The Race Continues

Day 2 was an early start in Lufkin, TX. Everyone there was great and we had the most amazing hotel room. It was at least 4 or 5 times the size of a normal hotel room and felt like a palace. The hotel didn't have a community computer available for use so the night clerk let us use the one in the back office. Folks along the way have been amazingly helpful.

Going into Lufkin the night before we picked up a terrible background noise through our headsets which prohibited us from hearing any radio calls. We couldn't tell if our radio call was going through so made the calls anyway and Sheryl flashed the landing light as we did our low pass over the field which is the ARC way of communicating a radio failure. Others on the ground said that our communications were coming through okay so we decided to troubleshoot when we got into the air the next day, knowing that we could always use the handheld again.

We were wheels up from Lufkin bright and early on Wednesday and continued to have radio problems. Sheryl pulled out the instructions for the new communication box and checked all the connections with no success. We bypassed the new box only to find out that the interference was still going on. It was only when we switched off the VOR that all went gloriously silent again. Sheryl reconnected the communication box and we happily continued on our way.

The next stop was Russelville, AR. The little FBO there is brand new and even smells new. We had lovely treatment, lots of cold drinks and were off again to Grenada, MS. In Grenada Sheryl bonded with a fellow that is retired from the USPS. They had lots to talk about. We met his mother in the FBO where she fed us homemade BBQ (again) and potato chip cookies. Mom is a retired school teacher and had some interesting stories to tell regarding how civil rights ruined the local school system by allowing "them" in as teachers and the folks there shared their dismay that we were not all white pilots. Oops, it was time to say goodbye to ol' MS.

By now Sheryl and I were consistently doing short field take offs to account for the high density altitudes and the trees and hillsides at the runways ends. That seems to be working pretty well for us.

Sparta, TN was our next and final stop of the day. Our flight there was unremarkable, although finding the airport behind several towered hills that appeared to be ominously higher than published minimum altitudes was interesting. There were thunderstorms between TN and the next stop in IL and after flying three legs we decided to stay in Sparta for the night. We checked in with the stop chair and he was very helpful in getting us a room. When we asked how to get to the hotel he just shrugged his shoulders and said that we should do it anyway we could, but be sure to get whoever took us there "to promise" to pick us up on the morning and return us to the airport. Great help! We enlisted the help of a local pilot named Tom who piled us into his pickup truck and delivered us to the hotel. He even offered and followed through on picking us up in the morning and taking us back to the airport. What a guy!

The hotel in Sparta had two local restaurants. One a Waffle House and one a KFC. Six of us pilots grouped together walking around the area trying to find some alternative, and finally ended up at the Waffle House. As we sat eating our dinners we started to read the posted signs, such as the one requiring shirts and shoes to be served. Perhaps it was the stress of the long day but we all started to laugh at there being no requirement for bottoms and our humor went south from there. We laughed at the corniest jokes until our sides hurt. Sandy, from TX, started chocking on her food we were laughing so hard. Sheryl doesn't help matters when she fires out her one liner punch lines. A gentleman eating his dinner started to chat with us and as we each payed our bill and waited outside, we abandoned Sheryl with the talkativ guy. She came running out of the restaurant asking how we could have abandoned her that way which only caused us to break into more laughter.

Upon returning to the hotel we learned that a fellow pilot named Mary broke her ankle in Sweetwater. She tripped when trying to help one of the collegiate teams move their airplane. We all stopped in to visit with her. The poor thing looked like she was in a prize fight with a black eye, skinned shoulder and broken ankle. Her spirits were high and she planned to continue the race flying an Arrow, but from the right seat since she couldn't land without using her foot on the rudder peddles.

Sheryl and I planned to do laundry after dinner but failed to plan on what to wear since we only had two changes of cloths and both needed to be washed. The final plan was for me to sneak down the hotel stairs in PJs and Sheryl's long fleece and sneak into the laundry area unobserved. No such luck. Sandy and Linda beat me to the two washers. Our pilot camaraderie kicked in and after sorting Sheryl's and my cloths into darks and lights, I added our cloths to their wash loads. Geez, when ever would four woman share loads of laundry together? They didn't even comment on my strange attire. It was funny sorting out the cloths afterward and we only had one toss up on a pair of panties that could have been two of ours.

On Thursday we waited for an hour or so at the airport for the weather to become MVFR over the course of our next leg. When the weather cleared we left for Jacksonville, IL. The ride there was uneventful, but we fell victim to a story a local told of needing the avoid flying over the prison just 5 miles from the airport. Sheryl and I came in to the airport too high as a result and ended up slipping the plane in to lose altitude in order to do the flyby. Between the low level of fuel in the tanks and forgetting to use carb ice we lost our engine. With the field made I told Sheryl that we would have to forgo the race and just land. As we shifted from fly by set up to landing set up we followed all the emergency start procedures and the engine roared back into life. We proceeded to do the fly by and prepare to set up for a normal landing. The engine quit again so now we decided to land on the closest runway instead of the planned runway. Again the engine kicked over so we proceeded with a normal landing.

Needless to say, we did a careful pre-flight and run-up prior to continuing on.

The second leg of the day was to Racine, WI. We now had to manage the Class B Chicago airspace. We got flight following, but at one point ATC waited too long to pass us to the next frequency so we could hear ATC calling us but they couldn't hear us responding to them. We asked for anyone else on the frequency to relay this message but no one responded. We then proceeded to work our way through every Chicago frequency we could locate until we picked her up again. She gave us a scolding for not responding to her for 5 minutes and didn't seem to listen when we told her we couldn't until finding a different frequency!

The Racine airport is yet another beautiful field. They took good care of us and as we chatted with the racers and checked weather we saw just a bit of heavy rain en route. With only one more leg to go we decided to go for it. We ended up diverting around the rain because it was too heavy to go through, so our time during this last leg will not be very good.

We picked our way between amazingly tall towers in Iowa and found our way into Atlantic, IA one day early! We completed the race in three days and were surprised to realize that we were only the second ones to arrive at the terminus!

The welcome in Atlantic was great. The first plane arrived around 11:30 AM and we didn't get in until 6:30 PM, so folks were primed to provide a hospitable welcome.

Karen Workman, my ARC partner from last year, is one of the terminus volunteers! She was waving from the timing tent with the others as we pulled in and gave us a warm welcome. We also had a wonderful young man named Jessie provide us with cold water and help with the tie downs. I believe he said he was seven.

Sheryl's friends picked us up and after giving us some time to wash up a bit, took us to a fabulous restaurant 12 miles down the road in Anita. We walked into the restaurant only to find the ARC judges, the scorekeeper, the three pilots who already came in and Karen. It's a small world.

Dinner was great and just as we finished there was a funny sound as all the lights went out. As we sat there in total darkness and total silence not sure of what happened, Sheryl piped up and asked if this was how the restaurant indicated it was closing time. The patrons and wait staff all broke out laughing and soon to follow candles were lit and we could see again. Our host and hostess were digging in their pockets for cash since the credit card machine was inoperative. The folks that hadn't eaten yet were unphased since the kitchen used gas for cooking. As we walked out of the restaurant and into the light of the stars the lights started to flash on momentarily until a big explosion with a spray of blue light lit the sky and all went dark again. Upon arriving back at the hotel we were ready for a good night's sleep.

Today we tried to rent a car. The hotel staff suggested a place down the road so off we went on foot to find it. When we got there we learned that they only rented trailers and not cars! Russel, the shop owner, chatted with us about the race, talked about his showcase Harley's and called all the car rental folks in town. There were no cars to rent so he hung a sign in his window stating, "Back in 30 minutes" while joking 30 minutes from when, and drove us to the airport.

We watched many of the planes land and chatted with everyone there. Since we couldn't find a car the airport gave us the courtesy car. What a hoot! It is a black and while police car with the town name pained on the side and outfitted with a spotlight and a big push thingy in the front. We are cruizin!

Tonight we have a melt down party at the airport hangers, tomorrow a host family is having us for dinner, Sunday is the award banquet and we depart for home on Monday.