Start Briefing…

The race hasn’t even started and we have been penalized or they think we will be. There are rules and regulations for every aspect of the race. There are rules and regulations for the size of the race numbers that get applied to the plane that will be used during the race for the timing lines to be able to identify us as we fly over the line to be timed. I specifically ordered the numbers from a graphics place in Tampa, FL that our Mama Birds use and that know the specifics of the size of these decals. The numbers must be 18” high, 3” wide and a white boarder must surround the number if there is any striping on the plane. So the entire “2” and “8” were surrounded by 2” of white boarder. Any issues were to be reported to us at the time of the plane inspection which was 12:15pm Friday afternoon.

We received no notification so we believed there wasn’t an issue. During the briefing they started calling out teams that had problems with their numbers and we were one of them. There was a lot of discussion if we could go out this afternoon to fix the numbers (we still don’t know what the issue is) or if it had to wait until we got to the airport Tuesday morning prior to take off. Finally after more discussions one of the judges jumped up and decided that all those teams with number issues would be assessed a penalty. We are waiting for one of the ARC committee members to get back to us with further information and see if we actually will have to scramble and try to do something in 30 minutes or less on Tuesday AM.

I measured all dimensions of the numbers prior to installing them and confirmed that they were on placed properly on the tail. At this point we will have to wait and see. I refuse to get upset about this when we will have much better hurtles to jump once the race starts.



Handicap flight when well this morning. We are headed to the Start Banquet tonight. Here are some pictures from yesterday.



This is the a picture of the start briefing. Next to Ethel on her right is our Mama Bird Mary Wunder and our Mama Bird Alison Chalker....



We are going to get briefed tomorrow on all the fly bys. What they have done is posted a visual chart of all the fly by procedures at the hotel so we will be prepared for the briefing. Pictures were taken and now we will make notes on the actual Jeppesen charts they provided.