|
IOwa
Women
Aviate
- Classic 39 Air Race Classic 22-25 June 2010
Minnetta Gardinier, Pilot |
check in
Jun 22 - Jun 23 - Jun 24 - Jun 25
Click here to read about the 2008 (Classic 34) and 2009 (Classic 4) ARC adventures.
| March 2010 |
We are IOwa
Women Aviate! We have a team from the Iowa Chapter of the
99s. Deb McGee of Indianola, Iowa will be Co-Pilot with
Minnetta as Pilot. Deb is really looking forward to flying
in her first Air Race Classic, and Minnetta is really excited to
introduce a new pilot to this experience. |
| April 2010 |
We get our
paperwork sent in for the April 15th deadline. It's a go. We are
Classic 39! It's looking like a strong field of planes this
year, exceeding the number of entries for the past two years of
the race. |
| May 2010 |
Wow!
Nearly 55 planes are registered!!! The skies will be
crowded this year - 20 more planes, 40+ more racers!!! |
| June
2010 |
Deb has
pulled together our maps, charts and airport facility
directories for the flights from Iowa to FL, the race, and from
MD back to Iowa. Many thanks to
Wayne Whitfield (Des Moines IA) for this generous
donation. Minnetta is getting the paperwork in order for
"51 Charlie" and has collected the insurance and annual
inspection sign-offs. She'll be getting the oil changed
and a nice wash & wax for Da Burd right before we all fly south.
Deb's looking forward to her first flight in a high wing plane. The winds are blowing favorably - our first sponsorships are beginning to fill the windsock. Thanks to Paulette Villhauer and Wendy Maury. The prog chart says that winds will be intensifying over this next week. |
| Thursday 17 Jun 2010 |
 Iowa City IA (IOW) to Huntington - Carroll
County TN (HZD) - Deb and Dan arrive at IOW bright and
early. Minnetta brings bagels and cream cheese for breakfast and
to share with the folks at Jet Air, our fixed base operator
(FBO). We load the plane, preflight, and
our adventure begins. We file IFR to HZD for our first
fuel stop. We are off to the race at 10:10 am. We
have weather to navigate around, but ATC does a great job
vectoring us around the storm activity, and the weather radar on
the Garmin 496 is a huge help. Deb is mastering the
assortment of avionics at her fingertips. We are amending
our flight plan "on the fly" so to speak. We land at HZD about
2:00 pm and their facility is really nice - only 2 1/2 weeks old.
One small problem - no internet access or wireless to check out
the weather patterns on radar. The lengthy weather briefing sounds grim with
about four large areas of convective activity (aka
thunderstorms, potential hail, strong winds). I am not
willing to fly with only the verbal report without being able to
see the weather radar. So we take the crew car, a fine, vintage Oldsmobile
Cutlass, in to town to utilize the free McWiFi at McDonalds.
We can see a good route to take to our next stop - Bainbridge -
Decatur County GA (BGE). We're outta HZD in a flash about
5:30 pm. |
 HZD to BGE - We file direct and plan
to vector around small storm pockets. Our unexpected delay
in HZD pays off,
and we find a nice comfortable corridor between storm areas to
slip through. Once we curve down through the corridor,
it's direct to BGE, but darkness is closing in. It's now 9:30
pm (Eastern) when we land, everything is closed, and we are wandering the runway and
the taxiways looking for the self-serve fuel pump. We find
a nice FBO and 2 fuel trucks, but no fuel pump. We call
the after-hours number, and a kindly FBO employee promises to
meet us in about 20 min to fuel us from the fuel truck. We
access the pilot lounge to check weather, talk to another
weather briefer, and eat some snacks.
Yet more weather ahead with storms around Cross City FL (CTY), where we
were planning to angle in close to the coast rather than fly
over the Gulf waters. We file with CTY as a
waypoint, hoping that the storms move away by the time we get
down there. The fuel guy
arrives to top us off, we file our IFR plan, and we're off for
the final leg to Fort Myers FL (FMY) at 11:30 pm - it has been a
very long day. |
|
|
BGE to FMY - When we copy our
clearance, we are given direct FMY without the CTY waypoint - it means flying a bit
further from the shore. We can see how we're just clipping the
edge of that storm area. Our controller is feeding us
updates that the storm is breaking off a bit, and sure enough,
we see the storm splitting another great corridor to fly
through. Frankly, it was pretty awesome to watch this on
our weather radar, the Stormscope, and talking with ATC.
We are flying through clouds for part of the flight, and we can
see flashes of heat lightning in the distance around us.
Finally, we can begin to cut back in closer to land. We
can see the shoreline and the lights of Tampa - St. Petersburg.
We're flying past Sarasota, and Ft. Myers is finally looming on
the horizon. I think that we have both reached the limits
of our endurance on this flight today. We cannot wait to
get on the ground. We got great instructions from The
Aviation Center about where to find them on the field. We
taxi into a tie down spot, unload the plane, tie it down for the
night, call the hotel for a shuttle ride, and wait just a few
minutes for our pick up. It is now 2:30 am on Friday -
about 15 hours since leaving IOW. |
|
| Friday 18 Jun 2010 |
 Well we got
checked into the hotel early this morning and finally went to
bed about 4 am. We are up again at 9 am to go back out to
Page Field (FMY) to pick up our rental car and finish unloading
the plane. Minnetta immediately began running into past
racers, and Deb is meeting folks for the first time. We
get registered. We run through the credentials check.
It is a typical hot, humid day in FL - kind of like a sauna.
After lunch at Panera's, we head out to start prepping the plane
for getting its inspection. We need to get the race
numbers on the tail. I must admit that my first effort at
placing "39" on the tail is a little less than artistic -
the numbers are a little oddly angled. But the other side looks
much better. So we just have to make sure that we take
photos using the right profile of the plane. Deb has gone
around to Pledge up the leading edges of the plane, debugging
all the little insects that we collected on our way down from
IA. Luckily, the freshly washed and waxed plane collected
fewer bugs, and the rains along the route washed most of them
off, making Deb's job easier. We're ready for inspection,
but an afternoon thunderstorm blows up delaying the inspection
work. So it's more hurry up and wait. No inspection
now until tomorrow. We head back to the hotel for a lazy
night. We get the call that our handicapping flight will
be "wheels up" at 8:30 am tomorrow. |
| Saturday 19 Jun 2010 |
 We
arrived at the airport about 7:30 am to prepare the plane for its
handicapping flight. Minnetta met Marvin, the chief
race judge, who is assisting with the handicap flights. We
have to take out all nonessential equipment and supplies to
leave a minimum amount of stuff in the plane except for the
pilot, handicapper, flight bag, tie downs and stakes. We take off
and head out over the Gulf where we will set up in smooth air to
fly a set of 90 degree angles to form a box. We fly on a
270 heading, 360 heading, 090 heading and finally a 180 heading.
The judge writes down speeds at 20-secong intervals for 4-6 min.
The data are calculated to create a new handicapped speed for
our '78 Cardinal - 126.7 knots). Our next mission is to get the plane inspected. Our race
numbers are applied to the tail of the plane. We are lucky
that the line guys and inspectors decide to take a lunch break.
Deb and I get the dubious good fortune to clean the belly of
the plane helping to make it slide through the area more
efficiently. Rather than have to lie on the hot asphalt
under the plane in the blazing hot sun, we get to lie on the
clean hangar floor with a large box fan blowing across us as we
degrease the belly. Believe me, this is not my favorite
job, but a necessary evil. We finish that job just as the
inspection crew returns. It turns out that they had
already done the inspection under the cowling, so it was just
tidying up a few things and completing the paperwork to verify
all the modifications added to the plane since 1978 (eg., GPS,
avionics/radios, Aspen navigation unit). Our race numbers
meet specs too, unlike some less fortunate racers scrambling to
patch non-spec numbers. So
we are done with the paperwork details and we are ready to
race! Well not quite...it's time to transition to our briefing
program and safety seminars to ensure that we have a safe race.
We will have mandatory briefings for all racers and new,
first-time racers. Failure to show up on time for roll call
results in monetary fees and penalty knots that will cost you
later.Finally, we wrap up the day with a good old hangar party BBQ catered by a local restaurant, and it is very tasty. It's our final opportunity to unwind and chill out before the race starts. After a few hours, a few of us head back to the hotel bar, Shoeless Joe's. |
| Sunday 20 Jun 2010 |
 Briefing
day has arrived - it's time to start focusing in on the real
race planning. Deb now begins learning what lies ahead in
the next week. She is about to learn what she has really
signed on for as co-pilot of Classic 39. Yikes!!!
She'll be hit with information overload in the next few days,
but nothing like what will hit her in the cockpit on the race.
Today's briefing is just a general introduction and presentation
of the race rules and logistics. Attendance is mandatory.
If you're not there to answer, then your team is penalized
and/or fined. I am using every mandatory roll call to
shamelessly pitch for next year's Air Race Classic start site in
Iowa City. "Classic 39? Here! We hope
to see you all flying in the 2011 Air Race Classic starting in
Iowa City!" We enjoy a nice pre-race banquet.
Tomorrow is the hard core briefings to go over flyby
procedures, FAA waivers, and the pre-race weather briefing. |
| Monday 21 Jun 2010 |
 It's
an 8:00 am roll call - a number of teams have their unique
responses when their number is called.
"Classic 39? Here! We're looking for
volunteers to help with the 2011 Air Race Classic starting in
Iowa City!" It's down to business now. We are
in the Racer Flyby Briefing and learning the details of each
required flyby. FAA waivers have been set for our low
altitude, high speed approaches at each route airport. In
general, we'll be flying at top speed over or adjacent to a
runway at just 300 feet above ground, one airport will be only
200 feet. We're noting the inbound and outbound headings
to/from each airport. Where are the timing lines located?
How will racers handle dual flybys when two planes arrive to fly
the timing line at the same time? It's all laid out in
detail to keep the race environment safe. In general, the
overtaking aircraft must stay safely above the slower plane and
to the predetermined side (left or right, depending on the
airport). Communication is also all important. I
have not experienced a dual flyby, but I have seen one from just
behind last year. Needless to say, these flybys are a good
adrenaline rush. After a short break, it's a Safety
Seminar and then an Outlook Weather Briefing - the first 3 legs
are looking favorable, but the Midwest has some nasty storms
moving across. Minnetta has the afternoon off, and Deb is
off to a First Time Racers Clinic. About 2/3 of the racers
are new! Lots of race rookies in the air this year.
Minnetta uses some of this spare time to take some notes for
organizing next year's race start at IOW. Deb and I spend
the night reviewing our maps and charts and settle our minds on
what lies before us over the week. |
|
THE RACE - ARC 2010 - Ft. Myers FL to Frederick MD (June 22 - 25) |
|
|
22 Jun 2010 (Tuesday)
Ft Myers FL |
 Race
morning is here! We are up at 5:00 am to make the 6:00 am Racers Breakfast & Weather Briefing.
Before going to breakfast, we pack the car for the mad dash to the airport at 7:00 am to stow our gear, return
the rental car, preflight and get ready to taxi out. The
weather briefer delivers favorable news. In a nutshell, he
tells us to fly like the wind to
get as far as reasonably possible today. Favorable winds from
the south will push us along for nice tailwinds.  So
now it's hurry up and wait. Everybody's packing their
planes, preflighting, drying off the early AM dew on
their planes, and making those final pitstops before climbing
into their cockpits. Vern and Gretchen are moving across
the ramp area signaling for the planes to begin starting up in
groups of five. It will be several minutes before they
reach Classic 39. Hhmmm, Classic 40 seems to not yet have
their heads in the game - Pilot Kelly snoozing, Copilot Theresa yawning.
Hopefully, they'll notice that planes around them are taxiing
out to take off. Wheels
up - Fort Myers, Florida (FMY): Planes
are taxiing and taking off now. We have 51 planes in the
race this year - nearly 20 more than 2008 or 2009! We are finally in the
group preparing to take off. We are doing our final run up
procedures. It is very hot already at 8:30 am.
During the run up my Aspen navigation unit goes blank.
Yikes!!! We're troubleshooting. Do we pull out of
the taxi line? If so, we can go to the end of the line.
We recycle the avionics switches, and the unit comes up again.
Whew! Finally, we are #1 to take the runway for launching.
Damn, the Aspen unit goes blank again. We're thinking that
the heat is causing the problem. I decide that we will
still take the runway for departure, as we are fine with our
other instruments to make this VFR flight. So we taxi on
to the runway, position, and launch. We are off the
runway, wheels up, and the clock is ticking. While I'm
comfortable taking off, I'm still distracted resetting other
instruments to overcome the loss of the Aspen unit. Our
heading is a bit off, and Classic 40 behind me is wondering why
I am veering off the projected course heading. We turn
towards course, and the Aspen unit is back on board. No
more problems are encountered. So we're pretty sure that
it was just a momentary heat stroke for this avionics unit.
No further problems...Our first flyby - Waycross, Georgia (AYS): Deb experiences her first flyby, and with 51 planes coming through, the radios are very hectic - 38 took off in front of us and about 13 planes after us, some faster, some slower. Lots of radio chatter. Some planes have already landed in AYS, refueled, and are taking off again for the next stop. So we've got planes doing flybys to land and flybys to continue on. Deb is in charge of radios and navigation, so she is now pitched into the fray and is acclimating to the frenzy. It will be a hard day to weather through until the planes begin to string out along the route. It will take awhile for this large pack to spread out with fast planes moving ahead and slower planes behind them. It's important for these first two legs that everybody is on their game and communicating their positions as they move towards Waycross. We do a nice flyby to land, circle back to land, and it's time to hustle out the fuel slip so that we can get off the ground again. The town has a great turnout with many people sitting in their lawn chairs watching the planes flying low and fast across their airport. The children are coming out to the racers to get their autographs. Our hosts have put together a warm welcome - great barbecue, donuts, little bottles of Coke, and cold water. It's oppressively hot, and we're sucking down the water. Deb has debugged the plane. I'm preflighting and paying the fuel bill. Oops, where are the keys? I have a momentary flashback to the Bozeman key incident. I'm running around checking for my keys - not around the facility, not in the ladies room. Ah, Deb had left them in the cargo area of the plane. Hah, she is trying to give me an early heart attack. Whew! Let's move on...flyby to continue...  Flyby
#2 is Tuscaloosa, Alabama (TCL). Well Deb was
pretty amazed at how that first flyby blew by, and we're getting
ready for the next one. Now she knows better what to
expect. We are making some adjustments. The planes
have begun to space out just a bit, but everybody is hustling to
keep flying on to get further today. So we land to get
refueled again. It's the same routine - race into to sign
the Remain OverNight (ON) list in case we don't get off again,
calculate fuel and get a fuel slip turned in for your spot in
the fueling line, check weather, and make the decision to fly on
again. Restroom stops. Suck down more water and grab
a cold one for the next hop. It's all a blur now. Flyby #3 is Hot Springs, Arkansas (HOT).
This leg will likely be our last one for the day. It has
been incredibly hot and humid. As we preflight inside the
plane preparing to depart Tuscaloosa to fly to Hot Springs, we
are just dripping with sweat. It runs into my eyes and
stings as we prepare to launch. We're off, circling around
to fly the timing line and get back on the clock. We are
climbing out and turning on route to Hot Springs. Now the
planes are starting to space out a bit, and the radios are not
quite so busy. Deb notices that the radios are a little
quieter, and we can talk more about the race and what lies
ahead. We hear racers on the air-to-air frequency calling
their distances from HOT, and we hear some racers calling their
distances from their next fly by at Cameron MO! We fly by
to land at HOT. We are ready to call it a day. We
have 8.5 hrs of flying time on the clock for our 3 legs today.
Deb debugs the plane for the 3rd time today while I do a
postflight inspection, clean up the cockpit area, calculate our
fuel needs for tomorrow, and check the oil. We pull out
our luggage, put the window shades in, and lock up the plane for
the night. The stop chair recommends a stay at an
historic hotel downtown, the Arlington. A stop
volunteer takes our luggage and gives us a ride to the hotel.
We check in, shower, grab a fresh shirt and head down to the
lobby for a dinner recommendation. It's just a few minutes
before 9pm, and we learn that nearly everything is closed
already. But we have a couple recommendations, and we hit
the streets. We pass on a burger/pub joint and find an
Italian restaurant with a nice pizza menu. It's low key,
and the server is intrigued with our race. We enjoy a
great little pizza, a nice stroll back to our hotel, and a very welcome
night's rest. Day One is done. |
|
23 Jun 2010 (Wednesday) Hot
Springs
GA to |
 Flyby
#4 - The sun is up on Day 2 of the race, and we
are flying on to Cameron, Missouri (EZZ). It's
another hot, hot,
hot day! We're down in the hotel lobby about 6:30 am
catching a van ride over to the airport. The plane is
fueled and ready to go. We grab a few breakfast snacks and
a couple of bottles of water for the flight. The weather
looks good for the next two legs, but the upper Midwest is
getting hammered with thunderstorms. We file our ARC
flight plan for 3 more legs through to Elkhart, Indiana, but
we'll see if we get that far. I clean and polish the
windshield. Deb packs the cargo area and works through our
check list while I preflight the plane. We climb in and
launch. We're probably in the last third of the pack, and
things are less frenetic now. We're not as worried about
long fuel lines and busy radios. Our air speeds and ground
speeds are looking good. We seem to be beating our
handicapped speed of 127 knots. Of course, everybody else
is too in the pack ahead of us. We are on a fast cruise
into Cameron. We run the flyby and land. We taxi on
to the ramp, and we discover the field does not have a fuel
truck. We taxi into the gas line and shut it down.
Now each plane is pulled along by the pilots and some local
volunteers, pulling each plane up to the fuel pump where the FBO
workers are fueling. One plane is fueled and pulled
forward. The next plane is pulled into place followed by
the next one and the next one. No worries at all that
anybody is going to cut in line. The small town of Cameron
has many volunteers on hand to supply us with food and drinks
while we are waiting to get refueled - water, sodas, iced tea,
lemonade, fresh strawberries and freshly made chicken salad
sandwiches. It's a typical small Midwestern town welcome.
Lots of time to check weather and freshen up a bit.
Finally, we are refueled and ready to go again. Flyby
#5 - It's on to Saluki territory - Southern
Illinois University - Carbondale/Murphysboro, Illinois (MDH).
Southern Illinois Univ has THREE race teams in the game this
year! They are great gals and clearly have a little home
field advantage at MDH. We are in for a rude awakening
here. We are getting a little too relaxed maybe, but not
really. We are cruising into the area looking for the
airport. It seems like we should be able to see it, but we
haven't got the visual yet. When you're flying low and
fast, it's a little harder to pick out these airports.
It's not like the picture shown here at all. We're
scanning...scanning...wait, Deb's got it in sight. She has
great eyes to pick out the airports. She's got it and
points it out. We see the runway, and we're careful to
plan a flyby on runway 18 Right. MDH has 2 parallel
runways - 18 Left and 18 Right. I line up on "18-Right"
and fly the timing line. We come to the end of the
"runway", and the tower calls to say, "Classic Racer Three-Niner,
you can turn out to the right and fly the timing line now."
Wait, I just did that, and the tower corrects me, politely but firmly.
I discover that I have stupidly flown down the taxiway for 18
Left. It takes me several seconds to process our blunder,
but we are circling back, still on the clock to fly the timing
line by flying down 18 Right. We've blown the leg.
I'm talking to the tower to acknowledge the mistake and to set
up for the new fly by. We land. We talk about the
plans to fly on to Elkhart and take advantage of some great
tailwinds going up there. However, I'm rattled by the
error in this fly by, which clearly shows that we're fatigued.
Moreover, severe weather is moving into the
Elkhart area. There's probably still time to scoot in
there, but what will we risk if we land there - hail and/or
tornados may hit. It could be devastating if the plane
can't be hangared there. We make the tough decision to
cut the day short and spend the night in Carbondale, but we know that it's the right
decision based on our fatigue level and the weather issues.
So we call it a day, debug, clean up the plane, coordinate for
the fuel, and line up a hotel room. The SIU volunteers are
driving us around in the golf carts and then take us off to our
hotel in a van. Again, it's a quick shower, dinner, and
crashing off to sleep in a very comfortable bed in a brand new
hotel that's only opened a few weeks ago. Day Two has
finished with a bit of a let down. |
|
24 Jun 2010 (Thursday)
Carbondale IL |
Flyby #6 is Elkhart, Indiana (EKM).
We awake to hear about severe storms that blew through Elkhart
last night, but the word is that all the planes got hangared
with no damage. The other word that's flying around is
that the traffic in Elkhart yesterday was very nerve-wracking.
There are reports of a near-miss, blown fly bys, and a meltdown
in the tower. So all in all, we're happy with our
decision to stick in MDH, despite losing valuable tailwinds. We're up early and out to the airport.
Pack the plane, preflight and off we go. We are flying
along low but have a large, active MOA ahead. I opt to
climb above it; however, this proves to be a costly decision.
Some clouds seem to be building in too. Our time is
suffering from the climb, and the winds above are not especially
favorable. We need to find a good seam in the clouds to
descend through, and we are getting close to Elkhart. At least the
descent will garner us some speed, but it will need to be a
pretty rapid descent to stay out of the clouds. We find a
rather long and wide slit to slip down through and to get under
the clouds. We're setting up for the flyby, and we hear
other racers on their way to Parkersburg. We hear about
storms on the route to PKB. Depending on the storm
activity, it's possible that we could do
all of the remaining legs today - EKM, PKB, and FDK.
Clearly, many racers will finish in Frederick today - a day
early. The flyby is pretty uneventful. We want to
check weather, refuel and get on to PKB, but we find several
teams holding in EKM waiting for a line of severe weather to
pass through PKB. Lots of eyes are glued to the radar
screens. We here several people talking of yesterday's
frenzy in EKM. A couple of ladies are filling out NASA
forms and/or protest forms. They are pretty rattled still.
While the wait cost us tailwinds, I have no regrets on our
decision to stick overnight in MDH. A student pilot and
new 99s member gives us a lift to town for some lunch, and we
grab a quick Subway sandwich. By the time we're done, the
storm has moved through PKB, and the weather briefer has given
us news that FDK will probably be clear too. So it looks
like we can make a run to finish up today too. Flyby
#7 - Parkersburg
WV (PKB) - the airport on the hill on the border with Ohio.
Finally, we've got some nice tailwinds again. Many planes
have and will make the run to FDK today. Several planes are
still behind us though too. We will definitely land early
enough to turn it around for FDK. Knowing that so many are
finishing today is contagious, and we want to join them tonight.
We find the airport. We line up for the flyby. We
are zooming in low and fast. Again, the visual picture
does not quite match what I think should be there. The
trees seem a bit too close to the runway we're flying beside.
I don't see the expected parallel taxiway. It's a short
runway though, we've flown the timing line quickly, and we both
see the expected runway number (28) at the opposite end of the
runway. The tower gives us the go ahead to turn out,
circle and land. It seems like everything is OK.
We're on the ground and pouring ourselves out of the cockpit.
We're heading in to check the FDK weather. A couple of
race teams are talking about waiting until tomorrow, as they
want to be fresh to take on the airspace around FDK - it's
within 8 miles of the DC Special Flight Rules Area with the DC
ADIZ and P-40 Restricted Area (Camp David). So nobody wants to
bust the airspace. Deb really prefers to hold up here for
the night and to get a fresh start in the AM. While it's
doable and Minnetta is OK with going in tonight, we make a team
decision to hang in PKB for tonight. We ask the locals for
a hotel suggestion, and it's the Lafayette, another historic
hotel. It's across the river in Marietta OH. We've
got 3 or 4 other teams to hang out with. After checking in
and catching a quick shower, we're off to The Brewery for dinner
and a microbrew. Great pub food and great beer - cute
little town. We've got two little twin beds in a room from
another era - very quaint. I was a bit worried that I'd
fall out of bed, but I slept soundly after a seemingly routine
Day 3. |
|
25 Jun 2010 (Friday)
Parkersburg WV TOTAL FLYING TIME: 17:04:37 |
 It's
the last flyby on the last day of the race. We have
all day to make this last leg between sunrise and 5:00 pm
Eastern. We're up early and shoot a few pictures before
breakfast, catch our ride to the airport, and check weather
while we wait for a bit of fog to lift. We pay our fuel
bill, and we're off. The plan is to stay low, below
clouds, but high enough to get across the mountains. Ah,
but plans do change, and this leg becomes our most interesting
adventure. We
are staying just below clouds. We hear another racer,
Classic 53, calling a distance within 3-4 miles of our position,
but we don't see them. They are also just a little bit
slower than us on their handicap. So we continue to call
positions, and then they say that they're flying at 5500 - 2000
ft above us. We're OK...for awhile. The clouds seem
a bit lower ahead, and the mountains are rising in front of us.
We decide that we need to climb too. We're climbing, but
5500 isn't going to keep us out of these clouds, and we continue
climbing all the way to 7500 ft. We continue to look for
Classic 53, and we're calling distances. We are staying
within about 5 mi or less of each, and neither one of us can get
a sight on the other. We're now both at 7500 ft too.
The winds are very nice up here as well. We're now calling
out headings, altitudes, and distances on the Westminster VOR,
as I deviate a bit higher and off the direct route to keep some
space between us. We're now over the mountains with a need
to descend for the flyby into FDK. I'm concerned about
descending when we're so close. Classic 53 decides to
stick at their altitude and tells us to descend. So we
start down. At 5500, I see them above us at my 9 o'clock
about 1-2 miles off. We have each other in sight finally.
Now we're descending more rapidly and scanning the skies for
FDK. Again, Deb locks on to the airport and we set up to
wrap up this last flyby and to complete the 2010 Air Race
Classic. We make our flyby, fly out to cool down a bit and
then set it down in FDK. We hear several planes in the
pattern that are not racers. We touch down about 1130 and
taxi by AOPA as we follow the directions from the race
volunteers to find our tie down spot. The ramp is filled
with planes, racers and nonracers. We are done! We
made it. Minnetta has completed her 3rd Air Race Classic!
Deb has completed her first Air Race Classic!!! What a
sense of accomplishment. What a sense of connection to air
racers going back 80+ years now. |
| 25 Jun 2010 (Friday) |
 It
is time to kick back and reflect on all that has happened since
leaving FMY. We flew a great race and made the
right decisions for the situations at hand. We made some
decisions that will negatively impact our race standings.
We'll always find that we probably could have improved things,
but it's a learning process each year. We're not expecting
one of those "Top 12" phone calls. I'm hoping that we also
don't get the dreaded call from one of the judges that we
screwed up big time unwittingly somewhere on the course.
I'm hoping that we'll really be able to enjoy the meltdown party
this year. No calls. We can party hearty tonight.
Great BBQ. Great music. It's just a fine evening to
decompress, unwind, and share stories with one another. We
hear that our friends from Michigan who worked so hard to get to
FMY, never made it past Tuscaloosa - they were just dogged with
mechanical issues, and they ultimately decided to just fly home.
We hope that they will decide to make another run at it next
year in Iowa City. We also begin to hear about the racers
who are getting those Top 12 phone calls - Terry Carbonell,
Kelly Burris, the Purdue gals, Linda Ely, Laura & Joyce from
Arkansas, and the Indiana State gals. What an awesome
feeling that must be. |
| 26 Jun 2010 (Saturday) |
It's the day of reckoning. So how did
we do? Marvin, the timing judge, has the room just
down the hall from us. We can go between 9 and noon to
collect and compare our timing scores against the official
record. We figure that we'll go out before the lines
collect. We see a couple race teams heading down there, so
we follow. We are missing one time from our record in the
confusion with the MDH flyby, where we flew the taxiway right of
18R and then had to go out and "refly" the timing line.
Deb accidentally tossed the number, figuring that it was going
to be way off since she shut down the clock early on our first
"flyby." The pattern was quiet then, so we doubt that they
missed us or confused us with another plane. So we flew a
reasonably clean race, collecting only two 2-knot penalties.
The MDH flyby was one penalty and fully expected. PKB was
the other penalty, and we learned that were too far afield of
the timing line - not surprising, as the visual picture coming
into PKB did not seem right. However, I have to say that
I've looked at that airport diagram and the satellite shot from
above, and I still cannot figure out what we flew inbound to
PKB. But the 2-knot penalty is a fair assessment.
Otherwise, Deb did a really great job with the time on all the
other legs. After all the penalties, we ended up with
about minus 0.9 off our handicap. We will have to wait
until tomorrow at the banquet to learn where we placed overall.
We had a great race though, and it's an awesome accomplishment
to complete the race. We have a real treat this afternoon - seeing the premier of a new documentary film about the first Air Derby of 1929 - Breaking Through the Clouds. THe film's producer, Heather Taylor, is there along with some of her crew. She is showing it at the college that she graduated from in Frederick, Hood College. We have the honor of being joined by family members from four of the original racers. Some of the families are seeing old film footage of their loved ones for the first time. It doesn't get much better than that. It just gives all of us a two-hour opportunity to soak in all that these women did flying from Santa Monica CA to Cleveland OH in open cockpit planes by pure navigation skills (no GPS) with few cockpit comforts that we enjoy today. It is impossible for me to truly appreciate what these women achieved under much harsher conditions - e.g., flying across the desert, dealing with suspected sabotage of their planes by men who felt women shouldn't be flying, limited equipment. Many of the planes though were especially built for these women to fly though, providing good advertisement for the manufacturers - if a woman could fly them, then surely a man could master them, eh? But seriously, the experience also affords us two hours to revel in what we have also accomplished this week and to put it into perspective with those who flew before us. What a great gift to share with us in this place at this time. |
| 27Jun 2010 (Sunday) |
Today is the final reckoning. Who are
the Top 10 finishers? Where did we place in the end?
We discover it at the banquet. It's a very nice dinner at
Dutch's Daughter Restaurant. A fine Sapphire & tonic is on
my list. I bid on a couple of silent auction items, but
somebody has gone in and nabbed them from me at the end.
I've given Deb her recognition for completing the race - her Air
Race Classic pin to commemorate the event. It was a pretty
gutsy decision for her to do this race at her stage of training.
It's time for the race prizes to be announced. We did not
get the last place prize. Lots of leg prizes are given
out, but no, we did not win any leg prizes. Kelly Burris,
the defending champion pilot from 2009, and her co-pilot Theresa
garner a whole stack of leg prizes - 5, 6, 7? I lost count.
She shovels them off on to our dinner table. The leg
prizes mean that she did not make the Top 10 finishers this year
- disappointing for them, I'm sure. But they still end up
#11 from among 51 teams that left FMY - no small feat, for sure.
A number of collegiate teams clean up some Top 10 spots,
including Purdue University taking home the Collegiate Trophy.
Laura Berry and Joyce Wilson take #2 honors. Linda Street
Ely takes home a top spot. Terry Carbonell and Team Wild
Mama take home the #1 spot - so richly deserved by somebody who
puts a lot of heart and soul into the race since flying her
first race just 4 years ago in 2007. Congratulations,
Terry! Now they hand out the score sheets with everybody's
place - Classic 39 came in 39th!!!
Relative to the field size, it's my best finishing position in
the three races I've flown. Hooray!!! |
| 28 Jun 2010 (Monday)
Frederick |
|
| 29 Jun 2010... | I wake up
feeling like I should be flight planning and racing to the
airport. No, it's not true. It's time to go to
work...back to my day job that makes these great adventures
possible. I'm sure that Deb has the same feelings this
morning. I do get to leave Saturday for the International
99s meeting in Hawaii - my last big fling for the summer.
Then it's time to buckle down to plan for the 2011 Air Race
Classic - starting in Iowa City IA. Calling all Iowa 99s
for your help on this team. Calling all EAA Chapter 33
members to lend a hand. Mark your
calendars and join us in June 2011 to host and race in the 35th
annual Air Race Classic - Iowa City IA to Mobile AL. Lastly, if you haven't done so yet, please send a sponsorship for Classic 39. Again, 90% of your sponsorship will go to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS). I arrived home last night to a pile of mail that arrived during the 12 days that I've been gone. We have received many sponsorships while I've been away. Thank you everybody for your generosity and support on this race. As of today, we have collected a bit more than $2,000! If we can collect $2,000 more, then we will hit the $10,000 goal that we have for our 3-year total. Let's do it! Let's make a difference from above! |
