Racers Start Your Engines.....

So it is almost 4pm on Monday afternoon. We have been in briefings since 8am this morning with a short break for lunch. We have all the information to fly the race and fly the low altitude timing passes at each airport. We are almost really to go. I am still organizing the our packets of information for each airport which includes the fly by procedures (each airport is different and each is approved by the FAA), our flight plan, our fuel and timing sheets and all the information needed to fly that particular leg.

The race numbers has been settled. They either got the wrong plane or they didn't see that we had the right size numbers and the 2" white boarder around the entire number. We were told that we would be contacted by a judge yesterday to be assess a monetary fine if there was still a problem but that wasn't the case so I think we are good to go.

After flying the handicap flight again on Sunday morning we have been all given our handicaps. We have the second lowest handicap out of the 51 planes still in the race. Our handicap is 114.63. Not quite sure how that plays out but it is used in the calcualations
of our scores. Although it does seem like we might be one of the slowest planes in the race. :o) Don't rule out the underdog!!!!!

Got to run. To many things to do and so little time. I will try to keep up on the blog as we go so stay turned. Right now it looks like we have until almost 8:30pm (sunset) tomorrow night to fly the last timing line of the day. We are tentively looking at leaving Fort Myers getting timed (& fuel @ each waypoint) at Waycross, GA continuing to Tuscaloosa, AL fly the timing line there and then deciding if we should continue to Hot Springs, AR. If weather is good we might try to get to AR just to get an extra waypoint out of our way. Stay tuned...