Sweetwater!

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 Science Museum Oklahoma to all ages.

After this museum, we stopped at the 99's Museum of Women Pilots in OKC where we learned more about accomplishments of women aviators of the past as well as current female aviators!

 We headed back to the planes and started to make our way to SWW.

 OKC departure controller made sure to tell us to "race well and boiler up". We love to hear alumni on the radios!

Alyssa and I decided to climb to 10500' as it was hot at the lower altitudes, upwards of 26 degrees Celsius. Our aircraft caught up with our fellow travel buddies and we communicated with each other to entertain ourselves, share stories, relay current weather, and play spot the cow again. We later dropped down to 6500' to maintain VFR conditions and continued on our way through Texas. 

 Soon enough we were approaching SWW. We signed off of the air-to-air frequency and descended.

After landing we parked in our designated spot and attempted to screw our stakes into the rocky ground. We didn't get too far with our stakes and had to buy some extra large dog stakes to get through the packed soil. 
Alyssa and I traded off using a nine pound sledge hammer to get the stakes into the ground. 

Finally, the plane was secured and we headed to the hotel for the night and a great southern BBQ dinner.

 After a long day we were ready for our beds. 

 Tailwinds!

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