Its February 2011, and team Cool Beans (aka Linda Evans and Alison Chalker) is back again for the 2011 Air Race Classic. Linda and Alison haven't raced together since 2008, but Alison flew the 2009 and 2010 races with Mary Wunder, who is also flying again this year with new race partner Rose Brown.
New this year - the plane! As of October 2010, Linda and Alison are the proud owners of Cessna 182 N222VW, and this 1997 airplane is going to be racing its very first Air Race Classic. Here are two pictures taken during the prebuy:
Last weekend we took a break from the long cold winter and flew 2VW down to St Pete FL to see our friend (and former racer) Barbara and her partner Russell! We got some sun, saw an alligator, and got in a long shakedown flight on which we learned a lot about the airplane.
The Air Race Classic is a transcontinental air race for women pilots, and has been raced in one form or another for more than 80 years. Each year the route is different, but it is always a VFR (visual flight rules) race in daytime across approximately 2400 nautical miles. Racers have 4 days to complete the course, and teams are scored on their performance relative to their individual handicap. Understanding and handling your airplane to get maximum performance at full throttle is key, as is reading the weather to find good tailwinds and maintain VFR. There's no experience like this one. This year's race is a 2722 statute mile route from Iowa City to Mobile, Alabama, taking in eleven stops!
To find out more about the 2010 Air Race Classic, as well as the history and results of previous races, check out their website http://www.airraceclassic.org/.
To see the 2008 blog from Team Cool Beans (Alison Chalker and Linda Evans), see http://evanslle.googlepages.com/.To see the 2009 and 2010 blogs from Team Adelles Belles (Mary Wunder and Alison Chalker), check out http://adellesbelles.blogspot.com/ and http://adellesbelles2010.blogspot.com/
To find out more about The Ninety-Nines, check out http://www.ninety-nines.org/