Very early race morning...

It has been a very busy 4 days preparing to race.

THURSDAY - We passed through credentials. We got through aircraft credentials with a couple of minor bumps. My unplanned trip last month to Syracuse added hours on the flying time for 51-Charlie and left us with only 13 hours before a 100-hr required check for 2 ADs (Airworthiness Directives) - ignition switch and seat rail stops.  These are routine checks made every 100 hrs that the plane is flown.  The race will take 20 hrs of flying, so without having an A&P (mechanic) check and sign them off now, we would have lapsed during the race.  Check, check - done...good for another 100 hrs. Thanks, Kevin, at White Hawk Aviation. The last hurdle was having the AWAM (Assoc. for Women in Aviation Maintenance) volunteers complete the aircraft inspection. This inspection is to check a few key elements of the aircraft and to spot some Torque Seal in key places to verify that we are not modifying the performance on the aircraft in our spare time on the race. Except for a pesky strobe light that didn't want to wake up on the light checks, we were fine. At the end of the inspection, I tried the strobes again, gave it a few seconds to fire up, and bingo (!), it was blinking for them.  Good to go!

FRIDAY - play day with some friends from Richmond who came up to visit. I will come back and post on that

SATURDAY & SUNDAY - briefings, briefings, and more briefings. I'll try to revisit this.

MONDAY - it is race morning!!! The weather seems good. It is TOO EARLY - 5:00 AM! Blaghh...not my best time of day. Time to hit the shower, gather the bags, check out and go to the last briefing beofre the mad dash to the airport and planes...stay tuned.

Flying IMC to the Start: Taking 51-Charlie Thru the Plane Wash...

Charlie Cardinal flying IMC

WEDNESDAY - What a flight to the Start! Jeneanne checked weather the night before and suggested that we beat it out of Lancaster before 8am, as rain was forecast to move in.  So we were up and awake by 5:30 am...maybe a bit bleary-eyed. Packed. Grabbed some breakfast. In the crew car, which had little speed, suspect (nonexistent) brakes, and odd sounds for every function that it performed. But hey, it's a crew car and did its job - free transportation for pilots to/from the airport.

We arrived at Fairfield County Airport, took our weather briefing, and planned to make our move for the Start. Freezing AIRMET - what?!?! Oh no worries - 14,000 feet and above - we were planning for 7,000. We'd be in the clouds (IMC - instrument meteorological conditions; aka IFR - instrument flight rules) after climbing above 3,000 feet, but I figured that we'd then fly into a nice VFR (visual flight rules - free of clouds, can see the ground) pattern. Hah!!! We were "in the soup" all the way to Stafford Regional except for about the last 20 miles. It was a "thick soup," a smooth ride and a wet one. Jeneanne was getting dripped on with a spritz of rainwater hitting her eye - sopping it up with a towel - she came prepared. She also got some nice "real time" instrument flying in - no "Foggles" (sight-limiting training tool for learning to fly on instruments only) required.

Charlie Cardinal watching our bags...

So with it being so warm and humid, we dreaded debugging the plane after we landed. "Debugging" is every pilots least favorite job - cleaning the splattered bug guts off the leading edges of the plane - wings, tail, windshield, front end, etc.). But hey, no worries! In addition to the clouds, which carry moisture, we flew through about 1.5 hrs of rain on our 2 hr flight. It was quite the plane wash - soft rainwater flown through at about 130-140 knots (150-160 mph) with our nice little tail wind pushing us along. So we had few bug guts on the plane after landing, and the humidity kept them "soft" and easy to clean off. [We hope you enjoyed this little glamorous side of aviation.]

Once on the ground in Stafford, we were greeted by a volunteer who helped us push back the plane into the grass, tie down 51-Charlie, load up our gear on his golf cart, and give us a ride to the terminal. We got an ice cold water and were welcomed by a few folks - sister racers - who had also recently arrived. We are HERE! The REAL fun begins...

Afternoon Flying North of the Weather Front

Sea of windmills

We had a beautiful flight today. Cardinal Cruisers are already a team in sync, arriving at IOW just a couple minutes apart. Checked weather. Got our weather briefing. Called our stop to check on fuel and crew car situation - good to go. Packed the plane and launched out of IOW about 3:45 pm. Blue sky...fluffy clouds above...climbing to 7,000 ft. Beautiful day to fly. All the weather playing havoc with the middle part of the country is south of our line of flight all the way to our overnight stop.

Jeneanne takes the controls and settles in to fly most of the leg. Minnetta settles in to catch up on a few emails to the Start and Terminus volunteers. We are both enjoying the flight and the views en route. Just a few clouds scattered below, around and above us. We finally start to see some build ups ahead, and we begin guessing whether we'll surf across the top of them or drill holes in them - it's a little of both. Jeneanne finally hits a big cloud that keeps us "on instruments" for a few minutes before coming out into the clear.

Thirty minutes from Lancaster OH, Minnetta takes the plane back to prepare for our landing. Straight in with light winds favoring runway 10...following the glide slope down to the runway...touchdownd. We taxi up and fill 'er up with fuel...drag her to our tie down spot...reacquaint ourselves with tying ropes...pull the gear out that we need for the night...pack the crew car...and head to claim the last hotel room in Lancaster.

Fredericksburg, we'll see you for lunch...

Flying by the muddy Wabash Rivrer

Going with the flow...

It's a key facet of flying (and racing). You've got to go with the flow...set a plan and be willing to adjust as needed. Our plan is to arrive at the Start in Fredericksburg VA on Wednesday. It's about 6 hrs of flying from Iowa City, one fuel stop would be needed, and we lose an hour as we travel from Central to Eastern time. So the plan was to depart IOW early-ish Wed morning.

The flow? Weather patterns across our route of flight.  Lots of forecasts for scattered thunderstorms this week. So we are adjusting. We're now looking to leave IOW on Tue afternoon and to get about half the trip completed before stopping for fuel and spending the night somewhere...maybe Columbus area...maybe not. We'll see how the weather looks as we leave and adjust as needed.  But we'll be about half-way to the Start as we check into a hotel somewhere Tue evening. THAT is the adventure of flying...

Hey, how about our team logo this year? Co-pilot Jeneanne worked with a local embroiderer in her hometown area. Not a bad rendition of a Cardinal.  We're looking forward to breaking out the shirts at the Start. I've got the numbers for the tail of the plane too. Thought about breaking my tradition of putting them on the plane at the Start. But hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So the numbers will be riding in the back seat to RMN. It's a team thing to put the numbers on at the Start...just like always. I visited 51-Charlie in the hangar this morning, and she's all clean and shiny just waiting to launch on Tuesday.

Who are the Cardinal Cruisers?

If it's June, it must be Air Race Classic time. Hooray!!!  And each June brings a new race team to make new adventures to add to this air race addiction.  For 2015, we are the Cardinal Cruisers - aka Minnetta Gardinier and Jeneanne Visser.

For me, it will be race #8.  For Jeneanne, it will be race #1.  For my Cessna Cardinal (C177B), it will be race #7, and she is so looking forward to racing again after a year off last year. Together, we are the Cardinal Cruisers.

And here is our route for 2015...next week, we will set our sights (and GPS) on Fredericksburg VA.