Its February, and there's two feet of snow on the ground, but Mary Wunder, Alison Chalker and a small group of pilots are already dreaming about the sunny day in June when we'll be embarking on one of the most exciting and adventurous four days of our lives - the 34th Air Race Classic. For the second year running, we will be racing Adelle Bedrossian's Piper Arrow N29SP, and our team name is to honor Adelle for her friendship and loan of this beautiful plane! Anyone who read our 2009 blog (link below) will recall that the Arrow treated us very well, and raced like a dream, and we can't wait to become reacquainted.
The Air Race Classic is a transcontinental air race for women pilots, and has been raced in one form or another for more than 80 years. Each year the route is different, but it is always a VFR (visual flight rules) race in daytime across approximately 2400 nautical miles, with 8-10 timing stops. Racers have 4 days to complete the course, and teams are scored on their performance relative to their individual handicap. Understanding and handling your airplane to get maximum performance at full throttle is key, as is reading the weather to find good tailwinds and maintain VFR. There's no experience like this one This year's race is across a 2483 statute mile course from Fort Myers, Florida to Frederick, Maryland, and takes in nine stops across Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia!
To find out more about the 2010 Air Race Classic, as well as the history and results of previous races, check out their website http://www.airraceclassic.org/.
To see last year's blog from Team Adelles Belles (Mary Wunder and Alison Chalker), check out http://adellesbelles.blogspot.com/.
To see the 2008 blog from Team Cool Beans (Alison Chalker and Linda Evans), see http://evanslle.googlepages.com/.
To see the 2008 blog from The Dream Team (Mary Wunder and Barbara Strachan), see http://arc20.blogspot.com/.
To find out more about The Ninety-Nines, check out http://www.ninety-nines.org/
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