first day of racing

We took off about 838 am EDT. We flew by Waycross,and stopped at Tuscaloosa AL for fuel. We took off again and flew by Hot Springs AR, and made our final stop for the night in Cameron, Missouri. Everyone is exhausted as most of us got up at 445 AM EDT, which is 345 AM Central Daylight Time. Suzanne flew the plane,and Sara and I helped with spotting traffic, and navigation. Some places were harry with the traffic. The racers did a good job communicating where we were at,so now one crashed. All planes have made it safely to a RON spot. RON means Remain Over Night designation, and those are the 8 spots that we have to do a fly-by. All racers must be at a RON spot by the end of the Air Race Classic sunset time.
We made it to Cameron, and it was neat. The volunteers had sparkling juice,and home grown strawberried ready for us,when we exited the plane. The airplane cookies were as delicious.

Day 1

Made it to Cameron, MO today. We flew through Waycross, GA, Tulcaloosa, Hot Springs then Cameron. They people in Cameron wereso nice--they brought strawberries and sparkling cider to the side of our plane right after we parked!

It was a SCORCHER! As soon as I walked out this morning, it was uggy and very hot!!! I was sweating immediately! However, it was fun! All 51 teams took off around 8am. It was cool tosee the line of planes. I sat front seat first, then Nikki switched. Suzanne was flying the plane; we were assisting with approaches/flybys, briefing, etc. It was intense! Our top speed for the day was 200kph! Its such a fast plane.

I am exhausted and going to bed, Nicole will beblogging later! BYE

Sara's First Blog

Hey all! I have been getting up to speed over the last 2 days. Our trip starts in exactly 24 hours and I am excited! Today we had briefing and meetings; these were extremely helpful for me. Nikki and I will be assisting Suzanne during flybys, approaches, landings, airtraffic spotting, etc. Flybys are used to "stop" your time at each airport. There is a fairly specific procedure that you have to follow. This will be great practice and lots of fun to see played out. I am brand new to the "racing" style of flying!

Tomorrow, we are planning on stopping at Hot Springs, AK or Cameron,MO. The legs of our trip will be Waycross, GA, Tuscaloosa, AL, Hot Springs, AK, then Cameron, MO. We hope to get to Cameron in order to avoid some weather that could develop later in the week. Each leg is around 280ish miles. Suzanne's cruising speed(technically, our handicap speed) is 172.3kph; she owns a Beech Bonanza. This is waaaay faster than anything I have previously flown; I fly a Cessna150! Anyways, it should be a great trip tomorrow and I looking forward to it.

We will be keeping this updated throughout our journey! Please check back. I hope to have some good pictures from our flight tomorrow that I will post on here. -Sara

here is some more pics

count down

So this morning we had a mandatory all contestant briefing. We got the racer welcome banquet at night. During the first meeting Sarah came, and then her and I took to the beach before our banquet.

The welcome banquet was pretty neat. The Florida 99's made these cool airplane decorations.


The pics are of the beach, fly-by procedures, today's meetings. I got to meet the mayor yesterday.
Nicole

getting relaxed to get the game face on

So yesterday, we had to fly our handicap. The handicap is what this race is based on. Each plane is handicap for the best performance speed, and if you fly over your handicap you are awarded points. If you fly under your handicap, you lose points, so a team can actually have negative points if they fly into a headwind. The first picture is of Suzanne flying the handicap flight. I was able to go along as we have a third member,for the weight. We also flew over the gulf, which is awesome because rivers and lakes are the only open water I have ever flown over. That is the second picture.

I feel it is important to feel relaxed before a big competition. Today was it. I had a blast, I totally forgot what it was like to be with such amazing woman, and how many new and old friends I have seen. We started off with going to the Sannabel Beach today, I found some awesome shells that I am sending back. Then we had our girl scout event, which was a bust we had two girls who came and they left within l5 minutes of starting the event. To hear everyone's amazing journey on how they started to fly, just amazes me. This is the biggest race, I have ever been in and one of the biggest race that ARC has put on. We have 113 women pilots and to think we are competitors but yet friends.

Tomorrow, we have an all-contestant meeting that is mandatory. Then I plan on hitting the beach for a bit, then we have a take-off banquet. Then we are off to a day of meetings on Monday, Sarah and Suzanne have an extra 2 hour meeting to be at, due to them being new racers. Tomorrow is also the day where the last team member Sarah comes, I am excited to meet her.

I have to say, this is the coolest hotel I have ever stayed in. Crown Plaza is so nice, I hate to even go home,lol. I am happy the BBQ was so much fun. I got to hang with the Mayor of Fort Myers, as he was asking me about the new baseball stadium in Omaha, and we got to discuss town issues. I am using this time as a networking tool as well. I have included a pic of me with the Mayor.

inspections

So part of being a racer,is having alot of patience. We have alot of cases of hurry up and waiting. We got here and got all settled in, then had to run back out to the airport to do inspections. Inspections is where the officials check to make sure you are in racing form,and that the airplane is top form and all paperwork is crossed and dotted. We passed inspection, only we have to show we have a copy of the rules, and that I have to take this class to fly into Washington DC airspace. So I will do that tonight, so I am all current.
Another part of inspection is making sure your race numbers are put on correctly.