Leg #3 to Lufkin, Texas

It was lucky that we stayed in Sweetwater last night. We were able to get some early morning tailwinds for the 300 miles leg to Lufkin. First time since we left Indiana that we had a tailwind. It was a crisp, cool morning with great visibility. This shot shows the Sweetwater airport with the Windmill farms in the background. They have one of the largest arrays of windmills in the country. The drive to the airport was in the dark and the red lights on the windmills all blinked in unison.

This leg was the first time we had a faster aircraft behind us over-take us. A Cessna 182 was flying about 500 feet below us and slightly offset to the right. At 1000 feet AGL we were getting a slight tailwind. One of the 182 pilots told me at Lufkin that they were getting a 10 knot tailwind at their altitude. Oh, well. Guess you can't pick the right altitude each leg. We were happy with the 4 knot tailwind and not hitting any towers.

Entering the pattern at Lufkin

Dunbar's Comment:

AIR RACE: As Prussian General Helmuth Von Moltke said, "No battle plan survives its first contact with the enemy." Thus is the benefit of the planning process and the experience of planning, not necessarily the resultant plan. Translation, Victoria and Jessica are staying in TX tonight. Headwinds and a minor electrical issue (quickly resolved) are making them lay up earlier than planned. Hoping for calmer winds manana.

Leg #2 to Sweetwater, Texas

Each leg of the race starts with a low pass, high speed fly by of the timing line. At Liberal, we take off and enter a large pattern. The goal is to gain some altitude, get lined up with the timing line, then dive bomb down to 200 feet above the ground to get some speed before crossing the timing line. It's a rush to be flying 170 knots that close to the ground.

It was a hot and muggy day in Liberal, and it just got hotter as we headed down to Sweetwater. We had headwinds the whole way, so we had to stay pretty low to find the best groundspeed. Unfortunately, that meant suffering the heat. The OAT gauge was showing a temp of 95 degrees. Like most small aircraft, we do not have air conditioning.

Our TCAS helped us look for traffic. We were keeping track of each Classic aircraft we passed. Most of them were Cessna 172s and Warriors. We noticed a target that was 1500 feet below us, coming fast from behind. We joked abut it being a fast moving truck, since the target was coming from ground level. (We were 1500 feet above the ground). It was moving fast, coming from behind on the left. Jessica cranes around, looking behind us. "It's and F-16!" Sure enough, an F-16 was tree-top-flying, entering the MOA we were skimming the border of. "And there's another one!" We joked that the only thing fast enough to pass us was an F-16...and that was alright with us!

Parked on the ramp in Sweetwater

Leg #1 Liberal, Kansas

About 20 minutes into the flight I realized how cool it was that we were so much faster than a lot of the other planes. When we raced two years ago in a C-172 we rarely passed anyone. Now that we had 10-15 knots on a lot of the planes, we really had to keep a look-out for traffic we were overtaking. Not a bad problem to have. The TCAS (taffic alert) system really helped out.

The terrain from Denver to Lufkin was mostly uninhabited. There were a few ranches and farmers, but they were few and far between. We didn't see much civilization until we got closer to Liberal. It was really starting to heat up and we wer happy to be nearing our destination. It was time to get ready for the first fly-by!

For the fly-by, we were instruted to fly 200 feet above the ground over the taxiway parallel to runway 17. It's pretty cool flying that low at full power, with a groundspeed of 145 knots! Upon crossing the timing line, we climbed to pattern altitude, extended our upwind, and pulled the power back to let the engine cool a bit after working so hard for us. We had a smooth landing and taxied to the ramp.

We were greeted by some friendly linemen and some of the local 99's with cold bottled water and a goody bag. When we walked into the FBO we were happy to be offered pizza, cookies, apples, and other treats. It was a very nice FBO with very friendly workers and volunteers. We spent about an hour on the ground, eating, checking weather, and getting our plane ready for another leg.

As nice as the hospitality was, it was time to proceed to Sweetwater, Texas. This was a longer leg of 276 nautical miles. The plan was to get fuel at Sweetwater, then head on the Lufkin, Texas (another 300 nm leg) for the overnight. If we were going to make it to Lufin we needed to be on our way. Little did we know that our plans were not going to go quite as planned...

Boogity, Boogity, Boogity...Let's Go Racing Girls!

It's Monday morning and we are ready to take the green flag in the 80th annual Air Race Classic! The first leg of the race is to Liberal, Kansas, a distance of 238 nautical miles. We all stand around our planes in excited anticipation of starting the race. Many of the pilots take the time to do some last minute detailing of their aircraft, just waiting for the timers to tell them to start their engines.

And then it is time. We are parked at Signature, one of the 3 FBO's on the field. With our number of 32, we get to see the first wave take-off before getting into out planes. We are using runway 10. Wind are light and variable. Even at 8:30 in the morning the density altitude is almost 8000 feet. We are cleared for takeoff. We do a rolling takeoff, having set our mixture properly during the runup. Even so, we easily used about 3000 feet before lifting off.

On to Liberal!

And Our Race Handicap Is....

Ok, so as a new airplane never having been entered in a race before, we had no idea what our handicap would be. Every airplane is given a handicap based on expected performance. For example, when Amy and I raced in 2007 our handicap was 108 knots in a Cessna 172R model. At race power we were usually getting about 120 knots. So that gave us a 12 point buffer to work with.

One the way out the Denver we were seeing a true airspeed of about 140 knots. Our indicated airspeed was around 130 knots. With the headwinds, our groundspeed was only about 125 knots. We were also flying at higher elevations than we normally do (normal being 3000 ft, this flight we had to climb to 7000 ft just to be at pattern altitude). It was also in the upper 90's, so the density altitude was very high. With all these numbers, it was hard for us to figure what would be a good handicap. The not knowing was killing us!

To determine the handicap for the Diamond, it had to have a test flight. Jessica and I got up early Sunday morning to head out to the airport with an Air Race Official and do the 30 minutes flight. It was described to us as flying a really big pattern. They would take into account density altitude, winds, true airspeed, and we were to be in race configuration. Only one of us could go for the test flight. I was trying to get over a bit of a head cold so Jessica was the test pilot. The flight was uneventful. Jessica was even able to take some nice shots of the Denver mountains. Upon landing, we were told that we would have to wait until that evening to find out our handicap.

That evening we had the takeoff banquet. It was a nice dinner. We sat with the team from Kansas State, who was excited to find that I knew their Aviation Department Chair, Dr. Barnhardt. We also sat with the team from Minnesota. The pilot had just graduated high school and already had enough flight time to get her commercial. Pretty impressive.

The dinner included recognizing of all the volunteers, and then each team came up for an introduction. It was nice to meet and talk to some really interesting females in aviation.

But finally we got to what we'd been waiting to hear ever since we knew we were entering the Diamond - our handicap. Our handicap is 123.59 knots.

Me and Jessica at the banquet.

Inspection Time

Saturday and Sunday were full of inspections...inspections of the aircraft, inspections of the pilot credentials...we are fully checked out and ready to start this race!

The aircraft inspection was Saturday. We taxied over to the designated spot on the airfield. A mechanic did a static runup and checked the gauges. When they were satisfied with that, we shut down and they took off the cowl to take a closer look at the engine. They check for general maintenance problems, but also to make sure that there are no modifications that weren't reported in our previous paperwork. (What that tells me is that in previous years they must have had a problem with that!)

Since the Diamond DA40 had never been raced before, we had to send in a lot of extra paperwork before the race even started. I was happy to have the help of Vern Connley, an IA and volunteer with the Air Race. He spent quite a while going over the documents we needed and he quickly replied to all my emails and phone calls. Together with the help of Denise Waters, we were able to get the Diamond approved for entry. I was happy to see him at the inspection since I knew he was familiar with our plane. It was obvious that not all of the inspectors were as familiar with the Diamond aircraft. Jessica and I hid our grins when one of the inspectors asked us where the beacon light was...it doesn't have one.

Even though we passed the inspection fine, we still didn't know what our handicap would be for the race. We would be told that Sunday after the test flight...