Georgia Fly-by, Landing & Ramping

Since fly-bys are exciting, here is one more at Jimmy Carter Regional Airport (KACJ) in Americus, Georgia on the last day of the race 6/24/16 around Noon. The team still has one more leg to go to finish the race in Daytona Beach, Florida and they must pass the final timing line by 17:00 EDT. The Purple Hearts would go on to complete the race at 14:34 Eastern, leaving them over 2 hours before the deadline. After 2500 miles of hot, relentless flying, the audio track towards the end of the clip provides clues as to the ladies' anticipation of the final leg and the successful completion of the race.

The landing is smooth and uneventful, followed by a typical ramping during the race. The fuel crews are very quick. The discussion at the end regarding the 'Tabs' is a standard measurement inside the fuel tanks. The crew calculates how much fuel they will need to get to their next stop including a required reserve for emergencies. Since AvGas weighs about 6 pounds per gallon, the 'Hearts' can increase their airspeed if they carry less weight in fuel, therefore management of this resource is a constant reality in all aspects of a long cross-country air race. -ed

Take-off and Fly-by Video

As noted earlier, when data becomes available we will direct a few posts looking back over the race to some interesting facts or views that fill in some holes about the Air Race Classic experience. This is a video of a typical launch at Murfreesboro, TN as seen by the pilots. The plane climbs out and makes a loop around the airfield about 3 miles out and centers up with wings level. The fly-by is between 200 and 300 feet above ground level. This is a courtesy temporarily extended to the racers every year by the FAA but ordinarily planes flying so low above populated spaces, motors growling under full power is not allowed.

The racer's time for the next leg STARTS when the plane crosses the timing line. Fly-by speeds for the Purple Hearts in calm weather is typically around 150 miles per hour but that speed is rarely achieved for long durations of the race without tailwinds, due to weather and a desire to keep the power plant off of redline.   (Note: the reflection of the Stratus ADS-B transponder receiver in the cockpit window)

The Take-Off & Fly-By occur in the 1st and last minute

Wow! I lost 5 lbs over the last 2 weeks of flying. Air Racing is not for the faint of heart. It's so nice to be able to just eat, sleep and use the restroom when you want to. I even enjoyed using my electric toothbrush again. I feel so strong, alive and grateful.

All Race Finishers

Here is the Air Race Classic finishers. The Purple Hearts came in 29th out of 55 teams. At first blush this seems disappointing however, the 'Hearts' likely received time penalties for every leg of the missing Bad Elf data. On at least two legs the team was exceeding book values of the airplane by 10 to 12 knots so we believe without the data penalties the team would have been in the top quarter of the field in actual time. Enjoy digesting the numbers - for more details see the airraceclassic.org website.

Race Finishers. Click on link for more stats

All of the Air Race Classic Reports

Happy Contrails!

Denise is back in the left seat as PIC flying to Robertson airport to put the plane in for annual. Thus the great Purple Hearts adventure comes to an end. Happy contrails!

Actually we will do a few more posts over the next week as we wrap up. We will add some pictures, a few more stories of the ladies' adventure, and of course summarize some stats for those who eat up race facts or are considering costs for racing in the future.

 -ed

Flew my first IFR cross country in real IMC. Landed safely in Hartford! Wild!

IFR to Hartford

We are preparing for an IFR flight to KHFD from KMIV. Denise is trying to update the Garmin. If unsuccessful, we'll fly the VOR routes. Eta 2 hrs once we launch.

As a final twist to the adventure, Teresa and Denise are facing more clouds and fog than expected and it has not seemed to burn off. The hope to fly up the Hudson and grab some photos of the Statue of Liberty and New York will have to wait for another day and another flight.

The team would prefer to fly a direct route to Brainard airport via IFR, but the GPS database apparently expired LITERALLY at the end of the air race. This would allow Teresa to simply take the plane up to an assigned altitude  through the clouds to the airport which is less work for air traffic control and the crew. But if the ladies can't download an update on the airfield, they have consulted with their favorite Hartford based pilot guru Bob Valle and instrument rating instructor , Th gang decided they can fly 'Victor' airways via IFR home if necessary. These are like  standard street 'intersections' in the sky which planes use as waypoints along a route. They are perfectly safe and a great way to get around, however there is MORE traffic around these points and they require more active navigation and care by the pilots and controllers especially in IFR conditions.

New Jersey - Homeport striking distance

Nice rest at the Holiday Inn Express with breakfast. Denise and I have prepared to do the Hudson but the WX may not cooperate. Thinking of filing IFR.

09:40 EDT 06.28.16  Storms forcing IFR flight home
WX graphic courtesy of: Accuweather.com

The Purple Hearts in Millville, NJ
tracking data courtesy of: flightradar24.com

We are going to hunker down in Millville tonight. Can't beat the WX.

Check this out! Boeing is on this little field in Millville NJ!

Passing WDC on the east.

North Carolina

Nice stop at Halifax NC. Next stop Millville NJ

Feelin' Southern' in N.C

tracking data courtesy of: flightradar24.com

Denise has the tough job of fueling while I flight plan. We are going for another leg. In Halifax NC

South Carolina

We are landed in Berkley County, South Carolina. Fueling with a friendly Mgr.

Teresa and Denise passed a sub base but weren't in time to snap a picture. They are planning at least three legs today to stay ahead of weather. If it looks threatening for tomorrow the duo may just skip an air tour of the Hudson and point the purple bird home tonight.

Meandering up the coast!

Tracking data courtesy of: flightradar24.com  (Tail #:  N8321T)

'Hearts' head for home

Cary caught a commercial flight home this morning. Denise and I just launched off Daytona for home in CT. We expect to saunter home and take 2 days to get there

Sunday Night Banquet / Results

 

Yummy food.

The final event of the race for 2016 is the celebration banquet on Sunday night 6/26/2016. The results of the race are finally  revealed along with any leg prizes for the teams that may have flown fast for a particular section or sections of the race. The ladies also had the chance to bid on a number of silent auctions to try and win needed flight gear, aviation art, or just that well-deserved massage.

Unfortunately the team did NOT secure any leg prizes or win any auctions, though they cannot be faulted for effort. Even though we interpreted the rules that the Bad Elf flight data is only used if there is a discrepancy among the official timing log, that apparently is NOT the case. Once the Bad Elf stopped recording, basically the team was out of contention for any prizes. In the future we will have to find a way to confirm when the device is recording or not recording so the problem won't happen again. Other teams were complaining about incomplete data on the 'Elf' so apparently either the extreme desert heat or whatever connections they use to ensure the records are stored need some future improvement.

Overall the entire team felt the race was a valuable experience. By all rights, if everything had not gone as perfectly as it had, our team would have never made it out of the desert before the race even started. So it was a complete bonus and honor to run the race cleanly and completely enjoy EVERY experience - even the ones that made our hair stand on end. Congratulations goes out to the Purple Hearts for a very entertaining week. Cary will be returning to St. Louis commercial at the crack of dawn tomorrow and Teresa and Denise will point the plane towards its home base in Connecticut in the afternoon. What an incredible ride - what an incredible life.

Finally we want to thank our respective families for their patience, love, and flexibility to help make this impossible adventure a reality. Also a big helping of  HEARTfelt admiration is due to our friends, fans and sponsors for their unmatched positivity, comments, encouragement, and exceedingly generous support to the team and Operation Homefront. We indeed feel LOVED! Thank you.

The Purple Hearts
Teresa, Cary, and Denise

Denise is bidding on more ballast for the plan. We can't be too light once we lose Cary on the trip home tomorrow

Ladies are gathering for the big awards banquet

ForeFlight map tracking

Though planes operate on the EXACT same physics principles as they did 100 years ago and in many ways fly very much the same, the suite of electronic options over the years have continued to bloom. Beyond the Air Race Classic's Spot plane following software used on their website, the team carried TWO active ForeFlight enabled Ipads. This is an amazing software subscription package that enables pilots to have access to nearly ANY aviation map, anytime, anywhere in the world. That allows tremendous flexibility with route planning, emergency divert options, and the basics like where to park, what frequency to communicate on, and where to get fuel. What follows is 'most' of the data recorded from the 9 legs of flying. We noted two anomalies where the data recorder did not grab the landings of the flight on the first and last legs. Other than those two points, the maps below reflect the EXACT flight data over the entire 19 hours of flight terrain as the crew experienced it.  -ed

 

Briefings

At the morning briefing with the famous air racer Sam Coleman!

Airport Festivities - 99's Hospitality

  

 

The spruce creek 99s put on a fabulous party for us with the airpark guys doing a little airshow formation flying over head. We hung out in room 401 until late with some off the racers and told embarrassing racing stories. Fun but late night.

'Hearts' in the Headlines

After the excitement and exhaustion at the end of a long race, the team took a few minutes away from the flightline to answer questions from the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper. It has been fun showing off the plane especially to younger people who just like seeing 'girls' fly a 'purple plane'  but also to many Vets who feel a connection to the 'Purple Heart' moniker and the mission of the team's official charity - 'Operation Homefront'. Enjoy!

Purple Hearts in Cary's hometown newspaper!

Click here to read St. Louis Post Metro article

Fun Flight Stats / Potential Penalties

Though the desire to run a perfect error-free race is always the goal, the 'Hearts' had a couple of potential points that are under review for penalties. Most penalties are assessed as addition to the time to run a race leg thereby decreasing the team's chances of winning a leg prize.

The race officials are confirming the mechanic 'sign-off' for the rudder repair in New Mexico. The team is not concerned since the mechanic released the plane and obviously it flew without further incident so we don't anticipate any penalty for use of unapproved equipment. The second concern is that the Bad Elf tracking system apparently quit tracking the flight data after the first day's leg. The team may have back-up Foreflight data which matches the 'Spot' satellite tracking. We expect that the race folks will have enough back-up data from other sources to confirm that the team did not alter or interact with the data recorder in any material way to affect the outcome of the race. 

The team expects to RECEIVE a time penalty for apparently 'not' announcing a radio call upon lift-off out of Americus, Georgia on the last day. Though the ladies recall hearing other teams launching and thought they WERE broadcasting their departure, apparently the radio was only on monitor mode since ATC has no recordings of the team's radio calls out of Americus. Radio calls are an important part of the safety briefings before the race so, though disappointing to not run a perfect error-free race, this is a perfectly understandable time penalty.  

As for flight stats, here are a few to digest. Though the official race course is just a smidge over 2720 miles, by the time you fly in and around for timing fly-bys the team actually logged over 2968 miles during over 19 hours of flying. Remember the team also flew some 2200 miles to get to the start line for the race, and will fly back around 1000 miles to return to home base. An amazing 6100+ mile air adventure, (about a quarter distance around the earth ) in a little less than 2 weeks - WHEW!!

After Race Handicap Re-Run

Just finished the re-handicap run with the famous Dianna Stanger pylon racing pilot. We flew our square pattern over the ocean with an active MOA.

Dianna, Teresa, Mary - after & before handicap check pilots

The Purple Hearts had to do another handicap run most likely to allow for the fact that they had to carry an extra rudder on board during 8 legs of the race. The plane appeared to perform better in the Florida skies in the handicap circuit even with the added weight of the rudder. Of course the plane is even dirtier than when it left Connecticut so the crew guessed that the week of continuous flying actually cleared the cylinders of excess carbon fouling. So at this point, it is doubtful the new handicap calculations will help the 'Hearts' win more 'race legs', however it is very much appreciated that the race officials acknowledged the ladies' added challenges over the last week through no fault of their own.

Handicap sheet over the Atlantic Ocean near Daytona Beach

Beautiful views from our party. We have to fly another handicap flight in the morning. It will include flying with 2 rudders. I guess it can only help our score.

Meltdown party. Everyone is sharing crazy stories. Fun!

First Word from the FRONT!

Final wipe down. We are done racing! Tahdah!

PURPLE HEARTS FINISH ! 14:23 EDT

We await some photo uploads and details of the last leg but we are happy to report that the ladies zoomed by  the last timing line in a fly-by to continue on to Daytona Beach to join the remaining airplanes in the race. The Purple Hearts officially complete 2720 miles of the race and after a number of impossible set-backs, somehow finished fast and strong with 2.5 hours to spare before the end of race deadline.

Congratulations to the entire team. Special consideration goes to the sponsors: Hartford Jet Center, Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, Steve Christino of Exxcel Avionics, and of course the incredible generosity of ARCHER II PARTNERS, LLC. for use of their pretty bird with the PURPLE HEART of a lion.

- ed

Final RESTING SPOT for the next few days

The Purple Hearts will de-brief in Daytona Beach and then enjoy the chance to relax and spend time with other racers. They report that they are THRILLED to be done, their constant fan encouragement, and guess what ... IT'S HOT!

'Fly-way' to HEAVEN!

At 13:00 Eastern The ladies have exceeded 2500 air miles of the race  and at around 13:22 Eastern the Purple Hearts officially entered Florida airspace. While the temperatures in Florida may feel more like the polar opposite of heaven this time of year, for the racers at this point, having the finish line in sight is certainly going to FEEL like it.

#48 Purple Hearts enter Florida Airspace

Safely Landed in Americus, Georgia

Made it to peachy Georgia! More gusty winds here. We took a video for sharing later!

The crew reported a fabulous flight with favorable winds. They are still fighting some occasional gusts and unstable air however they anticipate clear air on down to Florida this afternoon. The stratus weather computer was fantastic to avoid problems along the route and help the crew navigate. The ladies also benefited from directly crossing Atlanta's 'bravo' airspace. Typically small general aviation aircraft have to ask and receive permission to enter into airspace around large airports. If you are lucky and the big airline traffic is in a lull, the controllers will let you cross - most of the time they make you go around. Normally it is no big deal if you are flying recreationally but in a race it is VERY DESIRABLE to fly direct!

The landing was gusty again but uneventful. The gang was treated well on the ground and took some time to cool off. Everyone is anxious to get on and finish the race so expect by 12:15 Eastern that the Purple Hearts will enter the final leg to Daytona.