Cool beans!

June 30th, 2008 (afternoon)

Mary, Barbara, Alison and I all left Mansfield this morning around 10am to fly home.  The weather was overcast in Mansfield so we needed to file an instrument flight plan to get home. ATC didn't like our routes and revised them so we had a delay on the ground. The route we filed took us west of New York City. The route they gave us took us east along Long Island. We got off the ground at 10:05. Mary got off a few minutes ahead of us. Good thing we weren't racing because we had a 30 knot headwind the whole time and our groundspeed was round 85 knots. Alison and I enjoyed the flight and got to see some New York sites along the way. When we arrived at Wings field we were greeted by a welcoming party of my parents, roomates and God-children. It was nice to see some familiar faces. On the way home we stopped for lunch. When I arrived home, the house was decorated with airplanes, a welcome back sign, air race posters and copies of the newspaper articles. It was great.

Here ends the adventures of team #7 in the Air Race Classic. It was an awesome experience and one I'll never forget. I learned a lot about myself as a pilot but the one thing I knew going it that hasn't changed is that I love to fly. Now I have a new form of flying to challenge myself and to make friends and see the country. Check back in a year......you may see team #7 back in the race.

The particle accelerator laboratory on Long Island

JFK airport in New York city

Look closely, all those diamond shapes are airplanes going in/out of JFK

A welcoming party greets us at Wings Field (Dad, Jon, Mom, Karen, Katie)

The kitchen table decorated in a flying theme to welcome me home

Welcome back banner in the kitchen

Jon made paper airplanes for the back of the sofa

Newspaper articles from the Lansdale Reporter hanging on my TV

June 29th, 2008 (late evening)

We've just returned from the banquet and the results are in....we finished 21st out of 33 teams. I guess the big news is that we won a leg prize.....we won 4th place on the first leg of the race from Bozeman to Miles City. We are very excited and happy to have won some sort of prize. Now we just need to figure out how we did it and apply the same approach to future races. You can see the listing of the winners on the Air Race CLassic web site. Tomorrow we head back home so I need to be getting to bed soon. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and allow us to fly home without having to deal with thunderstorms. This whole experience has really been great. When I entered it I thought it was a once in a life time event....but now I'm not so sure.....we may need to make another appearance.

Mary and Barbara at the banquet.

Alison and I after receiving our plaques and certificates for successfully completing the race.

The top ten finishers.

June 29th, 2008 (evening) - Notes from Alison: Today was definitely a wind down day. The briefing was actually quite cathartic, because you got to hear what people were thinking about how everything went. There are some really lovely women here that I hope we stay in touch with after this race is over. After the briefing we got our airplane keys back following impound, and went back out to the airport to see how our baby was doing. I think N990BX is enjoying a few days rest. There wasn't much else going on and it was very hot and humid, so we hung out with a few of the racers.

Did we mention that yesterday at the festival Linda and I got temporary tattoos with a picture of a plane and our race number 7 on them? They are very fetching.

In a few moments we are off to the banquet. We helped our Mother Bird Carolyn put out the silent auction items in the room, so were there when it was getting set up. The trophies for the winners are magnificent, and I took a few moments to look at them and daydream that, now we know so much more about how to fly a race, maybe we'll come back another year and win one. I have started making a list of tactics we have thought of that could increase our score into the winning range, just in case we decide we need it...! I have also started asking some of the more experienced racers about other air races around the US and around the world. There are a lot of opportunities out there if you know where to look, and if you have been bitten by the racing bug.

June 29th, 2008 (afternoon)

Much to our disappointment, things are starting to wind down. As Alison mentioned there was a festival at the airport yesterday with booths and other activities. We visited that during the afternoon. In the the evening there was a BBQ at the airport followed by a DJ. This morning we had two debriefings, one for only the first time racers followed by one for all the racers. The primary purpose of the debriefings was for racers to share comments (positive and negative) about the race in the interest of improving the race each year. It was interesting to hear the perspectives of the other first time racers and to hear that many of them had the same questions as us. There was a lot of focus on getting information earlier, but also a lot of discussion about safety and the spirit of the race. Almost everyone said it was an incredible experience and they were glad they did it. Below are some photos from the festival and BBQ.

Sign announcing the festival at the airport

A local GirlScout troop painted a map of the air race outside the airport office. Apparently the "in" thing to do was to lay down on it and pretend you're a plane....can you tell that's what we're doing?

Alison and I with Kathy, the stop chair in Mansfield. She did a phenomenal job coordinating the evemts and volunteers at the race terminus.

In honor of our participation in the race, Alison and I each got a tatoo.

There was a dixieland/blues band that performed, they were really outstanding.

The GirlScouts also painted a copy of the route map on the fuel tank.

At the BBQ we had this great cake.

But the team from Western Michigan University got confused and thought it was wedding.

And then they started doing the "electric slide".

June 28th, 2008 (evening) - Notes from Alison

It was such a rush arriving here yesterday, not so much because of the difficult conditions we made it through that day, but because we had completed this incredible race and achieved our dream! Linda kindly did not mention this, but tears were running down my face as we taxied up to our stop. As for Linda, she was yelling wildly out the window, and I had to tell the ground controller who was issuing my taxi instructions "say again, I didn't hear you because my partner is screaming"!. Fellow racers Mary and Barbara, and other Eastern PA Ninety-Nines Mary Ellen Morris, Adelle Bedrossian (a former racer herself), Kate Macario and Chapter Chair Carole Wyman who had driven six hours just to be there, were there to greet us. The feeling of accomplishment and being a part of something so significant for women in aviation was overwhelming.

The moment we opened the plane door, smiling local people gave us cold bottles of water, carried our bags for us, helped us tie down and impound the plane, and gave us transportation to the hotel. Mansfield is a small town, and it seems like the whole place is involved in the Air Race terminus activities. Every team was taken out for dinner by a local family, and we had a lovely time with Rick and Karen as Linda described. Today, after meeting with the chief Scorer and signing off our score sheet, we headed back out to the airport for Mansfield's Air Race Classic festival. The airport was full of antique cars and planes, and stalls of food, jewellery and other items run by local people, and a swing band was playing. We wore our shiny new Air Race medallions (which we now qualify to wear since we have completed at least one leg of an Air Race Classic), and many people stopped and wanted to talk or have us sign their programs. It was amazing to realize that this festival was in our honor, and we really felt like celebrities for the day. The local papers have apparently been full of information about the race all week. The festival continues tonight with a barbeque and Dancing Under the Stars event, and into tomorrow as well.

Did we win, you are asking? Well, we won't know who won until the final Banquet tomorrow night, but we can tell you that we are pleased with our final score, which is pretty respectable for first time racers. But we know we didn't make it into the top ten, because the top twelve planes are pulled out for post-race re-inspections, and ours was not. You never know, we might qualify for one of the other awards such as a leg prize. However we always said we wanted to complete the race safely and successfully, and that placing was not very important. We feel really good about the way we flew this race, and that's the main thing.

June 28, 2008 (morning)

I forgot to mention last night that there was an article about the Air Race in Friday's edition of The Lansdale Reporter. They also have an on-line version of the paper which includes a video about the race. You can check it out at www.thereporteronline.com.

June 27, 2008 (evening)

Guess what?......we made it!! Today was by far the most harrowing of days. After waiting overnight in Franklin, the weather was still iffy. Franklin was fine but Saratoga Springs was still fogged in. Also, there were some low clouds and mountain obscuration along our route. There were 18 other race teams there with us....all checking the weather on cell phones and computers. After talking to a weather briefer at 8am Alison and I decided to make our move. We felt like there was a window of opportunity and we were concerned about potential thunderstorms in the afternoon. Of course, many other racers came to the same conclusion and it was a mad dash for the planes. Most of the 19 racers took off within 30 minutes of each other. The bad news for us was that we have a slower plane so we had a greater risk of the weather going bad before we got there.

We started our trek to Saratoga Springs by climbing above the clouds. We knew there was ground fog and some low clouds and wanted to get above them. The risk was that we might not be able to get back down below the clouds at the destination airport. So, about 90 miles out we saw an opening in the clouds and decided to descend below them. At this point we were clear of the highest mountains. However, at about 50 miles out we ran into trouble. The ceiling of the clouds came down and we could not maintain a safe altitude without going into the clouds. In a few minutes of harried decision making we decided to turn back to the west where we knew conditions were better. So turn west we did. After several miles we spotted a hole in the clouds and decided the make a spiral climb through the hole to get back on top. We figured if we could not get back down it didn't matter, we were hosed anyway and could fly to Albany and land on an instrument plan which would disqualify us but we'd be safe. Up on top the cloud deck below us was as solid as could be and we both began to doubt that we wouold make it. However we decided to fly to Saratoga Springs and make the decision there. Fortunately, we found a large area where there was a break in the clouds and we descended down below them again and were able to make it to the destination. We were really stressed at that point but it was almost noon and we knew the weather was worsening and thunderstorms were due in the afternoon.

We made a quick turn around in Saratoga Springs thanks to the ground crew and took off after about 30 minutes. In the next leg we knew there were mountains and clouds so we decided not to risk staying low and started a climb right after departure. Unfortunately the heat from the afternoon was causing the clouds to start to build. We climbed and climbed and didn't get on top of the clouds until we got to over 9000 feet. We stayed on top as long as we could and then picked another hole to go back through the clouds about 50 miles from Mansfield. Although we went through some rain and visibility was not the best, the cloud levels stayed up enough for us to make it through to the finish. When we landed in Mansfield there was a welcoming party for us. Mary and Barbara had landed earlier and were there to meet us. Also four members (Mary Ellen Morris, Carole Wyman, Kate Macario and Adelle Bedrosian) of the Eastern PA chapter of the Ninety-Nines had driven all the way up from Philadephia to greet us. What a rush! Thanks so much to everyone for all your support!

We capped off the day with a few drinks with our friends from PA, then went to a "meltdown" cocktail party for all the pilots and finaly we went out to dinner with some local folks. Our hosts were Rick and Karen Lund. We went to a local restaurant called Jimmy's pub. Thanks Rick and Karen for a great time!

An ominous sky awaited us this morning when we got to the airport.

No one was at the timers station because all 19 planes were still on the ground.

Finally the time came and most teams headed for their planes.

Team #12 (I think) departs the field and climbs into the overcast sky.

Traffic jam at Franklin airport...two planes are behind us waiting to depart. We had 5-6 planes in front of us.

Alison and I take a self portrait enroute to Saratoga Springs.....this was before we ran into trouble.

We flew between cloud layers on the way to Saratoga Springs.

A break in the clouds below us gave us a view of one of the Finger Lakes in New York state.

Here's Alison on the ground in Saratoga Springs after our harrowing adventure.

Here are the timers at Saratoga Springs airport...they clocked the start of the final leg to Mansfield.

And here are the timers in Mansfield after we arrived.

Many planes had already arrived when we got to Mansfield.

Mansfield at last!

The "meltdown" party with the pilots.

Drinks with our friends from the Eastern PA chapter of the Ninety-Nines.

June 26, 2008 (evening)

We're spending the night here in Franklin, PA. We had hoped to get to Saratoga Springs today but it was not meant to be. Earlier today four teams departed Franklin to try to get to Saratoga Springs. Rumor has it that one team filed IFR resulting in a disqualification, another team landed in Ithaca to wait for Saratoga Spring conditions to improve. If they didn't make it to Saratoga Springs by sunset they would be DQ'd. The other two teams apparently landed successfully at Saratoga Spring under marginal conditions....I'm sure there will be lots of discussion about it. All the other teams stayed in Franklin all day waiting for the weather to lift. It seemed like there would be a window of opportunity between 4 and 5. Around 4 some teams departed while others decided to stay in Franklin. All-in-all between 8-10 teams went on to Saratoga Springs and 16-18 teams stayed in Franklin. We're hoping visibility and cloud levels will be OK for us to complete the race tomorrow. Below are some photos from the day.

Waiting for the weather to lift enough to leave Frankfort for Franklin.

There was even a battle for the men's room while we waited.

Finally the weather lifts and planes start to depart. Here's someone doing a flyby to depart to Franklin.

Another plane departing....look above the grass between the runway and taxi-way.

We made it to Franklin, PA (Venango Regional airport). It was a hot and bumpy ride!

It's great to be back in the great state of Pennsylvania....except for the typical PA crummy low visibility weather!

The restaurant was overrun with air racers while we waited for the weather at our next stop (Saratoga Spring) to clear.

The ramp was overrun with planes.

June 26 , 2008 (evening) - Notes from Alison

We waited at Frankfort until we were comfortable with the briefing, and finally left around 10am. It was a 301 nm flight to Franklin PA, and we knew the best winds would initially be at lower altitudes, so we flew at 3500 feet and picked up 20 knots on the tail for a while. The visibility was quite poor and there was a lot of moisture in the air. After getting flight following from air traffic control and crossing a military operations area (MOA), we decided to climb to take advantage of developing winds higher up, but quickly changed our minds and came down to 2400 feet because the clouds were thickening up and we didn't want to get caught above them with no holes to descend through. So we completed the last 100 miles of the trip at a low altitude, bouncing around in the heat bumps in a typically soupy Pennsylvanian sky.

Its difficult to describe what its like being in this race because so many new experiences are crowding in on us. First of all, flying the plane at full throttle is a blast - noisy, fast, hot, and challenging in turbulence like the bumps you get flying low above the hot Pennsylvania countryside. We are constantly watching the engine speed, altitude, tailwinds and engine parameters like cylinder head temperature and oil pressure to make sure the plane is performing to the max and still within safe limits. Fortunately the plane seems to be enjoying it just as much as we are! At the same time we are navigating airspace and terrain, looking out for other racers and non-race traffic, and working on our strategy for the all-important flyby. This is the most exciting and difficult part of the whole flight, and there are two during every leg, one at the beginning and one at the end. On arrival we brief the procedure with each other 50 miles out, and again at 10 miles out. The copilot's role is just as important as the pilot's role in setting up and completing a successful flyby, because she is responsible for the briefing, and for monitoring and advising as the procedure progresses. About 30 miles out we start to descend, keeping engine speed and ground speed up, to our target altitude which is usually only 200 or 300 feet above ground level at the flyby itself. Now the tension is building, and the turbulence is getting stronger as we descend. At 10 miles out we call the field on the radio "Classic 7 10 miles southwest, flyby to land". Now we are both looking for the airfield and for other traffic, gauging how we can fit in around the other racers and not lose any speed, and trying to get a sightline to our flyby. At 5 miles out we call again. Now we are lined up to the flyby course, usually parallel to a runway, and descending at full speed to our flyby altitude. After the final call - "Classic 7, approaching flyby to land" - the pilot works hard to fly the plane level as we race past the timing line! Once we have cleared the end of the parallel runway, we each breathe out, relax a little, and slowly climb up to pattern altitude as we bring the power back and start to cool the engine down a little. When we are ready, we join the pattern to land, touch down, and taxi to our parking spot. After we have taken care of the refuelling slips and covered and chocked the plane, its time to go inside and get a cold drink and unwind a little.

Then after we check the weather, preflight the airplane, check the oil and organize our charts for the next leg, off we go again!

Despite all the excitement and adrenaline rush of flying this race, Linda and I are finding that we fly really well as a team. We make decisions together, and take joint accountability for them. We have both made strong suggestions to the other about aspects of the flight at critical moments, but the advice is always well taken and noone has yelled! I think Classic 7 is a great team!

June 26, 2008

Well, here we are waiting again....this time in the Frankfort airport. Our next destination, Franklin, PA has a low ceiling and poor visibility so we need to wait for it to clear before we can depart. While I'm waiting here I thought I'd take a minute to describe a "flyby" for those who don;t know what's involved. For each airport we receive "flyby" instructions that describe how to approach the airport, where to fly over the airport and at what altitude. Until you actually fly one, reading it on paper doesn't do it justice. It's an intense experience. There are four things that are a challenge for us. First, spotting the airport, second, descending at a high speed before we get to the airport, third, getting aligned for the runway so we can be wings level one mile from the runway and fourth, maintaining altitide at a high speed and low distance above the ground. While you're doing all this you need to make radio calls announcing your position 10 miles out, five miles out and as you approach the flyby. Your heart really gets racing are you make the approach. When you're done it's the most amazing feeling of accomplishment. Below is the flyby procedure for Aberdeen, South Dakota.

June 25, 2008 (evening)

We finally got off the ground in Mason City, Iowa but it wasn't before many of the teams that had stayed in Aberdeen caught up to us in Mason City. Once they arrived (and those who spent the night in Mason City), most of the teams ended up waiting in Mason City until the weather in Decatur, Illinois (our next stop) cleared. I learned a lot about what it means to "fly your own race" today. As we all sat looking at the weather Alison and I decided we could depart at noon. Well, at 10:30 some teams who were using a weather service started to depart. And then a few others. It was very hard not to second guess yourself and to stick to your game plan. However we did and we left Mason City just after noon. We decided to climb over a layer of clouds to get there. That was a little bit of a risk because we did not know if there would be a hole to let us get back down beneath the clouds before we got to Decatur. Fortunately we found a hole just outside Peoria and descended below the clouds in time for Decatur. Decatur is the only towered airport on the race and the tower controller was an ex-military pilot named Ray who did an absolutely amazing job. Thanks Ray!

Next step was to do a quick check of the weather and determine if we could go on to Frankfort, Kentucky. The weather looked good so off we went. When we got to Kentucky it was amazing...almost all the teams are here. Because of the delay in Mason City no teams (that I know of...even the fast planes) had time left in the day to make it to Franklin, PA after Kentucky. On the way in it was extremely hectic with planes coming one after another to do their flybys and land in Kentucky. The people working the ramp in Frankfort really had their hands full with all the planes coming in one after another and then deciding to spend the night. They did a great job and had a great spread of food and beverages waiting for us. Special thanks to Troy Gaines, the airport operations supervisor for pulling our plane to its tiedown spot so we could leave.

We'll spend the night here in Kentucky. It was one of the prettiest fly-ins of the trip. As we flew by the airport we could only see trees but at the end of the runway a small valley opens up and the capital city of Frankfort appears out of nowhere. It was a great way to end a hectic day.

Even though Mary and Barbara stayed in Aberdeen last night, they caught up to us in Mason City because of the weather delay. They also got a parking spot right next to us. Here we all are with our two planes in Mason City.

This is Dave Simon. Dave is one of the friendly and helpful folks who work at the Mason City airport. I had some time to chat with Dave and he told me that he was at Buddy Holly's last concert. For those of you who don't remember, Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash that departed from Mason City. Dave said the plane came down about three miles from the airport.

Below are some pictures of how women pilots in an air race spend their time while waiting for weather to clear...let's see...talking with flight service to get the latest weather, checking your computer for the latest weather, sleeping, reading the paper, checking with flight service again...and again.....and again.

Air Race Classic #7 waits patiently for the weather to clear.

Finally we departed and climbed over the clouds.

We made it to Decatur

Decatur had a really nice spread waiting for us including brownies that were made by the mother of one of the line service guys...they were delicious!

The "competition" prepares to depart.

A plane flies the timing line 300 feet above the ground in Decatur while the timers clock them as they cross the line. We're next...

This is Troy Gaines, the awesome airport operations supervisor at Frankfort, Kentucky.

Here I am in Kentucky!

June 25 (evening)

We finally got off the ground in Mason City, Iowa but it wasn't before many of the teams from Aberdeen arrived in Mason City. Most of the teams ended up waiting in Mason City until the weat

June 25, 2008 (morning)

There are some thunderstorms in our path this morning so we're going back to bed and will check again in a couple of hours.

June 24, 2008

Wow, what a day! We successfully completed three legs of the race and are spending the night in Mason City, Iowa. We left Bozeman at 8am this morning. It was very exciting with 33 planes all departing in a period of about 45 minutes. The whole event was a great experience. There were newspapers and camera crews there and the mayor of Bozeman came to start the race. The first leg was good, all the racers had a good tailwind and made good time. For our first leg we did pretty well. Coming into Miles City was a little crazy because there were many planes arriving at the same time. We really had to keep our eyes open.

The next leg was Miles City to Aberdeen. This was a smooth leg with no real decision points. We made good time but the tailwinds were not as good. However we still did pretty well. Our stop in Aberdeen became the first real decision point of the race. We learned that many of the team with professional weather services were planning to spend the night in Aberdeen to catch more favorable winds tomorrow. We decided to press on to Mason City. Although we did not make good time and faced head winds we were comfortable with our decision. Our goal is to finish the race without being disqualified. There is some questionable weather for the next couple of days and we felt it would be best to get one leg further in the race. I have lots of pictures to upload but right now I'm tired and am heading to bed. We have another 4:30am start tomorrow.

They have pulled the planes off the grass and they are lined up for the start. Here's the view looking back from #7 through about 15 planes.

Bozeman ground, Air Race Classic, group #1, flight of 5 ready to taxi. Here the first group of five planes starts the taxi for take-off. We were the lead plane in the second flight of five at got to make the call to the Bozeman ground for our flight of five when we were all ready to taxi.

Bozeman tower as we make our climb off the runway after departure.

We made it to Miles City

Along with many other planes and racers.

Since we were one of the first to arrive in Miles City, we got a parking spot in the front row. Other planes with bigger fuel tanks were able to overfly the field and continue on to Aberdeen without stopping.

A welcome sign in Aberdeen.

Here's our plane on the line in Aberdeen.

Last stop for the day....Mason City, Iowa

Alison takes the bags for the night.

June 23, 2008 (evening)

Well, here it is, the night before the race begins! I guess this is the calm before the storm. We spent six hours earlier today in a briefing to review start procedures, rules, flyby procedures and weather. We had a guest speaker from the FAA give a safety seminar mostly focused on fatigue and mountain flying. He showed some really spectacular slides of Montana and also put together a slide show of pictures taken from various ARC internet sites. It was really nice and we appreciate him taking the time to be there. We also heard from the tower manager at Gallatin Regional airport (where we will depart)  and someone from Lockheed Martin came in to give us a weather briefing. The folks here in Montana have been really terrific hosts....thanks everyone!

After the safety briefing we went to lunch and then went to the airport to see our babies (planes). There was a pretty serious thunderstorm that came through last night and there was hail at the hotel. Fortunately there was no hail at the airport so the planes did not sustain any damage. We also go to do some last minute checks of the fluids, etc on the planes. Alison and I decided to add a quart of oil. Following the visit to the airport we went to WalMart to stock up on water and food for the flight tomorrow. Drinking water is one of the most important things we need to do. The air here is very dry and it is easy to get dehydrated.

To wrap up the day, we finished marking our charts, reviewed the procedures one more time and got all our belongings in order. We need to be up around 4:30 tomorrow for a 6am breakfast and then an 8am departure at the airport. We are team #7 and will depart 6th (a team ahead of us dropped out) tomorrow morning. Based on the speeds of the planes ahead and behind us we think we'll pass one plane by the time we get to our first stop, Miles City but 12 planes will pass us. We're planning to do three legs tomorrow (Bozeman to Miles City to Aberdeen to Mason City). However the third leg is very flexible and we'll only fly it if we're sure we can make it. Well, time for some shut eye. It's hard to believe the race is finally here! It will be hard to get good sleep tonight.

Below are some photos from today.

 The racers get ready for the safety briefing

Caroline (left) and Linda. Caroline was our Mama-bird

Some of the racers demonstrate the position of the planes at the start.....scary, huh?

Here's our baby (#7) in line with the other planes waiting for the big day.

Plane #7 in its rightful place

Mary's plane in its spot ready to go

Under Mary's watchful eye (sort of)...Alison adds some oil to the plane.

Team #7....ready to go

We made it to the start....next step...make it to the finish!

June 23, 2008 (morning)

It was a quiet day yesterday. Our first mandatory briefing was at 3pm so we got to sleep in a little bit. The hospitality room opened and the volunteers here in Montana did a terrific job of stocking the room with snacks and treats. They also posted the flyby diagrams for all the airports along the route. These drew quite a bit of attention as everyone was anxious to review them and make notes for themselves.

At 3pm we attended a mandatory briefing for first time racers. They went over a lot of high level information and provided a good overview of what to expect. However the real details of how to fly the timing lines and some of the specific ground procedures will be covered at today's all racers briefing. After the briefing both Alison and I felt a little overwhelmed but we came back to our room and got organized.

We capped off the day by attending the take-off banquet. It was a nice affair and we had the chance to mingle with some of the other teams. We estimate that 50% of the teams at the banquet had matching outfits....from pink polkadots to hawaiian shirts to stylish business outfits. They put a map of North America on the wall and had everyone put a name tag on their hometown. It was interesting to see the distribution of racers. We definitely had most of the country covered! As we went to bed for the night a thunderstorm rolled through the area. Let's hope that's the last one we see for a couple of days.

June 21, 2008 (evening)

There was no flying today but it was still a busy and action packed day. We started the day with the airplane inspection. There was a bit of stress involved with this process because it was our first time and we did not know what to expect. There were a few tense moments when we thought one of the navigation lights was burned out and there was no signature on the weight and balance sheet. However we got that sorted out and in the end we passed the inspection. Now we only had to present our credentials and we would be officially cleared for the race. Our credentials include our pilot's license, medical certificate, evidence of a bi-annual flight review and our insurance forms. That all went well and by 10:30 we were done.

Our next excursion for the day was a trip to Yellowstone National Park. Mary, Barbara, Alison and I drove there in a rental car. It's only 90 miles from Bozeman so we got there in about two hours. Yellowstone was fabulous and I definitely plan to come back and visit again when I can spend more time. We saw all sorts of wildlife including a bald eagle, bison, a wolf and elk. We stopped by several geysers and springs and went to see old faithful. Unfortunately our timing was off and we needed to return to Bozeman before old faithful erupted. The way back to Bozeman was a real adventure. We encountered a herd of bison in the road. We had to stop to let them get by. They went by within a couple feet of the car. One even took an interest in Alison and tried to come around the back of the other side of the car to the open window. I was glad the bison were on the other side of the road because for cars going the other direction they caused a traffic jam that was many miles long.

It took us longer than expected to get back to Bozeman but we still made it back in time for most of the "Meet the lady flyers BBQ". We had some terrific pork, some even better brownies and had the chance to sit and talk with some fellow racers. We met two of the college teams (Western Michigan University and Purdue University) and also caught up with 4-5 other teams. It was a nice night with beautiful weather, good food and good people.

This is Darrell conducting the airplane inspection.

Ruby is both an inspector and is racing in her 24th Air Race Classic. She was responsible for conducting the static run-up tests of the engine. She is 90 years old with boundless energy. She holds the very first helicopter Instrument Instructor certificate issued by the FAA. In addition to many other aviation feats, she 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.

Bald eagle atop the nest 

This bison was lounging by the side of the road on the way into the park.

 Here's the wolf in the grass by the side of the road.

Barbara, Mary, Alison and Linda in front of one of the geysers in the lower geyser basin.

 Some of the geysers and pools in Yellowstone

Here are just a few of the bison we enountered in the road on the way out of the park.

 Mary and Barbara get an up close and personal look at the bison as they go by the car.

The newbies and the veterans. Betsy and Meghan (left picture - matching vests) are one of three college teams entered in the race. They are from Western Michigan University. Kathy and Joyce (right picture) have raced together in this race for twenty years. In addition Joyce has raced with other racers for ten years making a grand total of thirty years in this race for Joyce. These are some of the racers we met at the BBQ.

June 21, 2008 (morning)

News from Alison. It feels very good to wake up in Bozeman this morning and know we made it all this way! Yesterday was an incredible day of flying, and the scenery was awe inspiring. I will remember for a long time the feeling of flying between snow covered mountains over the Bozeman pass at 11,000 feet and seeing the airport way below in the valley. This morning we are off to breakfast and then over to the airport again, where the all important airplane inspection and credentials check will be taking place.

June 20, 2008 (evening)

We made it!!! Today we have arrived in Bozeman, Montana. It has been just an incredible day....they best day so far. We left Rapid City, South Dakota this morning under beautiful blue skies. For the first leg today we did some sightseeing. We went to see Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Devil's Tower and then headed to Gillette Campell County airport in Gillette, Wyoming. I did the flying for this leg and the views were just awesome.

Here's the town of Rapid City, South Dakota as we made our climb from the Rapid City airport.

Next came Mount Rushmore

Then Crazy Horse

Then Devil's Hill....from Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Finally we landed at Gillette Campbell airport where we parked next to the Key Lime Air jet.

We also met Lora who filled our plane with fuel and told us about the time Gillette Campbell airport was a stop on the Air race Classic route. She gave us a few helpful pointers.

Here we are starting the roll down the runway to depart Gillette for the final leg of our journey to Bozeman, Montana.

Alison flew the final leg to Bozeman. Like the morning leg, the weather was beautiful and the sights were spectaclular.

What we thought were clouds turned out to be snow caps on top of the Rocky Mountains. Look closely and you'll see the mountain tops just below the clouds. We were flying at 10,000 MSL. As we approached Bozeman we climbed to 11,000 MSL to cross over the mountains at Bozeman pass.

Here we are looking out the front of the plane as we approach Bozeman pass.

Here's a view looking out the side of the plane as we cross Bozeman Pass.

We've cleared the pass and are now on final approach to Bozeman airport.

Here we are on the ground in Bozeman. Tied down in our official Air Race Classic parking spot.

We finished off the day the best way possible....we met our friends and fellow Ninety-Nines Barbara Strachan (on left) and Mary Wunder (on right). They arrived earlier in the week and we all went out to dinner to celebrate our arrival for the start of the race.

By the way....Mary and Barbara also have a blog...check it out at www.arc20.blogspot.com.

June 20, 2008 (morning)

I was too tired last night to update the blog so I am doing it this morning before we depart. Yesterday was a great day. We flew from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Dubuque, Iowa to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Rapid City, South Dakota. All in all 8.3 hours of flying covering over 900 miles plus two time zone changes! Whew!

 Here's our plane at Fort Wayne, International Airport waiting for us.

We saw miles and miles of farmland

We changed our plans and ended up going to Dubuque, Iowa to avoid the president who was visiting Cedar Rapids, Iowa at the same time we wanted to fly over that area. There was something called a presidential TFR (temporary flight restriction) all around Cedar Rapids so we needed to avoid that area unless we wanted to be chased by a couple of F-14s.

 Here's the mighty Mississippi river. It's almost as mighty as the mighty Susquehanna!

 Pupp has safely arrived in Dubuque.

It's good to know the Women's room is a safe place to be in Dubuque.

Me and Pupp in Dubuque

On the way from Dubuque to Sioux City we encountered some pretty nasty thunderstorms and decided to divert to the north. It was a good decision and kept us safe. We also decided to change our destination to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. That worked out great.

It's a little blurry but here's our GPS showing some of the thunderstorms. Our flight path is the pink line. If you look closely you'll see our plane to the right of the lower edge of the green.

Here's the control tower at Sioux Falls.

Enroute from Sioux Falls to Rapid City we left the farmlands and entered the badlands.

Here's our plane being put away for the night in Rapid City. We landed in Rapid City before some thunderstorms arrived.

June 18, 2008

The adventure begins! We left Wings field today and started our journey to Bozeman, Montana. The day started with Kevin, mechanic extraordinaire from Montgomery County Aviation reviewing the log books and inspections and signing the official paperwork.

Here's Kevin, hard at work preparing all the paperwork. Thanks Kevin!

Then came Dave, the dispatcher. Dave made sure all the flightschool paperwork was in order and officially dispatched the plane to Alison and I to use.

The official dispatch from Dave.

Once we had the plane ,we said our final good-bye to my parents wo had come to see us off and we set out for Canton-Akron, Ohio.

The weather presented a challenge on our very first leg. There were isolated showers and thunderstorms spread across Pennsylvania. Fortunately we were able to get some good vectors from air traffic control and avoided any of the heavy storms however we still did some flying in the clouds and rain. Alison flew this leg and did a great job flying in and out of the clouds. With the vectors plus a strong head wind, it took us longer than planned to get to Ohio. all in all it took alomst 3.5 hours.

Some of the weather we encountered on our first leg.

Of course, we needed snacks to keep us going.

This bag of Herr's potato chips was well sealed and even at just 4000 feet, the pressure difference was enough to make us worry that an explosion of the bag was imminent. We solved that by opening the bag and eating the chips.

Here we are on final into Canton-Akron airport.

Unfortunately I left my camera in the plane and we don't have an ground pictures. Our next stop was Fort Wayne, Indiana. Linda flew this leg and the weather was beautiful! It took us just under two hours to get to Fort Wayne. Here's a shot of Alison at Fort Wayne airport. We're spending the night here at Comfort Inn Suites and had a well earned dinner at a near-by restaurant.

News from Alison (June 18th)

Today was an awesome day, finally getting our adventure started! Nearly 6 hours flying has brought us across Pennsylvania and Ohio and into Indiana, and we were glad to finally get out of the clouds and rain and into blue skies. Linda and I put in a lot of work in advance on how we would split flying duties, so we make a great flying team, and I was glad to have her handling the G1000 navigation equipment while I flew in the clouds. Equally important of course is that she brings the good snacks.

I want to say hi and lots of love to Mum and Dad, Clare, Rob, Joe, Ben, Spider, Fizz and of course Smidge!

June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there but especially to my Dad!

Today we applied the race numbers to our plane. We put a number under each wing and one on each side of the tail. We decided to leave for Montana on Wednesday but have busy schedules between now and then and wanted to get the numbers on the plane before we left. Below are some pictures of our work.

Alison doing some washing and waxing before applying the numbers

Here's James, one of Montgomery County Aviation's finest...stopping by to check in on things.

Alison stands by the result of our effort, #7 successfully applied to the tail.