Thanksgiving at Moab, UT with Holly, Chris and family

Bill, Judy and Michael had a great flight out to Moab, UT and back for Thanksgiving.

Holly and her family pulled their camper down from Glenwood Springs, CO, set it up in the desert and hosted us. The most amazing aspect is that they can literally pull off onto a remote road adjacent to Arches National Park, pull into the desert and set up camp anywhere they want to! They need to be 100% self sufficient because there are no amenities like showers, electricity or water. Holly and Chris are totally organized with lots of water, food and warm cloths. Holly even brought hats for us lowlanders to sleep in because the desert gets really cold at night in late November. The camper has bump out sleeping quarters that are canvas enclosed so little protection from the elements. We learned to conserve our heat at night with lots of blankets, clothing, and of course, Holly's hats! What a glamorous and odiferous crew we made with no excess water for showers!

Flying across the Rockies was a first for our family. Skies were clear on the way out so we could easily see the mountain tops and where to fly. Minimum safe altitude according to air traffic control was 16,000 feet but we picked out way through at 13,500. We had an oxygen tank for Bill and Judy as pilots but Michael had to go it on his own in the back seat. He reported a mild headache and drowsiness but did just fine. He is an absolute trooper!

Flying in to the Moab airport, a.k.a. Canyonlands, was spectacular. We had an aerial view of the arches in the National Park as well as the amazing lands surrounding the area.

Once at the Adelman campgrounds we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. Holly premade everything at home except for the turkey and she is a primo chef. Chris set up a turkey fry-o-lator and that proved to be an adventure in itself. At times we thought that Thanksgiving dinner would be a vegitarian event, but Chris came through with a tasty fried turkey.

Chris and Holly were well prepared with lots to do including aerial rockets, dirt bikes, and a little dirt bike for the kids. Mostly the kids, including Michael, were happy climbing the monumental and spectacular cliffs surounding the camp area. Everyone took a turn on the mini-dirt bike and Michael received lessons from Chris on how to ride Holly's dirt bike.

The Trulove's, Holly and Chris' friends from Glenwood Springs, arrived on Friday with two dogs, three kids and a box full of equipment, including dirt bikes and an ATV. Michael quickly and enthusiastically became proficient on the ATV.

We set off on a dirt bike ride with Holly and Tina (Trulove) on their bikes, Michael on the ATV, Bill on Chris' bike and Judy on Ty's bike. Well, the course was rather daunting and Judy didn't do so well on a 450 with toes barely touching the ground. Michael ended up driving Judy on the ATV with Ty on his 450 as tour guide. All (except for Ty) were fully challenged on the course which is not for the faint of heart, let me tell you.

Saturday morning brought clouds and a forecast of snow so the Snow's were off for the trip home. We looked back on our hiking, camping, dirt biking and ATV riding experience as a once in a lifetime event to remember!

As we arrived at the Canyonlands airport to retrive our airplane for the ride home we had great hopes of brushing out teeth and washing our faces. Hard to believe, but... no water. There was literally no water at the entire airport and they put buckets of water in the bathrooms for self flushing with instructions on the stall doors!

As we took off (with stinky teeth) from Canyonlands we had the unique opporunity to fly over the Adelman/Trulove camp area with some steep turns over the camp grounds and wing waves. From the air we could see them all waving back.

The flight back over the Rockies was a bit more adventurous due to a low cloud layer with icing in the clouds. We were able to safely slip between the mountain tops (in the low passes) and the cloud layer and to our great relief, the cloud bases lifted as we proceeded toward the highest ridge of moutains for safe passage. The remainder of the trip, was, well... boring in comparison. No hair rasing events or Rockies to cross.

Overall, a Thanksgiving to remember for all.

Thank you to Holly, Chris, Skylar, Orion and the Truloves for a great Thanksgiving.

The Final Chapter

Sheryl and I are both back at home.

We had a great flight from Iowa to Indiana with the best tailwinds of the trip. Sheryl's friend Margaret was there to greet us at Sheridan Airport with bagel and drinks. We didn't get a chance to have breakfast in our haste to get started from Iowa so this was a real treat. Pilots, which Margaret is, have a great sense for these things.

Margaret also provided us with a full tank of fuel for 701 for the next leg of the trip. Thank you, Margaret!

The next leg carried me to DuBois, PA. It was lonesome flying without Sheryl. We were a great team and really enjoyed our time together. I met a couple from Holbrook, MA while waiting to buy a tall cup of coffee to keep me awake for the remainder of the journey. In retrospect it wasn't needed due to having yet another storm to fly around in Wilkes-Barre, PA and lowering weather conditions as I progressed eastward.

Upon arriving in Plymouth, MA I had a wonderful welcoming committee consisting of Bill, his daughter Robin, her husband Eric and baby Collette.

After 52 hours of flight time and visiting or flying over 21 states the trip is ended and it was awesome.

Judy

Sunday

Last evening Sheryl and I were hosted by Jeff and Pat Nelson, a local family who had us for dinner. Pat has taught school locally for many years and the entire community knows and loves her. She seemed somewhat aghast as we parked the black and white police cruiser in her drive but graciously laughed about it while expressing a hope that her neighbors would think the worst.

Sheryl and I had a wonderful evening with the Nelsons and enjoyed an awesome home cooked meal of salad, steak and Iowa corn on the cob followed by (don't be jealous, Bill) apple pie and ice cream. After two weeks on the road it was so wonderful to sit in a family atmosphere with wonderful conversation and wonderful food. Thank you, Jeff and Pat!

Today we had the All Racers breakfast and debrief followed by a lazy day of hanging around and getting our nails done at the local salon which opened on a Sunday to take care of all of us bedraggled racers. They must have taken one look at us and realized we needed them!

Tonight was the Awards Banquet. Sheryl and I ended up placing 20 out of the remaining 31 teams in the race and one an award for one leg of the race. Although we would have been happy to make a better showing, we are still pleased as punch that we finished the race in good standing and that we had so much fun doing so.

Tomorrow, the trek home.

Saturday

Sheryl seems to have an unending number of friends. Her friend Margaret flew out with her husband to meet us at the Melt Down cookout. She brought some other relatives and friends and we had a good old time. There was a P51 Mustang ride auctioned and one of our more senior pilots won. At 88 she had a great ride this morning which included some barrel roles and a breakfast. Not sure which came first - the barrel rolls or breakfast but I can guess.

After the cookout last evening Sheryl and I received an unnerving phone message. We were "invited" to meet with the ARC judges at 10:30 this morning to discuss "allegations made against us" during the race. Yikes! What could we possibly have done? We wracked our brains for hours trying to figure it out. Did we cut another plane off? Did we endanger someone? Did we grievously and unknowingly break some rule? The judge who called didn't pick up her cell phone for us to find out what the issue was and her voice mailbox was full. Needless to say we had a restless night.

As this morning progressed we found that many of the other teams were invited to discuss allegations as well, so we were somewhat relieved to find out it wasn't just us and the infractions ranged from minor to somewhat serious. As we waited outside the judge's chambers (one of the hotel rooms) we nervously talked to some of the other racers while waiting for our turn in the hot seat. When we were finally up it turns out that one of our fly bys was a bit too low. That was ALL. It turns out the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) which is the bureau that investigates airplane accidents and incidents was there measuring altitudes. Sheryl and I both felt that we did not fly the pass too low and let the judges know our side of the story. Although not final until tomorrow, they said they would most likely ding us with a two knot penalty for that leg of the race. Whew! We were so relieved. Of course we would have preferred not to have any infractions, but compared to all the adventures we had this seemed relatively minor to us. We ended up chatting and laughing with the judges and told them of the heroics of the team that extended their fly by when we were having engine issues. They thanked us for sharing the positive information. Who knows, maybe that team can get a two knot reward!

We already know that we did not finished in the top ten, but do not yet know our overall standing.

We had an opportunity to review our score sheet with the official race timer and were pleased to find that we beat our handicap on every leg - even taking into consideration the two knot penalty on one leg. We beat the handicap by anywhere from 0.8 to 19.5!

Sheryl and I are both relieved and happy that we finished the race, are safe and flew a good race. We will find out how we rank against the other teams at tomorrow night's awards banquet.

The balance of today was spent once again shipping excess weight home, fueling the plane and removing our race numbers and sponsor advertisements. We participated in the children's event where girl scouts and any other local youngsters who are interested in flying came to the airport. One of the mother/daughter ARC teams drew a large chalk outline of the airport on the tarmac and we listened and responded to one of the gals who acted as ATC as we pretended to fly in using various approaches with our little co-pilots at our sides. We walked through a pre-flight with the kids and then gave them turns sitting in 701 at the controls.

We have been having some fun driving the black and white police car around town. Folks in Atlantic, IA that we only met yesterday are recognizing us and waving greatings. I think the local police are on to something since everyone carefully obeys all the traffic laws as we go by. They are getting additional enforcement on someone else's dime. Traffic slows down and almost always wait for us to go first at stop signs. Perhaps with some modifications to the Mustang....

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.

First Day of the Race

Today is what it is all about. We had our racer breakfast and briefings with ATC and the weather folks at 6 and then it was off to Centennial for the race. Centennial was really organized and got us off in short order. The density altitude was so severe that we barely made it off the runway. Luckily the same type of aircraft took off ahead of us, so we knew what to expect by watching them. We literally skimmed the tops of some buildings, so hopefully the occupants were not looking out the window. GPS keep listing "TERRAIN"! We knew we were low but couldn't do much about it. Eventually we achieved our desired altitude. The fact that the terrain dropped below us was a significant help.

The racers all were chatting on 122.75 and it was a hoot.

We shuffled for position as we flew on to KS, making calls to each other as we overtook or in our case were overtaken several times. Our heads are still spinning from the wake some of the others left but we were laughing and having fun the whole time.

Our first low pass, high speed fly by was in Liberal, KS. What a great airport. They were totally prepared for us, fueled us and the plane and we were off to TX. We crossed over hundreds of miles of desolate terrain and even crossed over Oklahoma. Our next destination was Sweetwater, TX and boy was it hot and a zoo. It was so hot... our shoes stuck to the asphalt! Sweetwater was not prepared for us and not able to handle the onslaught of 30 odd racers in quick succession. They kindly gave us a goody bag with chocolates but they were literally liquid by the time we got attempt eating them so no joy on the chocolate.

Our next and final stop was Lufkin, TX. Lufkin is lovely and we are here for the night. The only restaurant had a 2.5 hour wait, and thus it is the end of a long, hot yet exhilarating day.

Tomorrow? Who knows. We are too tired to contemplate that at the moment but will figure it out by early AM.

Day 7

It has been a week of travel and preparation for the race which finally starts tomorrow.

Due to the poor performance of 701 in the high heat and high density altitude on our way in to Denver there was a nagging concern over whether or not we blew a cylinder. 30 minutes to climb 400o feet worried both Sheryl and I. 701 was already inspected for the race so we obtained permission from race organizers to put it into the shop and get the cylinders checked. Luckily they are all checked out okay. Whew! What a relief. Had they not we would have sat here in CO awaiting repairs and most likely missed the race all together!

701 is loaded heavily with full fuel (a race start requirement), the two of us and luggage. To lighten the load and improve performance we shipped everything we could ahead to the race terminus and it amounted to 50 lbs. Here we thought we were traveling light. Light now is defined as a wash and wear shirt, Capri's, toothbrush, hairbrush and PJ's. Oh, the GPS, too.

We also located an intercom box so communications with ATC and each other will be much better.

Briefings today ran from 8 in the morning until 2:30 in the afternoon, so hopefully we are know what we are supposed to be doing over the next four days. Pictures are posted on www.airraceclassic.org.

Tomorrow will be wheels up at Centennial in Denver between 8 and 9. Our first stop is Liberal, KS, then on to Sweetwater, TX. Weather and time permitting we will proceed on to Lufkin, TX. Total distance is 813 nm (about 9 hours of flying time). Liberal, KS will hold the challenge of 30 odd planes trying to get fueled and back into the air as soon as possible. Sweetwater, TX should be less of a crunch. Too long of a delay will prevent sufficient time for the remainder of our planned route. Once the contestants start to spread out due to airplane type and flying styles we should have less congestion at these little airports which are mostly ill equipped to handle us all at once.

701 also has the distinction of being the second to the worst handicap so most of the folks should be far ahead of us before long.

Wish us luck!