Air Race Classic! DAY 2

Day 2

Barb and Maggie (Barb was going to race but couldn't get to the start)

Up at the crack of dawn and off to the airport. At the end of each night you write your name on a list and the order you are in is the takeoff order. We were allowed to start our engines at 6:30AM and about 8 teams got in the air nice and early. We had to do another fly by to start our time but it was a little crazy since 5 of us were in the air practically at the same time so we had to find each other an not run into anyone. We end up circling a couple of times to sequence ourselves and then we were off. Over the course of the leg we spread out but were able to tell if someone was passing us. We had an air to air frequency that we could talk to other racers and alert them of how far out we were-
 "Classic racer 34 100 miles from Three Rivers.. Classic racer 33 102 miles from Three Rivers passing on the right and lower". The some of the stuff you would hear and you would look for traffic.

Maggie flew the first and second legs of the day from Jeffersonville, IN to Three Rivers, MI (just a fly by) then we flew to Kalamazoo, MI for fuel (this leg and the first leg were the only ones where you didn't land at the same place as you did the fly by). And then from Kalamzoo to Lawrenceville, IL.

Lawrenceville, IL

Lawrenceville was a bigger airport that used to have military operations there but was calm and not a lot of traffic (by this time the field had spread out also). We stopped and got fuel late morning and planned our next leg. We could see weather coming into our next stop (Kirksville, IL) so we decided we had to go now to beat it or we would be staying overnight. On our way to Kirksville we kept checking the radar and it was looking ok and that we would land right before the storm came in.

Someone passing us.

We got to Kirksville with plenty of time and got fuel and some snacks. At that point we were thinking we would have to overnight because of the storm. However, it seemed to fizzle out and we knew we would have a nice tailwind (since we were battling a headwind on the way there). We decided, since we had plenty of day time left to go "now" and ride the tailwind down to Union City, TN and beat the storm. That was the right decision. Most of the way was clear but the last quarter we had to duck under a massive cloud layer and fly low for a bit. We got to Union City and were hit with a wall of thick, hot humidity but we were glad to be done! We got pampered with tshirts, cold water, snacks, ice cream, dinner, and some of the country club members bought us well deserved beers!

Getting out of the haze.

We crashed at the hotel and I had time to call friends and family and update them on the race while watching an epic lightning storm. We were doing great for the race! We completed 7 out of 9 legs  in 2 days! We expected to finish in 4 days (and even had a bet going with some other teams to see who would land closest to their estimated time- we clearly lost that bet!). With 2 days left to complete the race and only 2 legs left we didn't have anything to stress about.

Union City, TN (too bad the picture didn't come out too clear)

 Stay tuned for day 3.

Flyby at Connellsville, PA