Air Race Classic! Going home

Sunday morning was mass exodus. Sort of. We had a 7 hour flight ahead of us so we wanted to get going early. We packed up the plane and headed north. There were a few storms in the area but we picked a route that we could weave through. I flew the leg since I was IFR current. We landed in Huntsville, AL but unfortunately got a flat tire while landing. We were able to taxi off the runway but still shut one down (thankfully they had two parallel runways). It took about 30 minutes for the tug to get to where we were to pull the plane back to the FBO for maintenance since it only goes about 5 mph. We had the mechanic come in and fix the tire for us (I got to help him). And then after about 2-3 hours we were off again headed north.

Flying buddies!

We planned on flying to Columbus, IN but just as we were passing Louisville, KY we heard a beeping noise. What's that?? It was the carbon monoxide alarm. hmm that's weird. Immediately we got fresh air flowing and decided to divert to Jeffersonville, IN (one of the race stops). We landed there for fuel and checked if the alarm batteries were good, but in the mean time it had stopped beeping. Ok, so we'll keep going home. We jumped in the plane after a preflight, started it normally and then got a wiff of smoke - sweet smelling. "Do you smell that? Shut her down!" I recognized the smell as solder and knew we had an alternator failure or something in the wiring had gone bad (we had previously noticed feedback from the alternator in our headsets). So I guess we're not flying then.

We tied down the airplane and got help from the people working there. Of course, it was Sunday late afternoon, so the mechanic was not going to come out and everything is closed. I called my "2nd parents" the Hamiltons, and they were able to give us a ride to the main airport in Louisville where we could rent a car. Maggie had decided that she had to get home so we just got a rental car and drove anther 6 hours. We got home around 3 AM in the morning and the plane was in Jeffersonville, IN.

Taken in Kalamazoo

If everything had gone to plan we would have come in at the end of the SMAT fly in/ fair and it would have been a cool home coming but alas. The next day we got on the horn with the mechanic and thankfully he could get the parts from Louisville and fixed it. Maggie went down later that week to pick up the plane and get it home.

Thankfully we didn't have any issues during the race but they all happened on the way home.

What an adventure!

Taken in Fairhope- storms rolling in.

 Stay tuned for more blogs on tailwheel adventures, charters, and other adventures!


Fly with Christ,
Helen

Air Race Classic! DAY 4 and the weekend.

Day 4 and more

Gulf of Mexico/ Bay

Me and some of the awesome gals I got to know really well!

Done with the race means vacation! Since we had an extra day we meandered around the quaint little town of Fairhope. We went to the airport at some point to cheer on the rest of the teams coming in and then enjoyed dinner eating real, fresh seafood- shrimp and lobster!The next few days included chill time, a few seminars, going to the beach, running, shopping at the little stores around town, and going to the town museum.



One of the cool side projects we were involved in was with the Boys and Girls club. They had an adopt a pilot program where middle school and high school girls were paired with a team and could watch our progress as they were in the race and cheer us on. It was fun to see the girls getting involved with aviation and being able to inspire them to follow their dreams. On one of the days they had their graduation ceremony so a bus load of racers went to that and enjoyed the program and some lunch.

Jenna, our adopt a pilot gal!

USS Alabama

Another day we were able to tour Continental Motors factory (where they make aircraft engines). That was really cool to see how engines are made from scratch.

Continental Motors cylinder center pieces

Maggie, Lin, and me at the banquet.

On Saturday evening we had the terminus banquet. This was where the awards were given out and the final get together before everyone left to go back home. We all were introduced and got our completion plaques and certificates. For the awards, they had categories for the fastest Cardinal, Beechcraft, Piper and some other smaller awards. Then came the leg prizes (top 4 for leg). To our complete surprise we won a leg prize! 4th fastest on the 2nd leg! Maggie had never won a prize so it was super fun for her! We were both astonished at hearing our racer number called! After the leg winners were called came the top 10.


The winners were calculated based on a handicapped speed and how much faster or slower you were from that base speed. Every plane had to fly a box course (fly north, then west, then south, then east. From that you got a base speed. Each leg you had to try and beat that by riding tailwinds or waiting out weather, etc. When you finish you have a score and ten the judges go through and give you penalties based on things you may have done wrong, such as being too low or high on a fly by, landing at a different airport, (if you had to land due to weather), etc. And from that calculation you get a score and it is either + or - from your base score. Whoever has the most plus wins.

We got 25th place out of 50 (and moved up from 34!) We were very pleased with our performance and were excited about the whole thing.


Stay tuned for more.

All the racers!

Air Race Classic! DAY 3

Day 3

The Gulf of Mexico! We made it!

We had a leisurely start to the morning- not super early, but turns out just on time. Since we only had 2 legs left we didn't want to depart at 6:30 AM but we got to the airport sometime around then and preflighted the airplane. We did our flyby with low ceilings (but not that low) but after we got about 1 miles out the ceiling dropped below VFR minimums! There was no forecast for that so several teams coming in from Kirksville actually got stuck circling above the airport while they were on the clock. Most of the way down to Gadsden, AL was hazy but we had a tailwind and there was one other racer flying near us. At Gadsden we got fuel and took a chill pill since there was a big storm brewing around Fairhope, AL (the final destination). We kept monitoring the weather and mid morning we saw our chance to go and took it. There was a break up in the storm system and we had a little bit of a headwind but not too bad. I flew from Union City to Gadsden and then Maggie flew from Gadsden to Fairhope.

Fairhope, AL ARC 2015 Terminus!

Nearby Fairhope there were several military training areas and most of the time they are not active or there is minimal traffic. But we happened to see two small military jets (T-36s) pass above us. We were super excited to get closer and closer to the finish! When we came in to do our fly by we were the only racers in the pattern (there were a couple about 20 miles behind us). On the ground however, were 2 or 3 charter planes waiting to take off. But they nicely let us fly over and congratulated us! It was quite fun and exciting. We passed the timing line and came in to land and taxied to our parking spot. WE MADE IT!

We unpacked our plane, tied it down and handed in our keys. It was now impounded! Which means you can't go to it until the end of the banquet when you get your keys back. We were so excited to be done and finish in 3 days instead of 4. It was a wild ride full of stress, quick thinking, fun, and excitement.

Parking spot in Fairhope, AL

Stay tuned for more!