Pre-Race Travels

Teresa took the plane over to Montauk, New York across Long Island Sound and gave the avionics a live test in real-time navigation. Although the bug settings seemed to match, the Century autopilot did have one apparently un-commanded course deviation but was quickly corrected and performed flawlessly throughout the flight. The powerplant purred effortlessly for the fast trip across the sound.

Today both Teresa and Denise took the plane up for a run to test some altitude performance. Since the air race will take place in Arizona, right out of the gate, the team will have a large altitude change quickly to top the mountains while heading East. They have purposely grounded the Wheel Pants for the race and did not handicap with them so as to slow the plane down just a tad and save the extra weight. As a fun aside, Teresa and Denise did a fly-over of the house. Due to heavy tree-cover we used colored smoke flares to aid the pilots as they circled overhead.Nothing wrong with having a little fun practicing search and rescue techniques while training for air race right?

- editor-

Pic: Teresa landing at Montauk - New York's most Eastern airport.
 Photo credit: S.Greenstein

Avionics In - Race Incidentals

Well it has been an active week. The upgraded Garmin 430 was installed and coupled with the autopilot. Teresa and Denise did two test flights over two days to insure the plane tracks course and is integrated properly.

After washing the new embroidered shirts we noted that they shrink quite a bit so we have placed a new order to replace the gear with Vistaprint. Amazing customer service at that company and they were happy to re-create the shirts in a next larger size so the team will look very sharp for their first flight out of Prescott.

HANDICAP TRACK DATA

This is the team's actual handicap data recorded off of Foreflight's data logger. Despite the fairly short trial of around an hour and a half, flying the course and sustaining very strict altitude and engine performance throughout the flight is actually exhausting. It is important however to establish an accurate baseline for the aircraft and team so during the race we can see the TRUE differential between our handicap numbers and the team's performance throughout the nine legs of the race.

HANDICAP FLIGHT COMPLETED

Congrats to the team as Teresa and Denise flew the handicap test flight this morning over the blue skies of Danbury Connecticut. The plane performed well and they added 4.5 gallons of fuel to adjust for the proper weight ratio when the entire crew is onboard for the race.

- editor-

FINAL TEST FLIGHT BEFORE HANDICAP RUN

Tonight Teresa and Denise took the bird up for a quick run over to Danbury, CT to check out the handicap airport. It is a challenging airport as the approach is over a small mountain before dropping in to the runway. The plane was minding its manners and performed flawlessly. They had some buffeting winds but the crew is anticipating a good early morning handicap tomorrow at 07:30.

The landing lights have all been serviced and the ladies have relieved the plane of every pound of extra weight. The handicap rep will advise on any fuel allowances to ensure the plane is at proper race-weight before the run. Teresa and Denise did a final polish to ensure the plane was clean and ready.  We will keep you posted of the results of the Handicap Run in a forthcoming post.

-editor-

RUDDER ART

Rudder art arrived safe and sound. The purple plane is going to look pretty dressy flying the skies across the United States. The Race number decals will go on the cowl of the plane and they are black with a white outline for easy visibility.

-editor

SETBACK

Frustratingly the team is still fighting to get the avionics in before the handicap flight. Since weather has delayed the handicap flight for the 8th, there still is a chance for the plane to receive its Garmin 430 upgrade, but time and patience is growing short with repeated delays.

We will update on the status by early next week and will keep our fingers crossed that we can still complete the upgrades BEFORE the handicap assessment of the plane.

-editor

PROGRESS

We are happy to report the 'Purple Hearts' team race preparation is under full steam. The plane is in for an avionics re-fit before our handicap run on May 8th over the skies of Stamford, CT. The plane has been polished and will be ready for it's race number and team logo appliques by the end of May.

The ladies have been conducting regular strategy sessions via conference calls and Teresa met with Cary in St. Louis to discuss logistics for the entire team leading up to the race. All embroidered clothing has been ordered and delivered, most training is complete, and all that's left is practice, practice, and a little more practice. Very exciting - we'll keep you posted on future progress.

-editor