Test Pilots & Plane Waxing....

Sunday turned out to be a very busy day!!!! The plane came out of 100 hour inspection on Friday night @ 6pm. It was only flown for a short period on Saturday. Because of the weather today Ethel’s schedule freed up and we decided to put some time on the new cylinders and try to break them in. So we flew the plane for a little more than an hour. It was fine @ 2,400 to 2,500 rpm but a little rough between 1,500 to 2000 rpm.

Once we got done our flight I went home and picked up our plane waxing professional Ron. Between the two of us we were able to get the plane waxed in a couple of hours and boy was she shinning!!! Special thanks to my husband for helping get this important part of pre-race prep completed. Here are some pictures of the plane...

We are still looking at departing for Fort Myers on Wednesday morning. Let's hope for nice weather and a plane that has it's cylinders broken in and ready to go!!!

100 Hour Inspection

The airplane finally went into its 100 hour inspection late Monday afternoon (7th). It is expected to be down most of the week as they work on it. This means some last minute flying over the weekend and finally a good waxing at the end of the weekend. We hope to leave next Wednesday or Thursday (16th of 17th) weather and plane permitting. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Mama Birds

In all the excitement leading up to the race I have forgotten to fill you in our Mama Birds!!! What is a Mama Bird? The Air Race Classic pairs experience racers with ladies who have not flown the race before. Our Mama Birds are Mary Wunder and Alison Chalker. So we are called “Baby Birds”. Ethel and I both know Mary and Alison since they are fellow Eastern PA 99s. It is very exciting to be paired with them although trying to get strategy out of Mary is like pulling teeth? She has been great help in trying to figure out what to expect when we get to FL and what we should pack. Mary and Alison are Classic #9 so keep eye out for their team during the race and wish them well. Our mama bird nicknames are MBM (Mama Bird Mary) and MBA (Mama Bird Alison). Mary has been calling Ethel and me... BBB (Baby Bird Barb) and BBE (Baby Bird Ethel).

Saturday, June 5, 2010

I officially feel like an airport bum. I have been to PTW numerous times today. First I went to pick up the Garmin 396 GPS from Tom Kozel. Did I tell you how much we appreciate Tom letting us use his GPS with XM satellite weather? Thank you again Tom!!! Tom gave me instructions on mounting the unit in the plane. I then went back to the airport in the afternoon so Ethel and I went through the charts once again. Be prepared is our motto!!! I also programmed the GPS with all of our waypoints from Heritage Field (aka… Pottstown-Limerick airport) to Fort Myers, FL. Then I programmed all the waypoints for the race. I am currently updating my Flight Guide e-books that will need to be uploaded to my Kindle and I still need to download the airport approach plates. So much to do and time is flying by!!!

Here is a picture of our shirts……..

Special thanks go to Joanne Piraino who created the artwork and had the shirts made for us. They came out looking really great. The picture doesn’t do them justice!!! Many thanks Joanne for ALL of your help.

Handicap Flight….

On Sunday, May 30th Denise Waters from ARC arrived at PTW 5:45pm to fly the handicap flight with Ethel. Since the plane is only carrying Ethel and me during the race Denise took my spot in the plane for this flight. After a briefing and updating us on some additional ARC information the handicap flight began at about 7:15pm and they landed at 7:50pm. Things went smoothly and we are waiting for our handicap from Denise and the ARC team. I have to stress this point when talking about the Air Race Classic organization. They are a volunteer organization that amazes me as they take us through the various stages of preparation to get us to Fort Myers to start the race. Denise is the ARC Director of Airplanes and it was great to finally meet her after e-mailing her so often in the past couple of weeks. For our flying friends…Denise flies a Grumman Tiger and she flew in from Latrobe, PA after completely a handicap flight there earlier on Sunday. Once she was finished with us she was flying home to New York. Imagine doing this type of volunteer work in your spare time.

Ethel and I got some time to fly together on Monday, May 31st for a couple of hours to practice our racing techniques. For those who haven’t flown full throttle for long periods of time it is an interesting experience. Configuring the plane to fly straight and level when all she wants to do is climb proves to be a challenge as we get comfortable in the cockpit. Just simple things as cockpit organization are going to be tough as we plan to be in the plane for four straight days.
We are now patiently waiting for the plane to go in for its 100 hour inspection. Stay tuned for more information.

Time is Flying…

Yikes we only have 23 days until the start of the Air Race Classic. Both Ethel and I are very excited but there is still so much to do before we leave for Florida. Ethel has been plotting and planning our course throughout the race on all the sectionals that are needed for the race. I have been plotting and planning our course on Golden Eagle FlightPrep so we have a backup plan to our tried and true dead reckoning method. Then when all else fails we will have the GPS that is installed in the plane and our friend Tom Kozel has been kind enough to loan us his Garmin 396 with XM satellite weather. Many thanks Tom!!!! It sure is reassuring knowing that we have two GPS on board and one with weather.

I have also broken down and purchased a Kindle DX for this trip. I have been able to transfer all the Golden Eagle FlightPro flight planning documents to it as well as all the ARC documents. It is a very cool tool that will allow us to lighten up our load and we won’t be carrying a lot of additional paperwork. I have also transferred my Flight Guide subscription from the old printed book to a new eBook version that is now loaded onto my Kindle.

We are currently waiting for our handicap flight to be scheduled. This flight is conducted by an ARC official will calculate the speed of the plane so we can be assigned a handicap. The following excerpt is how the ARC website explains this very important event….

“Handicaps allow different make and model airplanes to fly in competition. This year ARC is assigning a unique handicap to each airplane based on an ARC Handicap Flight Check. Flight Checks utilize an ARC procedure for determining the airplane's true airspeed. To accomplish this, an ARC-provided Data Logger, ARC Check Pilot along with the registered team's Pilot and properly prepared Airplane are required. The Flight Check is a short four-leg course flown at a 6,000 ft density altitude in specific VFR conditions. Data loggers collect the flight information. Utilizing data downloaded from the Flight Check, ARC uses an accepted wind triangle method and equations involving trigonometry to solve for the maximum true airspeed for each airplane. This calculated speed will be the assigned handicap.”
( http://www.airraceclassic.org/raceronly)

Why Rick's Chicks?

There is quite a simple reason why we are calling ourselves Rick's Chicks during the Air Race Classic. Rick Jones in the owner of the rental plane we our flying. He is also the owner of Fare Share LTD so check out their website to see all the services they provide. (http://www.fareshareltd.com) Rick has been kind enough to let us rent the plane for the race so we have named our team Rick's Chicks. Wait until you see our shirts that we will be wearing during the race!!! Here is a picture of Rick and his Chicks!!!

No that is not the plane we will be flying and the Doctor Seuss stuff animal will be staying with Rick!!!