Fox 61 Television News Coverage

The team was joined outside at our home base sponsor JET CENTER's newly refurbished welcome center and pilot lounge with Jim Altman and his cameraman Jeff from Fox61 news on 6/14/16. The ladies got a chance to talk about the race and show off the plane the day before the official launch towards the start of the race in Prescott, Arizona.

The crosswind was picking up so the crew took Jeff up to do a circle around the pattern and see Hartford from the sky while reporter Altman took shots of the team taking off and landing from the ground. They outfitted the plane with an outboard starboard wing and horizontal stabilizer 3/4 view HD sport cameras as well as two additional windshield mount interior sport cams. Jeff sat in the back seat and filmed with an HD handycam of the Instrument cluster in the aircraft along with some of Teresa and Denise's radio calls.

All in all it was a fantastic experience. Hartford Jet Center was very gracious and accommodating with the treatment of the crew and visiting reporters. The line folks cleaned the windshield, positioned the plane for fast access and made the process as easy as possible.

The three minute feature appeared on the 5pm and 10pm newscast and was well produced and informative for all. You can view the finished product at Fox61 under 'Purple Heart Flyers' or
simply follow this link to the story and video file. -ed

  LINK TO VIDEO / NEWS STORY ON FOX 61 BROADCAST

A Race of a DIFFERENT breed!

Well today was a first. The team met at the plane to apply the race numbers and decals. We polished the plane's leading edges and cleaned the belly of any oil residue. In mid-job, a dashing well-dressed gent on horseback rides up along side the plane at mid-field and asks if Teresa is up to a 'wager'?

We were a tad leery of such a request especially with real work to do  to still prepare the plane for Wednesday's dawn departure. However once asked 'what's the wager' the man simply said ' He would like to race his trusty steed against the flying machine we were busy cleaning'.

We suspected his formal speech and affectations were part of the airfield's 95th anniversary celebration goings on as he sported pressed jodhpurs, a fedora and sportcoat reminiscent of the early 20th century. However there was no announcements of such press events or marketing efforts at the FBO - it seemed the man truly just wanted to test his 4-legged sprinter's instant acceleration and whinny against the Piper's tri-gear slow roll to its full 180 horsepower airborne growl.

Sadly, with the extreme crosswind gusts of up to 30 knots, and the need to keep preparing for the business facets of fielding a legal race plane, the team prudently decided to decline the machine vs. equine challenge. No doubt it would have been fun but we suspect for at least half of the take-off roll and rotation, the hooves would have INDEED prevailed over the prop.

-editor

Added decals

Number 48

Sunday June 12, 2016 is the scheduled day to do final polishing,apply an alcohol cleaning and apply the long awaited #48 decals to the cowl of the ArcherII PA-28-181. We will also add the Purple Hearts logo to the fuselage aft of the rear window.

Today also Denise is manning a  99's table at Brainard airport for their 95th anniversary as an airport in the Hartford, CT area.  If you are in the area, come out and celebrate with some static displays of warbird aircraft, lots of local vendors to talk about aviation, and even a bounce house for the kids.

- editor

Update Garmin 430W database and more flight planning

Denise and Teresa met over at Brainard airport to run a database update on the Garmin. The IFR update was fine but we still need to get the terrain data added to the stack. We'll contact Garmin rep this week and confirm final pricing and procedure.  Overall most of the details are in process. The ladies had another conference call this last weekend to firm up travel plans and confirm all is well. The plane was 'officially' signed off to race with its final 'AD' check. Exciting!!



Denise checking out our web site while doing computer update. Photo Credit: T. Camp