparents built in 1910. Her brother lives across the street, so we stopped in for a short visit with her sister-in-law. The hostas at her house were probably 3 ½‘ tall. The hydrangeas around town were grown almost as hedges. We commented that their reward for enduring long, hard winters was magnificent color in the summer.

Caroline also took us to tour The Old Ordinary were one of her good friends is a docent. An Ordinary was required by law of each town, and provided a hot, noon meal to travelers. It was the fast-food place of 300 years ago. This Ordinary was built in 1688 with additions in 1740 and 1780. It was lived in until 1925 when it was turned into a museum. The first picture is of the garden, where Caroline is standing with Julia. The second picture is the kitchen. It was interesting history with delightful people giving the tour.

One last picture of Hingham – looking across the harbor with Boston in the background. Caroline had raced sailboats in the harbor as a kid.

Our “Melt-down Party” began at 5:00 at the hotel. Racers were comparing times and altitudes, cloud bases and ground speeds. Then, each group of two teams had been paired with a local pilot for dinner. We went to the home of a local attorney and his family and enjoyed getting to know them. We went home fairly early because we were soooo tired. Busy day, but we go to bed satisfied that we had done our best…….well, at least until our next race.

SPECIAL REPORT

2008-06-27T09:27:00.001-05:00

Landed in Mansfield, MA 10:00 am ET...

More details to follow

** SPECIAL REPORT **

Day Three!

2008-06-27T08:42:00.006-05:00

Awake at 4:45 and to the airport by 6:15 this morning. We left the “luxury” accommodations of the Days Inn behind – still yawning. But, they had been very kind and opened the quickie breakfast place up an hour early just for the racers. So far, Frankfort and Aberdeen tie for the most hospitable stops. Julia and I were picked up at 6:00 by a volunteer and taken back to the airport.

Today was what has become typical for this year’s race – hurry up and wait. Checking the weather, and checking it again. My friends, Linda & Glen Johnson, told me last year that the flying weather is always bad in the Ohio River Valley, and sure enough, they were right. Thunderstorms and accompanying low ceilings and visibility were in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Leg Six took us from Frankfort, KY to Franklin, PA on a route just to the east of Cincinnati, Ohio. About 8:30, the thunderstorms had finally moved to the east enough to take off, but they were not through dealing us misery. It’s always amazing how the lounge area can be filled with pilots, most of them on their laptops or cell phones checking the weather, and when conditions improve just enough to make it to the next stop, the place empties out like someone pulled the stopper out of the sink. It got a little interesting for us leaving Frankfort. Just as we were making our high speed, low altitude fly-by, another racer took off in the opposite direction on the same runway. Fortunately, she stayed over the runway, and our fly-by was to the right of the runway. Things are so crazy when planes are trying to all leave at the same time.

Pennsylvania is a particularly pretty state - rolling hills dotted with farms with lots of trees. However, all the trees can make an airport difficult to find when you’re low. Thank goodness for the GPS. It has really been a help in this race. One of the features is the ability to extend the runway centerline. That helps tremendously to get properly lined up for fly-bys when you can’t see the runway.

Leg Four was a long leg so we were on the ground about 11:30. Again, we were blessed with a tailwind. I am certain that this is the most successive legs with a tailwind that I have ever flown in this airplane. We were very pleased to find a good restaurant at the airport, so lunch was a delight. But, then it was wait, wait , wait. The weather that we waited on in the early morning was now over New York and Massachusetts. For most of the afternoon, we thought it was doubtful that we would be able to get out of Franklin, and several of us were even making plans to go hear an outdoor concert. This is a picture of racers waiting.

Several of the racers did stay in Franklin, but many forged on. One of the early ones to leave was Team 31 – two delightful young women from California – Kelly & Erin. We heard that they had left a little TOO early and ended up having to file IFR and land somewhere else. Going IFR means an automatic disqualification. Whoever it was, we are all sad for them and hope they will try again next year. :(

We finally got to leave about 4:30 for Leg Seven – Franklin, PA to Saratoga Springs, NY. We were up and down between 1000 to 4000 feet above ground level as the clouds went up and down. Saw some spectacular country. This first picture is of the Allegheny River and the second is typical upstate New York. Julia worked at trying to get good pictures in bad haze so you could see a bit of the beauty.

The weather forecast at destination remained in question. The automated weather equipment was out at the airport, and the next closest airport reporting weather was Albany. Pilots are taught to beware of fog any time the temperature and dewpoint are within four degrees of one another, and Albany was reporting a two degree spread. Not a good sign. We started worrying, and decided to allow ourselves to only look every thirty minutes. At one point the clouds forced us down to 1000 feet, and I was beginning to think this would be the end of the race of us (fog and/or very low clouds would have done that). Then, about 25 miles out, it became almost clear except for the haze. Hurray, we were on the ground in Saratoga Springs, NY!

A great welcoming committee and service. They even found a motel room for us. Our friends, Kathy and Joyce (experienced racers) were here and invited us to “dinner”. That consisted of going to the convenience store for Lean Cuisine and dining in the room after we microwaved our dinner. Here they are enjoying a cocktail at the Bates Motel Robin Hood Inn while waiting for us. The accommodations added a little adventure to the evening.

Tomorrow, only one leg remaining, and it’s very short. However……you guessed it. Only a small window of opportunity between morning fog and later morning thunderstorms. Will we make it to Terminus? Tune in tomorrow to find out (and say a little prayer for the weather in the meantime).

Day Two!

2008-06-26T09:58:00.018-05:00

Why does it feel like it has been a week? What a day it was! As I reported yesterday, we decided yesterday to wait on Leg Three for more favorable winds, but we were extremely nervous about it. This morning, we got up at 4:30 so we could check the weather and be at the airport by 6:00 for a 6:30 take-off to Mason City, Iowa. Julia and I had made one pledge to one another before this year’s race – that we would not take-off unless we were assured of making a direct flight (NO DEVIATION FOR THUNDERSTORMS!) and also assured of being able to land at the next airport. We were not the only ones waiting …. at first. You can see the FBO was buzzing with activity and the ramp full of airplanes.

While we were waiting, we took some pictures of a nifty B-17 that was parked on the ramp. The first one is of Julia beside the airplane and gives you an idea how large the old bomber is. You can also see the art on the nose.

In the next picture, you can see the tail of our airplane with our race number – 18.

Oh, how difficult it was to see racer after racer depart while we sat on the ground! 7:30, 8:00, 8:30……..FINALLY, at 9:00 we took off, and our plan worked! A good tailwind and no deviation. The weather for Leg Four had been the most doubtful all along as Decatur, Illinois had a mega cell covering it and the area all around it for days. While we were still on the leg to Mason City, we were looking beyond toward Decatur on Nexrad on the GPS. It still looked very bad. We were feeling very behind the eight ball by this time. If we got no further than Mason City, being able to complete the race in the remaining days would be in serious jeopardy.

Max’s comment said he wanted to see some pictures of flooding. This shot was probably the best and was taken as we were crossing from Minnesota into Iowa. The town nearby was Watertown. How appropriate.

When we landed at Mason City, we were able to eat lunch at a café at the airport run seven days a week by an elderly lady - and by herself. We quickly figured out that you operate on her schedule and by her rules. By the time we got there, she was out of hamburgers. Not sure what we ate, but it was edible.

We checked the weather before lunch and after lunch. It was beginning to look like the weather to Decatur was stabilizing. More waiting, but at least there’s hope. Sure enough, by about 2:00 it looked clear enough to make it. Into the airplane and take-off to circle around to line up for the fly by. Every time we land and then again every time we take off, we have to fly the timing line. Timers are positioned on the ground, and we must fly over the airport – low and fast – in a certain place so the timers can start or stop our time.

We are very happy about going to Decatur since there had been predictions of the race having to end at Mason City. Along the way, we went over Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It appeared that most of the flooding had subsided, but we did see one house still partially under water. Tried to get a picture, but a cloud got in the way.

By this time, we are carefully calculating our time enroute. With the help of a significant tailwind, it starts looking as if we just might be able to forge on ahead to Frankfort, Kentucky after refueling in Decatur. We were going to lose an hour going from Central to Eastern Daylight Time as we crossed into Kentucky. Landing beyond sunset is an immediate disqualification. We decided to do the quickest turn-around possible at Decatur, and we did. We whizzed in and out of there in nothing flat and flew the timing line to leave at 5:13 Central. There was not supposed to be any help from a tailwind for this leg, but there it was!!! At least 15 knots; we couldn’t believe it!?!? We made it to Frankfort with plenty of daylight to spare.

Circling back to land after flying the timing line, we had a minute to see how beautiful this area is. Julia took a quick shot of the capitol building for me and then got the airport as we were landing. What a beautiful sight. After being so worried about making one leg and then being able to make three in one day – well, it was a great feeling of accomplishment.

Can’t leave the airport without getting the plane ready for tomorrow. Bugs off all the leading edges, windshield clean, and the ultimate sign of commitment – getting the grease off the belly.

The Race Begins!

2008-06-25T11:16:00.014-05:00

Tuesday - Race Day #1!!!
I will back track a bit to yesterday. We did not post because there was not much material. This picture at breakfast is the only picture we took, but you can tell from it that even going down for breakfast was fun. Marolyn, the one you see talking, owns a bakery in New York that she and her sister took over from their parents. It was great fun hearing her stories about Dick, the German baker they inherited from their dad. Even after working for the sisters for 17 years, Dick informed them that he did not work for them but for their dad. He finally quit, and they hired a one-legged baker who tries to quit every time he makes a mistake, afraid he will be fired. The sisters have managed to struggle through with temperamental bakers and now have a successful business and 60 employees. Marolyn is also the Air Race Classic president.

From 8:00 to 2:00 in briefings. We then found some lunch, ran errands, and then went to our room to finish flight planning. There was not much else to photograph though we should have had someone take our picture hauling two big boxes to the car to take to UPS for shipping. One went to Terminus in Massachusetts, and one went to Cleburne to be picked up on our return. We were able to get rid of 50 pounds of weight by shipping. We are down to bare essentials for the race days – even sharing a tube of toothpaste.

The Race is On!
Up for a mandatory briefing at 6:00 AM with our bags packed and weather checked. Thankfully, the briefing included breakfast. I was too excited to sleep well, so I was already yawning at breakfast. The excitement again quickly overcame sleepy after breakfast as everyone grabbed their bags and headed to the airport.

At the airport, we had been instructed to taxi out in groups of five or six. We were the leader of Group Four – flight of five. This is Group One pulling out of parking to taxi for take-off at Bozeman.

Take off went smoothly and with the mountains behind us, we had a nice tailwind to Miles City. Deciding how to cross the mountains right after take-off was one of our major decisions of the day, and we felt that we did as well as we could given our performance limitations. That 180 hp conversion is getting closer to becoming a reality each day.

Tailwinds gone - on the next leg, we were into headwinds. We stayed VERY low trying to minimize the headwind as much as possible. The down side to being low is getting bounced around and the air conditioner (outside air) doesn’t work very well. The good thing is that we got to see lots of beautiful country up close. We were still in Montana for the first picture - the Powder River.

Crossing into North Dakota, we flew over the Missouri River. So wide and beautiful.

We had planned to try to make it on from Aberdeen, South Dakota to Mason City, Iowa. Enough daylight left, but checking the weather we decided to stay the night and try for better winds in the morning. It’s a risky decision, but the race is all about trying to get the best time on each leg. Hope we don’t regret it later.

We were reminded of the other down side to flying low – BUGS! We had an unbelievable number of bugs on all the leading edges. Julia and I cleaned bugs off until we were thoroughly hot and exhausted. The folks at Quest Aviation have been very helpful and supplied us with more bug cleaner when we ran out. With the airplane once again clean and polished, they even took us to the hotel.

We are enjoying your company on this race so keep on writing your comments to us! We’ll be up early in the morning to try to make up for lost time today. Until tomorrow.

All the Interesting People We Met

2008-06-23T09:01:00.006-05:00

Not having had any exercise (excitement yes, but exercise no), we walked two miles downtown this morning for breakfast. We stumbled upon a restaurant that was evidently a favorite of the locals judging from the waiting line as we left. Very good. Then, back to the room for more trip planning. We also scoured the manuals to learn some of the finer points of our newer navigation equipment.

This afternoon began the series of briefings with one especially for first timers. The picture shows only some of the first time racers being instructed by Denise Waters, one of the around-the-world racers. Julia and I attended to make sure we had not forgotten something important. It was a good review to get our minds in race mode. And, in that vein, we started looking at some of the long range weather forecasts. The weather has been so unstable in the mid-west, that we are beginning to wonder if just completing the race this year will again be an accomplishment.

Tonight was the Start Banquet and the female director of the Montana Aeronautics Commission was a good guest speaker and told us not only about the state but also about the role aviation plays. The former director, Mike Ferguson, was in attendance and sat at our table. Mr. Ferguson now works for AOPA as regional representative and, with a lot of persuasion, has some interesting stories to tell. In the mid-eighties, he flew a Bonanza non-stop from Honolulu to Salt Lake City, setting a record, and another record for flying with a single stop from Honolulu to Oshkosh, WI. He did not achieve his goal of non-stop to Oshkosh because high winds over the Pacific put him four hours short on fuel; but setting two records on a solo flight isn’t bad. His wife had flown to Hawaii with him, but she had to come back another way – he needed 43 gallons of fuel in that seat instead of her.

One of the racers, Anne Marie Radel, is an Emmy-nominated, song writer for soap operas, TV movies, and features films. She wrote a song about us racers and sang it tonight. It was very good and very appropriate.

Of course, almost every team dressed alike, and Julia and I were no exception. I also took a picture of one of our favorite teams from last year, Jan and Lara from Indiana (Lara is the taller one). Jan is a legal consultant for Purdue University. She is a retired U.S. administrative judge and retired JAG in the Indiana Air National Guard, holding the distinction of the highest-ranking female JAG in the U.S. Lara is a professional pilot with 4500 hours and almost all the ratings possible --- and a sky diver. She and her pilot husband run a FBO.

8:00 AM briefing, so time to sign off. Don’t forget to post so we’ll know you’re there!

Pre-race Inspection Day

2008-06-22T09:10:00.007-05:00

This was inspection day for the airplane and credentials day for us. Both are a bit nerve-racking because if you fail either, you simply don’t get to go.

The first part of the airplane inspection was an engine RPM check done by none other than our Ruby Sheldon, the most senior pilot at 90 years old. With more than 15,000 hours, one of her many credits is that she holds the very first helicopter instrument instructor certificate issued by the FAA. She also flew a Grumman OV-18 Mohawk, collecting environmental data in climates from the Panama Canal to the Arctic Ocean. She also lived for several months on an ice island 400 miles north of the Alaska coast, transporting research personnel from island to island in a Huey helicopter. It was an honor just to have Ruby in the airplane. And, as you can tell from the photo, she is not as big as a minute.

Next, the mechanics checked it over. Off came the cowling while they examine for both safety and unreported modifications. They found a loose grounding strap and repaired it for me, but everything else went fine at that station. Last was the paperwork – engine logs, 337s, weight and balance, airframe logs. It took a while to go through it, but all the inspections had been properly performed and logged. Thank you, Sam, for getting the airplane ready for the race.

Julia and I also had our necessary paperwork – biennial flight review properly noted in our logbooks, medical certificate, pilot certificate, and proof of the proper insurance. Kathy and Joyce evidently do credentialing each year and have it down pat. Joyce has only missed two air races since it was reorganized as the Air Race Classic in 1977, and she and Kathy have been a team for 20 years.

We were in the first group this morning that started at 9:00, and it was noon before we finished. After lunch we tried doing some work on the computer and did some laundry.

This evening was a BBQ put on by some of the local people and the Montana Pilots Association. They cooked a whole pig, and it was wonderful. All the racers were introduced, and then we had the pleasure of telling the locals about the race. Met some very interesting people – including the recently elected Mayor of Bozeman, a retired Berkley professor of Asian studies, and the main chef was a retired naval aviator. The Mayor is a woman and seemed genuinely pleased to meet the women pilots. Lots of fun. From the picture of the group perhaps you can get a feel for the diversity in age of the racers – everything from Ruby and Margaret to the three college teams. These young pilots are from Embry-Riddle University in Florida – Marisha and Mandy. They are competing for the college trophy as well as trying to win the race.

Final Preparation & White Water Rafting!

2008-06-21T13:58:00.010-05:00

It’s hard not to fill the blog with photos of scenery because the mountains are so pretty. This shot is some of what we can see from the hotel.

Up early today to get to be first in line to have the airplane washed and waxed. We wanted to be first so we could get out of there by noon to go on our rafting trip scheduled for the afternoon. They have us fairly secluded on the south end of the airport but with everything we need. Things were hopping very soon. I worked on our numbers while waiting for the wash crew to get set up.

You may remember from last year that one of the women, Margaret Ringenberg, was a WASP and one of the oldest pilots participating, now age 87. She is back again this year, having flown 31 of these air races as well as an around-the-world race and the 2001 London to Sidney Air Race. She started flying in 1945 and has more than 40,000 hours. Arlene is talking with Margaret in the hangar with the kids washing the airplane in the background. Ruby is the oldest pilot and is 90 years old this year. Her partner flew from Florida to Arizona to pick her up before coming to Montana. More on Ruby another time.

Several racers came in on Thursday trying to beat bad weather in their part of the country. The airport was busy, busy with teams working on their plane, getting numbers on, waxing, and fueling. The fuel truck was running up and down the line trying to fulfill the fuel requests.

One of Arlene’s favorite things to do is whitewater rafting. Now Julia is hooked too. We went with Geyser Rafting down the Gallatin River at Big Sky. What fun! It’s a Class III section so not too hazardous, but the water was moving fast. There were 7 in our raft plus a fun guide – Tom. (Do you know the difference between a river guide and a mutual fund? The mutual fund eventually matures and makes money.)

Oops! Now we know why everyone let us get on the boat first!

We Arrive in Bozeman, MT

2008-06-20T08:32:00.009-05:00

The plane is fueled, loaded, and ready for the last 3 ½ hours of flying – Douglas, WY to Bozeman, MT. Steve ran the FBO and was so nice to us – didn’t even charge us for the trip he had to make back to the airport last night to put our airplane in the hangar. Also, fuel prices are not as bad as we feared. Not cheap, but not as bad as Austin.
We decided to make a stop in Billings so we would have fuel enough to do some exploring when we reached Bozeman. On the leg between Douglas and Billings we flew over the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. It is beautiful! Looks like a mini-Grand Canyon from the air.

We’re here! The picture is of landing at the Gallatin Airport – Bozeman, MT. We arrived at check in at Bozeman about 3:00 MDT after flying some of the passes and marking waypoints on the GPS and deciding on minimum comfortable altitude for clearing the mountains.

The first leg of the race is our biggest worry. Bozeman is surrounded by three mountain ranges – one of which is right in our path. We confirmed that 739FY is not powerful enough to climb quickly enough to go direct. So, we’ll just do the best we can with Plan B.

Though the mountains present flying challenges, they are scenic. We are definitely enjoying the beauty of the area. Starving from having missed lunch today, we went to Mackenzie River Pizza, as recommended by Kathy Hutto. My bison sausage pizza and salad were great, Kathy. We took some pictures of the mountain-town-quaint shops on Main Street.

The Great Adventure Begins!

2008-06-19T09:21:00.010-05:00

The great adventure begins! Julia and I met at Cleburne airport Wednesday morning at 8:30 AM. Neither of us had slept well – too much excitement. Mikeal was there to see us off and take pictures. Sam had all the log books ready, and we made one last survey of the paperwork – license, medical, proof of biennial flight review, aircraft log books, proper placards and certificates, proof of insurance, and the list goes on. Remarkably, all of our stuff made it into the airplane, and we were off by 9:30.

You can tell from the GPS that we had a long way to go – about 7 hours of flying. First stop – the Ulysses Airport at Grant, Kansas. Though it was a small town and airport, the service and facilities were great – even a courtesy car to go into town for lunch. The town and terrain were so much like my home town in the Panhandle, that we could just as easily have been in Texas. We had encountered a problem with the GPS while enroute with it not displaying some important, but not critical, information. A call to Fieldtech in Fort Worth who called Garmin, and a speedy call back to us resolved the problem, and we were in the air again by 3:00.

Another 3+ hour leg – destination Douglas, Wyoming. This time, we encountered a headwind and had to work our way through a line of thunderstorms. For those of you who followed the race last year, you will remember that every single day we had weather issues with rain and thunderstorms. So, we took a couple of pictures to let you know that we are again this year having weather issues.

Douglas is a pretty town on the North Platte River. We again were able to get a courtesy car, but perhaps, not one that you would want to call your own – a 20 yr. old Grand Marquee. Mikeal suggested the caption under a picture would read Thelma and Louise. But, the laughs stopped when it started hailing outside. Fear grips the heart of a pilot with images of hail destroying their airplane sitting out on the ramp. So, we quickly paid for our dinner and ran to the airport to assess the damage. Luckily, the hail had missed the airport even though it was only about 3 miles away from the hotel. We called the airport manager and had him come put the plane in a hangar. So glad we did; another storm came through after we got back to our room.

Hope this is not a portent of the weather for the race!?!?! This picture of the beauty after the rain is more what we’d like for the rest of the trip.

12 Days to Take-Off

2008-06-06T18:52:00.003-05:00

Back by popular request will be our Air Race blog. Several of our friends and family have asked if we're going to blog again this year, and the obvious answer is yes. Daughter Sarah will help overcome the very time-consuming, uploading photos problem for us, so all we have to do is write the journal and email to her. We hope you will post comments and questions as we go through the race. It's more fun for us and for other readers.

Every year the course is different, and a big difference for us is having to fly 2 days to get to Start instead of 2 hours. Bozeman has been reporting below average temperatures so far this year, so we're digging out our jackets. If we can make it there as planned on Thursday, we will go river rafting Friday on the Gallatin River at Big Sky, Montana, thanks to the recommendation of my friend, Kathy Hutto, a frequent visitor to the area. Montana has had lots of snow, so the river should be great! Mandatory activities for the race begin on Saturday and the actual race is Tuesday through Friday.

Hotel reservations made, rental car reservations made, numbers for the airplane made and bought, and much more, but still much left to do. So much to do; so little time......

Oh, and I could not figure out how to take last year's off, so everything below is from 2007.

Arlene and Julia

P.S. - Our Safe Return

2007-06-29T09:09:00.000-05:00

In case you are checking to see whether or not we made it home. We got to Cleburne Wednesday about 11:00 am. Our strategy of the weather not being so volatile in the morning hours paid off. We filed IFR leaving Monroe at 8:00 a.m. and just filed to Tyler. The weather began to look better as we neared Tyler - looked like Cleburne was in the middle of a “C” of rain - so we extended our flight plan to Cleburne. Our initial clearance was Cedar Creek VOR (southeast of the Metroplex) to Ranger VOR (northeast of Cleburne and in the center of the Metroplex) to Cleburne. The Ranger jaunt not only would have taken us into weather but the delay getting to Cleburne would have jeopardized our getting in before part of that “C” closed in on the airport. Eventually, we were handed off to Regional Approach, and he agreed to change our routing. We then asked for lowest altitude (2300’). We had been keeping up with Cleburne’s weather through their AWOS. It had gone from clear to 3400’ to 2300’ to 1500’. As soon as I saw a good opening in the clouds, I popped down through it and told Julia to cancel IFR. Once we could see the ground, I was amazed at the amount of standing water in the fields. There was one area that I pointed out to Julia and told her that, despite how it looked, there was no river there. The wind was gusty, but landing was no problem. It surely was good to be on the ground…and home. It was even better seeing my husband’s smiling face as we were getting out of the plane. Julia transferred all of her belongings into her plane, checked the weather again, called Charles to pick her up, filed an IFR flight plan, and was off to Austin. She said she was in the clouds and it was bumpy the whole way, but she made it just fine.

I laughed to read her email yesterday, “How does it feel to be back home? I'm in a sort of stupor. Don't think I should use any power saws today.”

Our feet are back on the ground now, but it was an amazing adventure that we will treasure. Thanks to all who shared it with us through this blog.

Post Race & Farewell

2007-06-26T18:27:00.000-05:00

Our husbands are wanting to hear a post-race analysis. So, as we are sitting in scenic and exciting Monroe, LA waiting to find an opening in the huge area of rain perched over central and eastern Texas to get home, we decided to oblige. Here are the stats of interest:

First-time teams - 15

Our ranking among first-time teams - 5th

First-time teams in top 10 - only 1. That team was comprised of a delightful pair of airline pilots with a total of 21,000 hrs. between them.

First-time teams that received an incomplete - 5

Good airplanes to fly.

Hard to answer because experience and ground support also played a part, but these are the airplanes in the top 10

6 - Cessna 182 (230 or 235 HP)

2 - Grumman Tiger (180 HP)

1 - C-172S (180 HP)

1 - Piper Warrior (160 HP) (This was the Purdue team that had mega ground support)

See, Honey, I really DO need that 180 hp engine conversion

Did on-board radar made a difference? HUGE DIFFERENCE. It is very likely we would not have finished the last leg without it, and there would have been 12 incompletes instead of 11. Because every day of the race had weather issues, the radar gave us the ability to see and avoid the worst of it. The GPS was also very helpful in other ways - like getting lined up for the fly-bys. One runway was turf and another was closed. Even the regular runways were sometimes hard to locate. Going around a thunderstorm at Elmira put a big hill between us and the runway. I had a hard time lining up even with the GPS - it would have been impossible without it since we could not see the airport. The terrain/obstruction feature also was a great comfort since we were flying as low as we were.

Last question was whether it was better to fly high for winds or low. Again, hard to tell for sure, but my guess is low (and the experienced pilots aren't tellin'). The two legs we did very well on were flown very low. I can tell you that the bugs on the airplane were the very worst in Nebraska. Low flying does have its disadvantages.

Glen asked if we were going to do it again. We're already planning. Race route will be Bozeman, Montana to Mansfield Massachusetts. If Margaret Ringenberg, at age 86, is still able to come in 5th, we figure we're in for a few more good years. If you are interested in reading more about her, she has written two books - Girls Can't Be Pilots, which she authored, and Maggie Ray, World War II Air Force Pilot, by Marsha J. Wright, a biography.

Thank to all of you who joined in with comments. Hearing back from you made it much more fun for us.

Now, if we can just get home.

Arlene & Julia

Awards!!

2007-06-24T21:17:00.000-05:00

The Awards Banquet gives recognition and prizes to not only the top 10 teams but also to the top four for each leg. Guess what!?! Julia and I were in 2nd Place on Leg 5 which was Bowling Green, Kentucky to Lewisberg, West Virginia! AND....we were in 4th Place on Leg 7 which was Elmira, New York to Burlington, Vermont! We couldn't believe it. We finished 24th overall and received $60 in prize money (about 1/2 tank of fuel) and the little medallions we are showing off in the picture. The non-monetary rewards of successfully meeting the challenge of a very challenging race and the friendships formed are immeasurable.

Remember Team 49, the team from Indiana State University to whom we have grown close, were the last ones to get through the weather on the last day with only 2 minutes left before the deadline? They received the $100 prize for coming in last. BUT, they also won two leg prizes, so we were very proud of them, too. They finished 35th, but there were 10 teams that didn't make the deadline.

One funny happening. You may recall that because Team 1, our Mother Bird team, had fallen behind, we were able to call them to pick up our packet of charts we had left behind at Bowling Green. Evidently, others began calling as well, so at the debrief session this morning, they "auctioned" back to the owners their left-behind belongings (proceeds going to Air Race Classic). It was all very funny, but it cost us $40 to get our charts back. So, on our afternoon outing to the Reversing Falls, I found a rhinestone pin in the shape of an airplane on the ground. Had to be one of the racers. I gave it to the MC at the banquet who made the announcement and held up the pin. It was Patty's - one of our Mother Birds!!! Julia and I jumped up and insisted that she "buy" it back. We all had a good laugh at the irony. Patty is showing her "redeemed" pin in the picture.

Our flight plan is filed with Canadian Flight Service, and our customs form has been faxed to Bangor. Time to pack and try to make it home. Weather in Ohio tomorrow.

R & R

2007-06-24T07:37:00.000-05:00

Time for a little R & R. On Friday night, the race event was a "Meltdown Party" - a reception at the New Brunswick Museum, Hall of the Great Whale, close to our hotel. The mayor of St. John was there to welcome the racers. The museum curator spoke of the history of the area and explained the history of the Right Whale, so named because it was the "right" whale for sailors to kill for food and oil. A baleen whale was often found at the surface and was slow to turn and move - making it easy prey. It is estimated this species is about 20 years from extinction. The MOST interesting part was the display of the baleen plates the whales have instead of teeth. The whales filter the krill through the baleen plates, lick the krill off the back side and simultaneously push the water back out. It is amazing that this process can result in their consuming several tons of krill per day. It was difficult to get a good picture, but you can make it out through the reflections in the glass.

Julia and I were in slow motion on Saturday, since we were no longer in race mode, but we did manage to do the basics of flight planning for our trip home. We will be facing headwinds on the westerly trip. With Great Circle navigation we start out with a heading of about 270 degrees and end up with a heading of 225 degrees for the direct route. If we were able to fly with no wind (chances of that are about 1 in 1000) and without stopping, it would take about 16 hours to fly from St. John to Cleburne. There will be about 45 planes attempting to leave tomorrow morning (Monday) and no one can take off before 8:00. The morning weather is forecast to be good but not the afternoon and Tuesday is worse. So, ALL of us will be wanting to take off as quickly after 8:00 as possible.

St. John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada. It is picturesque, especially when it is not raining. Tremendous history and lots to see and do. There are three cities in New Brunswick - one is French (Francophone, as we learned), one is Anglophone, and St. John is mixed.

Our race activity for the day was to attend the first time racers debrief - first timers opportunity to critique the race. The main complaint was the weather which is hardly the fault of the race committee. However, planning a race to a location that has frequent bad flying weather AND treacherous terrain was perhaps not a good choice. All said, this race is an amazing logistical feat, and we have great appreciation for the race committee and all the many volunteers it takes to put on the race.

No one is saying a word about their score - which we find odd. Guess we will find out tonight who won this year. We're just proud to have finished. Only one team got in after us - Team 49 from Indiana State went by the timing line 2 minutes before the deadline. Way to go, girls! The other three who landed because of the thunderstorms didn't get to St. John until the next day.

The optional race activity that we signed up for was sea kayaking. 17 of us went on that adventure and had a great time. And, the weather was???.......rain, of course. We had fun anyway.

Aren't we lovely in our kayaking skirts? Color coordinated, too.

We kayaked to see some caves created by the ocean washing out the sandstone. Very pretty. The fishing boats were coming back into the harbor when we returned.

Several people have asked that we continue the blog for the trip home which we will do as long as time and Internet connection permit. The race is over, though, so it will just be anything interesting that we encounter on the flight home.

Some have reported back that it is difficult to comment. I understand that the easiest way is to sign in as Anonymous and the just put your name at the bottom of the post. Please write us back, we love to read the comments.

Dr. Stan wrote on the comments: Is 70 too old to start flying? Definitely not! When I was flying competition aerobatics in my earlier years, one of the competitors had just learned to fly aerobatics and he was 72. Of the competitors in the Air Race Classic, many are in their 70s and at least 2 are in their 80s. Go for it! The only thing you cannot do is compete in the All Women's Air Race Classic.

The Finish Line!!!

2007-06-22T15:44:00.000-05:00

We made it!!! We certainly didn't win this year, but we are excited to report that we did make it to terminus. We were about #30 to land but will not find out our ranking until tomorrow night. Even the last leg was plagued with weather.

We took off this morning - in the rain. 19 planes made it to St. John yesterday. This morning, we were one of 15 planes to leave Bangor at about the same time - around 9:00 Central. 11 of us made it to St. John before the deadline and 4 diverted because of thunderstorms. A few more were still behind us in Elmira, so it is highly unlikely they will make it in today, but they plan to come on for the banquet tomorrow night.

Though it was raining, Bangor weather was not terribly bad. You can see from the picture that the ceiling was reasonably high. We had to go back to Pittsfield to fly the timing line and then on to St. John. There was only a small window of opportunity for getting into St. John because of the weather, and the group decided before take off, it would be safer to let the faster planes go first so they would not be overtaking the slower planes. We organized ourselves by handicap, and that meant we were next to last to take off. We flew at 1500' most of the way to stay below the clouds - only climbing to clear the hills.

We could see the storms ahead on our GPS. About 60 miles out, we began diverting to the north to try to come in behind the cells, which were moving VERY slowly to the southeast. As we got closer, four planes ahead of us turned back to land at Princeton to wait out the storm. That is a racer's very sad decision to make, because the clock keeps ticking while you're on the ground. But, landing safely is the most important concern.

Our plan to go around to the north had one problem. Julia was very busy trying to keep up with our location on the sectional chart. Just in time, she saw that there was a restricted area! Since we do not have Canadian airspace on our GPS, it did not show up as we were accustomed to. Flying into that, even accidentally, would have caused us much time talking with the Canadian military. So, now, we're avoiding thunderstorms and restricted airspace.

After circling a few minutes, we decided to try to make it though between two thunderstorms. The one on our left had lightening, so we stayed as far away from it as we could. Flight Service was reporting that the thunderstorms were Level 3, and our satellite weather was showing red centers. We agreed that at the first sign of turbulence, we would turn around. The adrenaline was pumping as we forged on through the clearer area, and we breathed a sigh of relief to see better weather on the other side. I think we were the last to make it. 11:19 CDT.

Canadian volunteers met the airplane and took us in to the temporary customs that had been set up for the race. We got our passports stamped to prove we were in Canada.

They had a bit of lunch for us. Julia went to get our rent car, and I went out to tie down the airplane (this is why we had to bring our own stakes and tie downs). As I walked out to the plane, it started to rain......again. Tie down, unload the plane, and drive into town.....in the rain. But, it didn't matter a whit to us. We were successful in completing our first Air Race Classic!

Day Three

2007-06-21T21:39:00.001-05:00

As Crocodile Dundee would say, "THIS is fog." Sure enough, the locals predicted well. On our way to the airport this morning, the fog began to thicken. We knew it was just a layer and clear on top, but there was no taking off until it met the rule of 1500' ceiling and 3 miles visibility.

We waited out the fog along with everyone else who spent the night in Lewisburg, but it turned out to not be too bad. Planes started taking off --- in order of signing the RON (Remain Over Night) list as prescribed in the rules - about 9:00 AM.

Can't say the flight from Lewisberg to Elmira was uneventful. After biting the bullet to climb all the way to 9500' in search of better winds, which is quite a chore for a C-172, we began experiencing an unexplainable loss of power about 45 min into the flight. We lost 200 RPM and a little more than 20 kts of airspeed. For you pilots, yes, I checked for carburetor icing, loss of oil pressure, both mags, etc. After troubleshooting and finding nothing, we turned to an alternate airport. Miraculously, about 1,000' of descent later, the engine RPM returned to normal and never gave us any more trouble....thankfully.

Next, take a look at the Nexrad weather for Elmira. A big cell just off the south end of the runway. When we arrived, we had to go around the worst of this weather, which put us at a very awkward intercept for final for the fly-by.

At Elmira, Ruby's age was finally revealed to us by a reporter. At 89, she is the oldest racer with Margaret, age 86, close behind. Ruby had airplane problems and was having a voltage regulator overnighted by her husband in Arizona. Hopefully, it gets repaired in time to complete the race tomorrow, but it will be tight.

Burlington, Vermont was not much better - weather wise. We had just about decided to RON because it is such a pretty place - on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain - but guess everyone else in the country decided the same - no room at the inn.

We had plenty of time to make Bangor, Maine if we left immediately but only a small window of opportunity. Weather was moving in fast from the northwest, and some of it looked pretty severe. I doubt anyone else could get into Burlington after we left. You can see from the picture how things looked for our fly-by to begin the leg to Bangor - raining again. We were in and out of weather all day - having to divert, go around mountains instead of over because the ceilings were too low - so no telling how badly we destroyed our trip time. And, we were flying over some pretty rough terrain. Not only was it heavily forrested, but where there were clearings, they looked like marsh. Not good places to land if you have an engine problem. Grateful we've made it this far and still enjoying the race a lot. We will find out Saturday night at the banquet how well we did. We've already learned much about racing cross country and also learned that we don't know enough! I've never flown full throttle anytime but take-off ---- now, I don't know if I will be satisfied with less than that!?!

The fly-by for Bangor had to be off airport because of all the military flying at the airport. The ARC committee chose Pittsfield airport which was on the way - about 20 miles out. We were especially grateful for the GPS. It would have been difficult to find that little airport without it.

At last, a landing in clear, blue sky. Bangor surely did look good.

Tomorrow is St. John and the end of the race.

Day Two

2007-06-20T21:43:00.000-05:00

We flew over some beautiful country today, and I have a feeling that is what we will be saying for the rest of the trip. This picture was typical of Kentucky. The flight from Jefferson City to Bowling Green was uneventful. We got to fly at a higher altitude than any previous segment and had good ground speed. Again, wonderful hospitality met us at both stops. However, while we were on the ground there, I was watching the screen when the Surface Analysis Prog chart changed --- and not for the better in Vermont and New Hampshire. Our plan was to go to Elmira, NY and Burlington, VT tomorrow. Looks like we had better push through to Bangor if we can make it. Complicating the situation is that we have discovered the weather at Lewisberg is almost always fog in the mornings. If we cannot leave here until noon tomorrow, flying only two legs today may prove to be a tactical error. We'll be praying for NO FOG.

This photo was of West Virginia when we were not in the strip mining areas. We flew low from Bowling Green, KY to Lewisberg, WV to stay out of headwinds up high. It was a challenge to spot the airport coming in from the west. The ARC plane in front of us was reporting that the airport was not in sight at her 5 mile check-in. We were fortunate that a Hawker coming in from the south was in front of us, so we just followed him to the runway. Unenventful except for a couple of absent-minded problems we created for ourselves. I had failed to get the remainder of the U.S. info on my data card for the Garmin GPS, and Julia left our charts at Bowling Green. We were both rescued. The owner of Fox Aviation - on the field - had the downloading device I needed to solve my problem (blessing upon blessing to Alvin Fox), and our Mother Bird team is bringing our charts. We got one of the last motel rooms in the town by making reservations early in the day, so all is well.

We have heard that one team turned back because of weather on the very first leg and is now stranded in OK City. The weather may never clear up there. Another team ran over a sign at Jefferson City and did substantial damage to the airplane. One of the college teams had their carbon monoxide warning go off, but they have checked it twice and can't find a problem. The 86-year old is still way out there ahead of the pack, and none of us is surprised.

Till tomorrow.

Day One

2007-06-19T20:49:00.000-05:00

Up at 4:30 AM for the mandatory final briefing at 6:00. They served us breakfast, which made it much better. There have been lots of questions at these briefings - probably because there is a record number of first-time teams at 20. That was not the case this morning, though. Everyone was ready to take-off.

At the airport, we are getting a ride to our airplane, with all of our stuff.

The weather was forecast to be very low IFR in Kansas, but McCook, Nebraska was supposed to be good. Next ---- Take Off!!! Our turn came about 8:45. "Classic 34, cleared for take-off." We stayed low over the runway for the timer and then were given clearance for right turn, on course.

The enroute weather had everyone sweatin' bullets. Communication between planes on 122.75 was busy with the first teams giving regular weather updates to those following. Kansas was okay (not good, but okay) but McCook was now reporting low IFR. We ALL breathed much easier when the first teams began sending the word that the clouds were dissipating and that we were going to be able to make it in. We received quite a nice welcome upon arrival - good service and sandwiches. After the 3 hour flight, the pilots were hungry and thirsty. Great hospitality and then back in the air.

Next stop - Denison, Iowa. They were a bit challenged on fueling since the didn't have a truck, but you can see from the picture that we all lined up and pulled the planes forward with our tow bars. Worked well. Again, a little food and water.

I fuel, pay for the fuel, and get the bugs off the airplane while Julia closes, files, and opens flight plans (all of which are required to be done on the ground) and checks the weather.

The fly-bys are a hoot! The directions are very specific - announce 10 miles out, 5 miles out, turn on all strobes and landing lights, be wings level at 1 mile out, and fly full power 200 feet off the ground to the timing line. The procedure is repeated after you take off to begin time for the next leg. Planes are everywhere in the air and on the ground.

Last leg took us to Jefferson City, Missouri. The man running the flight line took our picture with the state capitol in the background. (Don't look too close at the picture of us.) The view on downwind for landing was beautiful. I was also very impressed with southwest Iowa. Very pretty.

We're exhausted, so that's it for tonight. Tomorrow - Bowling Green, Kentucky and Elmira, New York. Headwinds forecasted.

12 hrs before the race begins

2007-06-18T19:47:00.000-05:00

Monday: This morning we awoke to a newspaper article in The Oklahoman about the Air Race Classic - http://newsok.com/article/3067685

- and this out the window

We were so glad to hear the weather briefer tell us that it should be gone by tomorrow about 11:00. We're supposed to take off starting at 8:00 AM. That may or may not happen, but at least we know that the race WILL start tomorrow. Looks like we will be behind this weather system - at least for the first two legs.

We spent ALL morning in briefings. This is complicated stuff! What we thought was going to be free time today turned into flight planning until time to go to bed.

My daughter, Sarah, finished our performance Excel spreadsheet just in time. We can plug in the winds aloft and better judge whether or not it is worth climbing to altitude.

To bed early (well, at least by 10:00). Up early to check out, go to the mandatory 6:00 am breakfast/briefing, and off to the airport for take-off starting at 8:00 (weather permitting).

Last night's start banquet

2007-06-18T13:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we attended a first-time racer's meeting and then spent the rest of the day flight planning on our own.

The start banquet was held last night at our hotel. It was attended by the racers, ARC members, some spouses, sponsors, state officials and numerous 99s members who have hosted us.

Arlene and I finally got out of those red shirts.

The racers were introduced and we learned that there are several college teams, a mother-daughter team, a pregnant woman, and a woman who celebrated her 86th birthday yesterday - to name a few.

Margaret Ringenberg (the birthday girl) has accumulated more than 40,000 hours in the cockpit since 1945. She was a WASP, and gave Tom Brokaw a flight lesson when he interviewed her for his book, "The Greatest Generation".

The race team from Western Michigan University shared our table last night.

Also teams from Purdue University, Kansas State University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Central Missouri State University are competing

The racers come from all over the US and from all backgrounds and occupations. We've met pilots, air traffic controllers, flight instructors, an FBO owner, a corporate CEO, an engineer, educators, a heavy equipment operator - an incredably diverse lot. However, we're all focused on the same goal now.

The Air Race Classic 2007 has honored the career of Louise Thaden, the woman who won the 1929 race. Thought you might like to see the plane she flew in that race. It is displayed in the 99s Museum of Women Pilots here in Oklahoma City.

Whew! Passed Inspection.

2007-06-16T23:06:00.000-05:00

Most of the morning was spent with inspections. The aircraft and ALL the aircraft documents passed without problem. Thank you, Sam. Next was the pilot credentialing. Julia and I met all the requirements except presenting our set of the rules, which they said we could bring by later.

A word of warning from some of the experienced pilots made us decide that perhaps we might need hats after all, so it was off to Academy. We also bought a hammer with which to drive tie down stakes into the ground and a clipboard.

This afternoon, the Air Race Classic hosted the area Girl Scouts who had achieved their aviation badge or were working on it. The event was at the Omniplex Science Museum and featured a presentation from Terry von Thaden, granddaughter of Louise Thaden who won the first Women's Air Derby in 1929. Also in 1929, she became the first pilot to hold the women's altitude, endurance, and speed records in light planes simultaneously - a record that has never been broken. Pretty interesting history lesson. Each team then told about themselves. We have a pilot from New Zealand and ages from college to close to 90. The Purdue team was quite impressive and brought out that Amelia Earhart, who was in the first race with Thaden, had been an instructor at Purdue and was in a Purdue aircraft when she went down.

Later we returned to the Omniplex for an ARC reception. Of course, we were in the aviation section. Finally, our Mother Bird team arrived in OK City just in time for the reception. They had been weathered in at Graham, TX and had to get special permission for a late arrival. In addition to weather, they had also lost a vacuum pump. They will get that fixed and be ready to go on Tuesday morning.

The rest of the evening was spent in flight planning.

Off to the Races!

2007-06-15T18:18:00.000-05:00

This is what greeted me as I arrived at the airport by car this morning. Rain, rain, and more rain. I was worried about Julia being able to get into Cleburne before a big storm hit from the northwest, but she arrived about 20 minutes early and beat the storm.

Take-off was scheduled at 11:00 am. You can see that it was raining hard at that time.

Simple solution: Just take Sam and Betty Ball to lunch. Sam has been wonderful helping get the airplane ready for this race. When we got back after lunch, the good 'ole Texas weather had vastly improved. Sam topped off the tanks, and away we go! But, we were still worried about how far we would be able to get before weather became a problem again. The low pressure was sitting right on top of our route, churning thunderstorms from the northwest in Texas and from the southeast in Oklahoma. Our onboard satellite weather showed storms around OK City.

Thought those of you in the Fort Worth area would enjoy the picture of downtown. We made it to the Red River in surprisingly good weather.

Here's the rain again. You can see from the GPS

that we had a big area of rain. Fortunately, by deviating slightly to the east, we were able to avoid the worst of it.

We finally saw Wiley Post Airport on the other side of the small lake.

The race committee was there to greet us and get us registered. Last, but not least, we applied the numbers to the airplane and removed the bugs who had lost their lives on the leading edges of the airplane. Off to the motel to plan for tomorrow and look over charts. More planning.....and working on the blog!

Packing. We leave tomorrow!

2007-06-14T21:53:00.001-05:00

Emery, it may be time for those prayers you mentioned. The weather forecast is marginal tomorrow for the flight to OK City - thunderstorms all day, all along the route. Julia has moved up her arrival time (10:00 am) to meet me in Cleburne in order for us to try to hit the 2:00-5:00 window of opportunity predicted by the weather websites for our arrival. Glad we gave ourselves extra time - thank you, Mother Birds, for telling us that. We MUST be in OK City by 11:00 am. Saturday or we will be disqualified.

Julia saw on the website that there will be 49 teams participating.

2007-06-13T16:56:00.000-05:00

Maybe for next year's race??? You think it's got enough room for our shoes?

2 Day Until Departure

2007-06-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

Day after tomorrow. So much left to do, but I had to go to the airport to check on the progress of the airplane. I'm having it waxed with a polymer wax and wow!...is it slick. You can see in the photo the wax on the horizontal stabilizer. I also put the customs decal on for flight into Canada.

Getting ready

2007-06-11T09:20:00.000-05:00

Arlene and I met for lunch in early February to discuss the race. After agreeing that it was a "go", I started gathering information. I requested the Racer Package from the organization with all the required forms and passed a copy on to Arlene. We needed pictures, so we met a couple of times for that and got together once to fly her plane. I fly a Beech Bonanza A-36 routinely, so was not up to speed on the Cessna 172. I flew to Burnet (KBMQ) a couple of times and rented a 172 to get a little practice. Fortunately, Arlene and I are used to the same GPS, the Garmin 530, so that is a help.

The deadline for entry was April 15th and we received our acceptance later that month. After that I gathered information on the race course, printed airport diagrams, bought the 10 sectionals and plotted the race course on them. I also started making "to do" lists - there are lots of details and started gathering items we need.

Since I'm going to be race co-pilot, I'll be responsible for navigation, filing and closing flight plans, obtaining weather briefings, handling the race paperwork, and doing the radio work. Before the race we'll be sure to assign all the duties, so there won't be anything forgotten during stressful times.

Planning, planning, planning

2007-06-10T18:21:00.000-05:00

No more procrastination (my particular skill). Julia has given me a list of things to do, and today I am going over my list - checking it twice and adding to it. The race is all VFR, but part of my responsibility was the IFR charts for the return trip. The blog is complete enough to send to all my friends. Tomorrow I must pick up a case of oil for one last oil change plus what I need to carry. We bought wax for the wash/wax that also occurs this week. Oh, don't forget the race numbers that stick to the wings and tail! Sign Solutions should have them ready, but I've discovered that the paint job from 2 years ago eliminated a must-have serial number on the outside. Another job for Sign Solutions. Details, details. .......Arlene

Beginnings

2007-06-09T21:30:00.000-05:00

In January, a call from Arlene to Julia went like this, "Julia, have you ever heard of the Women's Air Race Classic?" By the end of the phone call, we were both excited about exploring the possibility. Here we are, five months later and one week left to go before the official beginning of our first race. We have been assigned a "Mother Bird" team, Patty Taylor and Sherry Walker, who are from Boerne and San Antonio. It will be fun to see how many Texas teams there are this year.

The first hurdle we have to clear is having the plane inspected. I have owned 739FY since 1981 - a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. Getting the airplane ready has been my responsibility, while getting the paperwork ready has been Julia's.

The last weekend in April, Julia and I went for our first flight together. As we preflighted the airplane, I was telling her how many hours were on the engine, and that just about everything that could break, had already, and had been replaced except the alternator. We flew to Fredricksburg for lunch and on the way back to Austin, you guessed it: the alternator broke. The airplane now has a new alternator and voltage regulator. Last week, the required 24 month checks for altimeter/static/transponder were performed, the DG/Compass reset, and the Garmin 530 received the new WAAS upgrade. This week will be the oil change, wash, and wax, and the final compilation of all the paperwork - log books, insurance, decal for international travel, FCC radio station license, etc., etc.

Julia has been very busy and she will post the details.

Our Mother Birds said it usually works out best for one person to be the pilot the entire way and the other to be the co-pilot. I'm certain that I got the better end of the deal because the co-pilot's job is going to be labor-intensive. Payback will likely occur next year :)

And, lest you forget that this is an all-women's air race, the most difficult part of the trip planning so far has been - - - deciding what to wear!!!