Start Weekend in Concord CA

This has been a busy weekend of weather briefings, safety briefings, and race meetings. We were lucky to have a free day on Friday to ride the BART into San Francisco and spend a day in the town. We walked from pier 1 to pier 39 and had an awesome lunch-sourdough bread rolls filled with clam chowder! That gave us the energy to get all the way around to the Girardelli chocolate factory. The weather in San Francisco was lovely, clear skies with a light breeze.

Returning to Concord airport we were shuttled to Sterling Aviation for the Abingdon Watch Clocktail Hour and a barbecue of tri-tip roast, potato salad, green salad and rolls. It was a chance to visit with all the returning racers and meet some new racers from the college teams.

Saturday and Sunday we have mandatory meetings with Air Race Classic. In the afternoon we studied our routes, got outlook briefing of the weather, drew the timing lines on our approach plates and are getting into race mode. Here's hoping our checkered flag dresses bring us good luck!

Early Monday is the last mandatory briefing before take off at 8am. Follow us on Facebook Classic Twentyseven for updates through out the race and follow us on www.trackleaders.com/arc14 to see all the racers on Spot!

Arriving at the Start in Concord Ca

Our departure from Lake Havasu this morning.

We had a great 4 hour flight up to Concord, flying out of the desert past Edwards AFB and turning the corner, overflying Bakersfield airport and heading up to Concord. We landed about 1:30 and were able to do our credential check in and airplane inspection right away.

The same team that inspected us last year in Pasco was on hand, and remembered our Flo as being a bit of a problem child for getting the cowl off and scoring the prop governor. They threatened to disqualify us if we show up next year! But we convinced them they were getting so fast and good at it, we were going to make a competition and time them.

"Flo" has her race clothes on and we are ready to go! Wonderful husband Bill went out this morning to apply a little more wax to the wings, while the team packed up and dropped off our suitcases to be shipped-courtesy of wonderful husband John:) And wonderful husband Jon has made all the plans to get the Bonanza Boys to the terminus in Harrisburg PA by Wednesday.

Thursday June 12th we plan to lift off around 7am for our 4 hour flight to Concord CA. Once there, we will have credential check-in, and our hostesses from the San Joaquin 99s have arranged for us to go tour the Viano Vineyards, the oldest winery in the County. Still owned by the same family since 1886, we will tour the winery and sample their fine wines.

Friday the 13th is the deadline for racers to check in. We will have "Flo" inspected, and then we turn in our keys and she is impounded until race start on Monday morning. The mandatory weather briefings, safety briefings, and fly by briefings will carry on through the weekend.

But in spite of all those briefings, we will still be very social! Abingdon Watches is hosting a Clocktail Party at the Jet Center prior to our barbecue on Friday evening. Saturday is the Start Banquet, and Sunday we hope to be done with meetings by lunch time and take a quick trip into San Fransisco.

Follow us on our Facebook page Classic Twentyseven
Once the race starts on Monday follow us on Spot Trackleaders.com/arc14

And, for today, we were FAMOUS PEOPLE! We made the front page of the local paper

The pilots will be flying a 1968 Cessna 182L. Here she is decked out in her racing flames with all our wonderful sponsors logos. Would you like to help sponsor the team? Check out our sponsor levels and email us

Jan 2nd Registration Opens

Frances, our pilot

Shannon, our tactical coordinator

 Jan 2nd-race registration day!

Pam, our co-pilot

We have begun the process of registration for the 2014 Air Race Classic! This year the race takes us from Concord, CA to New Cumberland, PA - a distance of 2,655 statute miles. We had such good luck with her last year, we'll be taking "Flo" as our race plane. Flo is a 1968 Cessna 182 Skylane, and also goes by her race name of Classic Twentyseven.

 





Follow along with us here, and also on our FaceBook page "Classic Twentyseven" as we prepare for this awesome race. We'll have at least one other member of our 99s chapter racing with us this year, our Mama Bird - Tookie Hensley. Joining her is co-pilot from last year, Pam Bird. And there may be more....need to match some pilots, with co-pilots, and airplanes. It's the most fun flying you'll ever have!



 

 

We Finished in the TOP TEN!!

 

Our pilot said and we concur:

Sat for 2 nights, due to bad weather. Raced a 4 day, all VFR race in 2 days. I am beyond thrilled to be blessed to be amongst a group of such incredible legends that have raced this all women's air race since 1929 and place in the top ten.
Thank you all for your support and prayers for safety.

 

Classic Twentyseven finished in seventh place for the 2013 Air Race Classic

 



 

 



The last day....

Sunday we had an early racers breakfast to attend and then the mandatory debriefing for several hours afterwards.  Everyone gets to share their thoughts on what went well, and what didn't, and how we could improve. Today's meeting was very positive, especially of the new inspection team this year. Having all the airplanes handicapped before the race was an improvement over last year. And everyone loved the Spot GPS tracker! You could follow the race on www.trackleaders.com/arc13

There were over 11,000 hits on that site the first day.

We spent the afternoon checking on the airplanes, visiting with other racers and have lunch down on Dickson Street. Killing time until the big event tonight, the banquet & RESULTS!

We know we will place in the top 15 racers because we had the call Saturday morning to have the race plane re-inspected.