The Dream Team

2008-06-30T22:23:00.002-04:00

Monday June 30

Our day to fly home. We met Alison and Linda for breakfast. A local resident volunteer tooke us over to the airport about 8am. We checked weather, not good, but this time we could file an IFR flight plan. We sat and waited while Boston center re-wrote our original route for about 30 minutes, and then 10 minutes after we were in the air, the whole thing got rewritten again. But it was clear on top at 6000' and we had a smooth flight home. We took lots of pix while we flew, but I wasn't as organized and didn't write all the airport names down this time. Arnie and Russell were watching us on Flight Aware software on the computer as we crossed Long Island Sound and headed for home. They were waiting for us at Perkiomen Airport. Russell filmed us landing, and it was a great landing. Russell had a cake for us with one of the pix from our start on it, and that was edible! He made Mary and I collage of pix he had enlarged from the newspaper stories written from interviews we had before we left. It was a great welcome home.

2008-06-30T22:16:00.003-04:00

Sunday June 29

We had a first time racer's briefing in the morning. Some things need to be ironed out and the ARC org wants feedback from us to help them with the task. We gave them quite a lot to think about. Then we had an all racer's briefing with everyone present for more suggestions. After this we rushed out to the airport to work with the girl scouts. Mary and I showed the airplane twice. Once to a 9th grader and the second time to much smaller children. It was so hot I thought I would faint. But after getting out of the airplane that had been sitting, it felt cooler. I had a hot dog and Mary had a fruit smoothie for lunch. We bummed a ride back to the hotel afterwards, and relaxed before the award banquet. We bid on the silent auction items and some of us won. I got a scarf that most of the racers signed in Bozeman Montana, Alison got a book written in 2000 by one of the racers, Gene Nora Jessen. We came in 25th, which is about what we expected with our handicap. Linda and Alison won one of the leg prizes and I was so proud of them. I don't think I have ever seen Alison with more joy on her face.

2008-06-30T15:57:00.009-04:00

Russell and Arnie out to welcome us home

Islip Airport NY

A better pix of JFK Airport

JFK

Couldn't believe all the houses here, after flying for two weeks over the mid-west

See if you can see the 767 beneath us...hard to find

2008-06-30T15:14:00.027-04:00

Yet another airport

Long Island and the Sound

Over Long Island

Airport in MA

Farmingdale Airport

Long Island Sound

At the Awards Banquet and duded up again

John Tokar at Mansfield MA airport

Patty smoking a sausage

The teen group of girl scouts did these pix

This is at the entry to the Mansfield MA airport office..painted by the Girl Scouts

Linda taking a pix of while I am taking a pix of her

The Dixie Diehards, one of the bands entertaining all day Saturday

This group was really enjoyable to hear

Linda's tatoo

Me admiring an old Model "A"

Benson and Dad in the cockpit with Mom looking on

More Benson and Dad

One of the racers giving a ride

The Delaney's

More Delaney's

Arianna Delaney, future woman pilot?

Another form of transportation

2008-06-28T22:24:00.002-04:00

Friday June 27, 2008

Our last race day, and our most difficult weather wise. The forecast the night before predicted poor visibility early in the morning, so we slept a little later. When we arrived at Franklin Airport, many of the racers had already left. I got the weather which was not promising, and we got more gas. Usually we only take enough gas for one leg and stop and refuel, but today we wanted to do a flyby and continue flying to Mansfield. The weather forecast was calling for T storms later in the day. We took off and flew our time line flyby to start the clock and then we settled down for the flight. The question of the day was "should we climb above the clouds, or slog around in poor visibility below them. We opted to fly above them, and eventually only had small holes where we occasionally saw the ground. As we got nearer to Saratoga Springs we could hear many of the racers on the frequency asking how the weather was along the route. One of the aircraft had to reverse course as the clouds and mountains tops were coming together and they went back to where they could climb above them. We held out above the clouds till we were almost at Saratoga Springs, and then the cloud deck began to drop away below us. We eased down with them and when the sky cleared we were about 20 miles out. We did our fly by at Saratoga Springs, and continued to Mansfield MA. Weather wasn't as bad for us on that leg, although we kept calling ASOS and AWOS frequencies to listen to what weather they were reporting along our route. Again the weather was okay at the destination and we finished our race. As the day lengthened many of the racers arriving later said the weather was getting worse as they did the Saratoga to Mansfield leg. Only one team didn't make it out of Saratoga Springs, the weather was too bad to continue. They were automatically disqualified as they didn't reach the terminus by 5PM on Friday. Another team started the night before from Franklin and couldn't get to Saratoga Springs for their flyby and had to file a flight plan to get into Mansfield. They were also disqualified. Yet another team that started the night before from Franklin had to file a flight plan and land in Albany and spend the night, which disqualified them. Much of this is luck with the weather. We had pretty good luck with weather, but not much when our handicap was assigned. We protested it, but I doubt it will change much. It kept our score down, but not our spirit: we enjoyed this race enormously. We are better pilots for having flown it, and we recognize how it changed us forever as people by our facing the challenges it presented. We are proud of ourselves for finishing.. I would recommend it to any pilot to try. We were picked up from the hotel at 6:30 by Paul of our host family. Paul, and Jennifer, Arianna 5, Benson 3 and Grandmom, Lynn who let us entertain them with tales of the race, which we were happy to supply and fed us a sumptous meal. We offered to let the children sit in the airplane on Saturday for pictures. They picked us up and took us to the airport. The airport had an aviation day going all day with music, rides and lots of food. After that we offered the kids a chance to swim in "our" pool. Right now the children are swimming with Mom while I write this blog and Mary and Paul watch them. We have a "meet the racers Lobster bake" tonight back at the airport and a dance under the stars after that. The whole town
is in on the act with the race terminus being there. They make us feel like celebrities!

2008-06-28T12:51:00.000-04:00

At breakfast this morning, Linda explaining how she did it

2008-06-28T12:49:00.000-04:00

Our host family

2008-06-28T12:48:00.000-04:00

Dressed for dinner

2008-06-28T12:46:00.000-04:00

Benson and Ariana Delaney

2008-06-28T12:44:00.000-04:00

At the debriefing session

2008-06-28T12:43:00.000-04:00

The two teams and the gals from the Eastern PA Chapter

2008-06-28T12:41:00.000-04:00

Linda and one of our mother birds, Kathy Walton

2008-06-28T12:38:00.000-04:00

Close in to Mansfield Airport

2008-06-28T12:35:00.000-04:00

Hopedale Industrial Airport

2008-06-28T12:33:00.000-04:00

Quatbin Reservoir, MA

2008-06-28T12:31:00.000-04:00

Turner Falls, MA

2008-06-28T12:28:00.002-04:00

This unusual cloud formation was overhead

2008-06-28T12:26:00.000-04:00

Things are not getting any better

2008-06-28T12:22:00.001-04:00

Sky conditions on the way to Saratoga Springs

2008-06-26T21:41:00.003-04:00

Thursday June 26

Our third day of flying and we didn't advance much. We hung around at Frankfort KY airport waiting for the weather to improve at the Franklin PA airport, which it was slow to do. We got to Frankfort airport at 6:15am and finally took off around 9:30am. We got just as confused with these two similar-named airports. We decided we should have gotten the weather before we left the motel. We could have slept in a little. It was a dicey ride with low visibility under the clouds and too many clouds under us at altitude. We split the difference and came down in a hole in the clouds about 60 miles out. The remainder of the ride was bumpy but visibility was good and we found the airport with no trouble. It sits on top of a mountain. The fly by is always exciting. This one was done 400' above the ground. We remember to put on all our lights, call in 10 miles out, 5 miles out and 1 mile out with our classic number, saying we are continuing or landing, and to push the button on the stop watch as we cross the timing line. At our speed this all takes place in less than three minutes.. We are down to flyby altitude about three miles out and then we go screaming down the flyby line. The call outs tell the timers and anyone else in the vicinity that we are coming in and where we are. We only did this once today at Franklin PA. We improved our technique enormously since our first flyby in Miles City Montana. We waited all day for the weather at the Saratoga Springs airport to improve, which it never did. Last night three airplanes were overnight in Decatur Illinois, three were overnight in Franklin and 27 of us were overnight in Frankfort KY. We are spread out again tonight, but the numbers are not posted yet on the www.airraceclassic.org site. We are not comfortable flying in certain weather and we are always surprised when airplanes depart in these conditions. But each of us has our personal minimums. We had a lovely dinner with Alison and Linda here at the hotel, and we are back in our room already planning tomorrow's departure time.

2008-06-26T21:40:00.000-04:00

Is anybody leaving?

2008-06-26T21:38:00.000-04:00

Can you see the airport? Neither can we!

2008-06-26T21:36:00.000-04:00

Ross County Airport near Circleville Ohio, another one for Joyce

2008-06-26T21:34:00.000-04:00

Brown County Airport near Georgetown Ohio for Joyce H

2008-06-26T21:32:00.001-04:00

This river borders KY and Ohio, but I couldn't find a name on the map

2008-06-26T21:30:00.000-04:00

Flying the timing line to begin the next leg

2008-06-26T21:28:00.000-04:00

Linda, Alison, and Carolyn waiting on weather in Frankfort

2008-06-26T21:27:00.000-04:00

The timing line people and the Stop Chairman

2008-06-26T21:21:00.000-04:00

Sunrise in Frankfort KY

2008-06-25T21:33:00.002-04:00

Tuesday June 25

Our second day of flying in the air race, and boy did we fly. We left Aberdeen South Dakota, flew through Minnesota and landed at Mason City Iowa. After waiting on weather for a bit we flew through Indiana for Decatur Illinois. We left there quickly to avoid thunder storms that were developing as the day got hotter We flew through Illinois and landed at Frankfurt KY. We kept asking each other, "where are we?" We were so hot when we landed in KY we needed to be hosed down. We didn't even check the weather to see if we could go on, we were too hot and much too tired. We got a lift to a hotel, and collapsed. It's hard to believe how much ground we covered today, or maybe I should say how much sky.

2008-06-25T21:29:00.000-04:00

Kentucky State Capitol

2008-06-25T21:24:00.001-04:00

Can you find the airport

2008-06-25T21:17:00.001-04:00

The big boys are trying to get into the act

2008-06-25T21:07:00.000-04:00

You'r going where?

2008-06-25T21:01:00.000-04:00

Together once again

2008-06-25T20:49:00.000-04:00

Windmill farm in Minnesota

2008-06-25T20:44:00.001-04:00

Watertown, South Dakota

2008-06-25T20:38:00.000-04:00

Next year's plane :)

2008-06-24T22:49:00.002-04:00

Tuesday June 24

Breakfast at 6am, , FSS briefing at 6:30 am, both mandatory . We are still anxiously waiting on our handicap, the number we need to exceed to win this race. We finally get it in writing minutes before take off at the airport. Mary is very disappointed with the number. Almost impossible for us to fly no less exceed. We fly anyway, and get into the air in sequence. Once over the mountains we have a howling tail wind to our first airport, Miles City Montana. The approach plate shows how complicated the fly by is. You announce 10 miles out for the fly by and your intentions, whether we land or continue. We juggle the altitude to keep us above the mountains, and able to get down to 600 above the ground when we do our fly by. Next announcement at 5 miles out and then when approaching the airport. It is busy and hectic and exhilirating. Thanks to the tailwind we do not have to land for gas at this stop, so our "classic 20 fly by to continue 10 miles out," lets the ground crew know we will go on. When we turn towards Aberdeen SD we lose our tailwind. We try higher, but we have a cross wind that doesn't help. We do our fly by at Aberdeen and it is difficult to get down as the airport sits next to the town and you cannot fly below 1000' over a congested area. We are bounced all over the place as we plunge down, the timeing line is right at the beginning of the runway and we must be at 400' agl. at this airport as we pass. We get it done, and land to get gas and check the weather. We are hot, tired and hungry. The reception is wonderful at the airport, huge long sandwiches cut into quarters for us, fresh fruit, cold water, and fruit punch. We are handed a lovely card from the SD 99s with an aviation poem. I check the weather and the winds are not favorable, and we will get bounced all over on the next leg at this time of day, so we elect to stay in Aberdeen over night. We get shuttled over to the Super 8 and after a much needed rest we go across the street to a restuarant where we meet 15 teams eating dinner. Seems lots of us decided to stay. An unexpected surprise one of the teams treats the whole group to dinner! What a neat ending to a good day.

2008-06-24T22:39:00.001-04:00

Alison and Linda taxiing to the start

2008-06-24T22:34:00.001-04:00

All ready to go

2008-06-24T22:30:00.001-04:00

Fly By chart for Miles City, Montana

2008-06-24T21:25:00.000-04:00

Shell shocked after our meeting, but happy

2008-06-24T21:22:00.001-04:00

This fellow is huge in person

2008-06-24T21:11:00.002-04:00

Monday June 23

We had a rough day. Our mandatory all pilots briefing started at 8am and continued without a break until 2:15pm. They take a roll call and expect everyone to be on time. If not, penalties are imposed, knots added to your total score. If you don't show at all you are disqualified, so everyone is always on time and present. Fortunately for us we had breakfast before the meeting. Some of the late risers did not and they were famished. They presented some important information at the end of the meeting which was a bad idea, all of us were tired and hungry and not concentrating by then.

We went to lunch at Applebees, and then headed over to Yellowstone Jet Center. What a posh place. Lovely to fly into in the winter. They have large cozy chairs and sofas and a big fireplace. The pix of the eagle and moose are from their lobby area. We bought oil and then went to the Fixed Base Operator where the planes are tied down. We checked the plane for hail damage, of which there was none. We went to Walmart to get snacks for the trip, grapes, nuts, and water.

It was an early night after more planning and weather gathering and we fell asleep with dreams of high flying.

2008-06-24T18:46:00.001-04:00

Another high flyer

2008-06-23T21:32:00.000-04:00

All racers briefing

2008-06-23T21:20:00.002-04:00

Sunday June 22

Our last day that we can sleep in and eat breakfast at our leisure. We work furiously on our charts - checking and rechecking everything all morning. The hospitality room provided enough food for lunch and we decided to drive to a mall to walk around a bit before our mandatory "first-time racers" briefing at 3pm. We separated at the mall and all did our own thing. I talked most of my time with a retired railroad freight engineer who was overseeing an N gauge layout near the main entrance. Later I ran into Alison in a nail salon and got talked into getting a manicure, and polish. This in spite of my short short nails. Mary found a top, and Linda had a piece of pizza. We headed back and spent two hours at the briefing, which was somewhat alarming. I haven't take this many notes since college. So much to remember. We had an hour to get ready for the "Take Off" banquet. We enjoyed visiting with everyone and I had the largest piece of halibut I have ever seen baked in a puff pastry for dinner. We were tired in spite of a not so busy day.

2008-06-23T21:15:00.000-04:00

Alison and Linda, our cohorts in crime

2008-06-23T21:07:00.000-04:00

Each little white strip represents a team

2008-06-23T21:03:00.001-04:00

All duded up for the "Take Off" Banquet

2008-06-23T21:01:00.000-04:00

The only pix of our Moma Birds and us

2008-06-22T09:40:00.003-04:00

Saturday June 21
After clearing our final hurdle in the registration process, the credentials, this morning, we headed to Yellowstone National Park with Alison and Linda. The ride through the park leaves me without sufficient words to describe the grandeur of the area. The beauty of the place fed our souls. The animals were another story. We were so excited when we spotted our first bison in a field. We yelled at Mary "stop, stop" so we could take pix. After the first one they were so plentiful we let them sail pass us. The hot spring area had a boardwalk around and through it because the ground was too hot to walk upon. A bubbling pot of boiling pale mud was neat to see, but did not photograph well. How the flowers were thriving in this hot soil we did not know. We made our destination in the park which was Old Faithful geyser only to find that the normal schedule for the eruption would not be for another hour and ten minutes and we were already running late for our "Meet the racers" barbecue. On the way out of the park, by another route we slowed to a stop behind two cars ahead and saw a herd of bison coming down the road in the left lane. This was a narrow road and they passed quite close to us. Moms and babies, and grizzly-looking dads. At least 50 passed us. To their right was a steep hill and to our right was a deep gulch so we were all stuck with one another. The next group was running because three motorcycles behind them were in a hurry. Shame on those guys! As the last group passed us a big old bison turned, as I clicked the camera (my window was closed) but he must have seen a movement. He gave me an evil-eyed look and then walked on. I said, "boy he was scary and mean looking ," Alison turned and looked behind as he was turning and coming around to her side, she couldn't get her window up fast enough. We were in the back carrying on, so Mary drove us as close to the car ahead to move a little, and our bison friend was left standing looking perplexed behind. Whew!
We saw elk in a field and a wolf that had come right down to the road edge. This was another instance of "stop, stop," and we took what pix we could out the back window. Mary did not have an easy drive. We arrived late but happy for the barbecue. Another joyful day, and back to the hotel to relax.

2008-06-22T09:37:00.000-04:00

End of day barbecue

2008-06-22T09:36:00.000-04:00

This old guy actually looked into the car

2008-06-22T09:33:00.000-04:00

Opposing traffic on a narrow road

2008-06-22T09:32:00.000-04:00

He seems to be waiting on traffic

2008-06-22T09:29:00.001-04:00

Ole Faithful is behind the trees

2008-06-22T09:27:00.001-04:00

A hot spring boiling away

2008-06-22T09:23:00.002-04:00

These were growing near and in the hot springs soil...another one for Gayl

2008-06-22T09:17:00.002-04:00

A stop in Yellowstone near boiling mud pots

2008-06-22T09:12:00.000-04:00

Our first bison in Yellowstone Park

2008-06-20T23:59:00.004-04:00

June 20, 2008

After an enjoyable breakfast at the hotel and a visit with many of the racers in the dining room we went to the airport to begin the aircraft inspection process. Much paperwork had been forwarded prior to our arriving and now they wanted to see the airplane and log books where the mechanics had signed off on any and all modifications no matter how small. We were number one, which was not necessarily a blessing as they were just gearing up for inspections, and it took forever, or what seemed like forever to get their act together and get the airplane inspected. It started with a feisty old gal (90years old who is also a crew member on one of the racing teams!) She did the static system check, which included a full power run up with Mary in the airplane. Then the plane was taxied to the hangar and unbuttoned for a look see. Mary stood around with the inspectors (required) totally stressed out that someone had their hands under the cowling and in every nook and cranny of HER airplane.
There was plenty to eat at the airport, provided by the Race organization so this served as lunch. Back at the hotel Mary and I took a 45 minute walk in the heated indoor pool (heaven). We changed and returned to the airport looking for friends who would be arriving from PA today. They were there when we arrived. We loaded them and their gear into the car and took them to the hotel. We all went out to dinner to Ted's Montana Grill. Alison had the bison stew, the rest of us ate more conventionally. We toasted each other for our accomplishment (we were all in Bozeman Montana, after all) Then a walk in town to aid digestion; back to the hotel and collapse. Another lovely day.

2008-06-20T23:57:00.000-04:00

Mary couldn't resist this cutie and her backpacks in downtown Bozeman

2008-06-20T23:55:00.000-04:00

Now their both looking?

2008-06-20T23:45:00.000-04:00

What is he looking for in there??

2008-06-19T22:41:00.002-04:00

Thursday June 19

We were nervous. We knew we had to cross the Rockies into Bozeman, so we started early and were off the ground by 8:05 AM. We had our course down pat. As navigator, I checked and rechecked the maps, the gps settings at least three times. Mary asked, "are you ready?" "yes" I said and we rolled down the runway and lifted into the big sky of Montana. My plan was to go direct with the GPS's guidance and follow the terrain to a couple of airports along the Yellowstone River. Twice the GPS gave a message, "unit will shut down in 30 seconds" on the screen. My heart added an extra beat each time I saw it. But we got that resolved and kept the unit going. Our last leg would be strictly pilotage, following the highway. Direct would take us over a 10000' mountain which we wanted to avoid.

We contacted the controller for traffic advisories before we passed over Billings. He mentioned we were at the wrong altitude for our direction of flight. We told him we knew that but that is just a suggestion, and there were clouds ahead of and slightly above us and we wanted to stay at 7500 feet to stay under them.
As we got closer to the clouds we realized they were actually the snow covered mountain peaks all around us. Some over 11000 feet. The ride was smooth as we followed our planned course. We kept looking at the mounatins, and each other. We flew just right of Bozeman Pass into the Gallatin Valley. A beautiful sight. The Pass is about 20 miles from the airport and in the clear mountain air the valley was a wonderous sight. We are so exhilarated by the whole trip, but especially this last flight (2.5 hours) to Bozeman.

Our journey to the race start has ended. Now we move to the mundane details of the race over the weekend, inspections, registrations, briefings, etc. On Tuesday the race begins and we reverse the course and fly as fast as we can!

2008-06-19T22:40:00.000-04:00

On the ground at Bozeman

2008-06-19T22:38:00.001-04:00

Closing in on the downwind to Bozeman

2008-06-19T22:35:00.000-04:00

Big Timber Airport

2008-06-19T22:33:00.000-04:00

Crazy Mountains (actual name)

2008-06-19T22:29:00.000-04:00

Mountains left of course.

2008-06-19T22:27:00.000-04:00

Downtown Billings Montana

2008-06-19T21:52:00.000-04:00

The Yellowstone River

2008-06-19T21:49:00.001-04:00

A new day and a new team outfit!

2008-06-18T23:21:00.003-04:00

Tried to do our day in pix, but the result wasn't to our satisfaction. The pix loss something in the uploading.
We left Decatur Illinois at 8 am and landed at Mason City, Iowa after passing the Mississipi River and various flooded areas, taking us about 2.7 hours. We ate an awful lunch at the airport restuarant, nothing but fried everything available. We flew on to Aberdeen SD, and got our first iffy weather outlook for the next leg. Chance of convective activity along our route. We decided to hightail it out of there and go take a look. We spent about twenty minutes all toll on the ground.
Thanks to Mary's weather depicting GPS we saw all the activity about 35 miles to our left for about an hour, after that it was clear but bumpy sailing into Miles City. 7 hours of flying today with long stretches of nothing to do but take pix. Our seats are sore.
We have only one leg remaining to the final destination on our trip to the race start which is in Bozeman and only a short one; less than two hours. This airport has mountains above 14000 ft surrounding it, so we want to go early in the morning to reduce the bounce.

2008-06-18T23:19:00.000-04:00

Lined up to land at Miles City, Montana our last stop for the day

2008-06-18T23:15:00.000-04:00

Close in to Miles City, foothills of the rockies

2008-06-18T23:12:00.000-04:00

Badlands of North Dakota

2008-06-18T23:08:00.005-04:00

Race team 16 from Purdue U in Aberdeen, SD...

2008-06-18T23:05:00.001-04:00

Lined up to land at Aberdeen, SD; those are dead bugs on the windscreen

2008-06-18T23:02:00.000-04:00

Our first stop today....

2008-06-18T22:59:00.002-04:00

One of the pretty areas we overflew today, Cedar Rapids airport and town

2008-06-18T22:57:00.001-04:00

Iowa City area flooding

2008-06-18T22:47:00.001-04:00

Our best photo crossing the mighty Mississipi River for Gayl

2008-06-18T22:31:00.002-04:00

Decatur, Illinois before take off this morning, we ran into Race Team 3

2008-06-18T07:24:00.001-04:00

Landing at Decatur, IL - The camera picks up the prop making its arc

2008-06-18T07:21:00.000-04:00

For all those doubters out there. Here we are in Frankfurt KY.

2008-06-18T07:11:00.002-04:00

How happy we were on Tuesday as we prepared to land at our first airport, Capital City in Frankfurt, KY.

2008-06-18T07:09:00.001-04:00

The crew is ready to start Tuesday morning, The beginning of our adventure!

2008-06-17T21:32:00.003-04:00

Tuesday June 17 PM
We're tired tonight but happy. We flew from N10 to Frankfurt KY in 3 hours and 40 minutes, with about an hour in solid IMC over the hills in soutwestern PA and northern MD. We ate great salads for lunch at Applebee's and took off again. We flew full throttle on this leg for two more hours and landed in Decatur after a high speed pass at 500 feet that the tower was kind enough to let us do. We intended to continue on until Iowa, but after flight planning and getting gas which took us almost an hour we decided we were too tired and called it a day. The airport lent us a "crew" car and we checked into the Decatur Conference Center for the night. We plan an early start in the am and hope to fly to Iowa, South Dakota, and then to our next to last stop in Montana.

2008-06-17T06:15:00.004-04:00

Tuesday June 17
It's 6am. There's a slight mist on the runway, but otherwise the weather looks good. We spent yesterday consolidating everything we are bringing, trying to eliminate duplicates. If the other racers could see how much we think is necessary they would die laughing. We are told "keep it light", no way on your first race. We depart at 8am and I am excited to begin. Mary is still running around looking for things, and I need to make peanut butter crackers for snacks enroute. Our departure is 8am and the goal is Decatur Illinois by way of Frankfort KY today.

2008-06-16T08:44:00.002-04:00

Monday, June 16

After hours pouring over the weather reports, forecasts and maps we decided last night that today was a no go to start our trek westward. As usual the forecast and map depictions were wrong and we could have gone this morning.

Last night we rehashed every scenario on the phone with both of us looking at computers as we discussed what to do. I am always anxious to get started and I try to curb that inclination so as not to launch us into a bad weather situation. Mary was worried about bad weather west of Pittsburg and had run into a forecast last week with a good outlook that turned sour. All of this went into our decision making.

I was not at Mary's this morning and by the time I could get there and we would have gotten off we would have run into some afternoon T storms. in Pittsburg or further west.
Lesson learned. Next time we follow our instincts and go take a look, we can always do a 180.
Today I go to Mary's so we are ready tomorrow morning.

The Dream Team

2008-06-15T18:45:00.002-04:00

Barb and I have raced together in the past but nothing of this magnitude. It's been our DREAM as long as we can remember to participate in the Air Race Classic. This is the year to realize our DREAM.

2008 Air Race Classic Route

2008-06-15T15:43:00.001-04:00