Woke up at the crack of dawn this morning to go to the Mobile airport to try to get our handicap flight done before the mid morning cumulus starts to build. It's about 8am and it's already extremely hot and humid. Our check pilot is still busy with another flight, so we are waiting in the cool terminus building. Since I'm not needed for the flight (they try to get the same weight distribution as the race configuration, so the check pilot stands in for me), I have helped preflight the plane and prepare for the trip, but then I am going to be disloyal and go for a massage while the rest of the team is flying.... Then I will return to pick them up, and we'll go on to the rest of the day which is a tour of Continental (aviation engine manufacturer, although our engine is a Lycoming!), followed by an event on a battleship, and at some point we have to get our final scoresheet signed off.
Barbara writes:
I'm in the same cool terminal waiting for our check pilot to return. This handicap flight is truly the final lap in our journey. We feel we have done the very best we could with only minor things we might have changed thinking back over the six legs of the race. Now we wait on the results and the judges decisions. For the time being we still dream of finishing at the top of the pack. Although I sat in the back for every flight Linda and Alison have made me feel very much a part of the team all the time. I love them both for it.
