Start Activities

June 17, 2018


Briefings


 The day was scheduled for racer briefings from 0800 through 1500. These included a collegiate brief, an all racer brief, specifics for landing at the stops, scoring breakdown, and equipment technology explanations.

 Lunchtime involved the watching of the documentary "Mercury 13" as well as a visit from Gene Nora Jessen who was one of the ladies who underwent all the physical testing to be a woman who would be sent to space. Sadly the program was defunded and these ladies did not make it into space due to societal beliefs. 
It was an honor to hear her speak and we are grateful to her for gifting all the racing ladies a signed copy of her book "Sky Girls" as well as starting the break in the glass ceiling for women astronauts.

 Alyssa and I needed to clean the plane because we were unable to do so the day before due to our maintenance situation. So we made sure to have an Official supervise our cleaning to make sure we did not get any penalties for going to the plane under impound. 
We scrubbed the splattered, dried bugs off of the leading edges, cowling, props, fairings, and wheel pants. Alyssa volunteered to clean the oil from the belly of the plane and got to know the Texas soil up close and personal. 

 After much sweating and an arm workout, the plane was spotless. We then had thirty minutes to get from the airport to the hotel, change, and get bussed back to the airport for the banquet.
All the Racers of ARC 2018
We changed in record time and made it to the hangar where the banquet was being held. We had some guest speakers including a WASP or Woman Airforce Service Pilot, Nell Bright, who shared some of her personal stories with us. 

After the lovely banquet we headed back to wash our clothes in the bathtub and sink (real glamorous). We didn't have enough hangers or space to dry our freshly washed garments and I ended up using some dental floss as a clothesline (thanks mom for the idea!). It worked!
Fifinella drawn by Walt Disney and mascot of the WASP's 

June 18,2018


More Briefings

Thunderstorms over SWW
On Monday the briefings continued. We went over how to perform fly-bys, airspace along the route (earned some FAA Wings Credit), safety in general as well as a weather brief with a Flight Service briefer. 

 I stayed after these briefs to go to a first time racer brief and verified some information. 

 During this time Alyssa was free to do what she wanted so she went on some adventures.
"March 11, 1944 'To the Best Women Pilots in the World' General Hap Arnold"
She found this statue on the TSTC campus which is the visual that explains all pilots, forever looking up to the sky.

Fifinella and KSWW
Here is the sign to KSWW. It notifies those that the elevation is 2378' and built in 1929.


She also had the chance to take a picture with a windmill blade that was harbored near the side of the airport. If you've never stood next to one, they are MASSIVE.

Playing "Heads Up" with the Mama Birds
We headed to dinner with some new collegiate friends that we had met in the excursion to mail some of our belongings to the terminus. At dinner we played some "heads up" (a game similar to charades), shared good stories, and hung out with some Mother Birds (women who help young or first time racers with questions and camaraderie). 

 We are ready for the race!

 Follow us along our route starting June 19 at 0800 
https://www.airraceclassic.org/follow-the-race.htm

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cloud Cruising

Image
June 21, 2018 Cloud Cruising  We woke up in GBG, IL and the cloud ceilings were still too low for the race as well as storms en route to the next stop.  Our friends PPI awaiting IFR release at GBG All the racers were waiting in the hangar when we received the email that the racers were to reposition to Penn Yan, NY (PEO) and we would start the race timing there for the last leg of the race. Alyssa and I filed our IFR flight plan and headed out. There was a wait for IFR release on the ground in GBG due to all of us wanting to get out, though soon we were climbing through the clouds.  We chose to stop at two race points before heading to PEO.  We flew to Auburn, IN (GWB) and had to hold on an approach (not a problem as we had more than enough fuel) for our friends from Lewis as they landed and then we were cleared on the approach. We found Lara, the ARC president, handing us the promised root beer floats and a cold towel, even though it was raining. We had a good ch
Read more

Sweetwater!

Image
June 15, 2018 Arrival to Sweetwater, Texas. Airport code: SWW. The morning of Friday the 15th, Alyssa and I departed from Tulsa, OK to head to Oklahoma City (OKC), along with our fellow racers from PPI and Lewis. This first leg was uneventful and we were soon landing in OKC. Following in the ways of the previous day, we utilized the FBO crew car and were off to lunch where we did some planning for the arrival to Sweetwater.  Megan, Jane, Cathy, Nicoletta, Alyssa, Tiffany Nicoletta, PPI Pilot, had some plans for us to check out a science museum in OKC that was hosting one of the first Women's Air Derby Race Aircraft. The Women's Air Derby would later be known as the Air Race Classic. This museum not only paid tribute to Louise Thaden who flew the plane, but it was an interactive museum. So we made sure to stop by the learning stations including tornados, earthquakes (think simulator), light waves, space travel, and so much more! I would recommend the
Read more

Trouble Ahead - Day 2

Image
June 20, 2018 Trouble Ahead      BIE - GBG We had a late morning in Nebraska. Everyone was waiting for ceilings to lift. Race Central made the decision to bypass the FBL (Faribault, MN) leg, have everyone ferry themselves to GBG (Galesburg, IL) and continue the race once there.  We were saddened that we wouldn't be making it to Minnesota, as the FBOs do lots of planning to host the event leg. Sometime in the future I will have to visit.  This decision by Race Cental started an adventure. Alyssa and I filed our IFR flight plan, preflighted, fueled up, and were on our way. We made it about 160 nautical miles outside of GBG when we decided to divert due to the thunderstorms connecting making a line of thunderstorms. We ended up diverting from our original "alternate" airport due to winds outside of comfort and aircraft limits. We backtracked to SDA (Shenandoah, IA) where we picked up more fuel (for ourselves and the plane) and to wait on weather. W
Read more