Monday June 30
Our day to fly home. We met Alison and Linda for breakfast. A local resident volunteer tooke us over to the airport about 8am. We checked weather, not good, but this time we could file an IFR flight plan. We sat and waited while Boston center re-wrote our original route for about 30 minutes, and then 10 minutes after we were in the air, the whole thing got rewritten again. But it was clear on top at 6000' and we had a smooth flight home. We took lots of pix while we flew, but I wasn't as organized and didn't write all the airport names down this time. Arnie and Russell were watching us on Flight Aware software on the computer as we crossed Long Island Sound and headed for home. They were waiting for us at Perkiomen Airport. Russell filmed us landing, and it was a great landing. Russell had a cake for us with one of the pix from our start on it, and that was edible! He made Mary and I collage of pix he had enlarged from the newspaper stories written from interviews we had before we left. It was a great welcome home.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday June 29
We had a first time racer's briefing in the morning. Some things need to be ironed out and the ARC org wants feedback from us to help them with the task. We gave them quite a lot to think about. Then we had an all racer's briefing with everyone present for more suggestions. After this we rushed out to the airport to work with the girl scouts. Mary and I showed the airplane twice. Once to a 9th grader and the second time to much smaller children. It was so hot I thought I would faint. But after getting out of the airplane that had been sitting, it felt cooler. I had a hot dog and Mary had a fruit smoothie for lunch. We bummed a ride back to the hotel afterwards, and relaxed before the award banquet. We bid on the silent auction items and some of us won. I got a scarf that most of the racers signed in Bozeman Montana, Alison got a book written in 2000 by one of the racers, Gene Nora Jessen. We came in 25th, which is about what we expected with our handicap. Linda and Alison won one of the leg prizes and I was so proud of them. I don't think I have ever seen Alison with more joy on her face.
We had a first time racer's briefing in the morning. Some things need to be ironed out and the ARC org wants feedback from us to help them with the task. We gave them quite a lot to think about. Then we had an all racer's briefing with everyone present for more suggestions. After this we rushed out to the airport to work with the girl scouts. Mary and I showed the airplane twice. Once to a 9th grader and the second time to much smaller children. It was so hot I thought I would faint. But after getting out of the airplane that had been sitting, it felt cooler. I had a hot dog and Mary had a fruit smoothie for lunch. We bummed a ride back to the hotel afterwards, and relaxed before the award banquet. We bid on the silent auction items and some of us won. I got a scarf that most of the racers signed in Bozeman Montana, Alison got a book written in 2000 by one of the racers, Gene Nora Jessen. We came in 25th, which is about what we expected with our handicap. Linda and Alison won one of the leg prizes and I was so proud of them. I don't think I have ever seen Alison with more joy on her face.
Yet another airport
Long Island and the Sound
Over Long Island
Airport in MA
Farmingdale Airport
Long Island Sound
At the Awards Banquet and duded up again
John Tokar at Mansfield MA airport
Patty smoking a sausage
The teen group of girl scouts did these pix
This is at the entry to the Mansfield MA airport office..painted by the Girl Scouts
Linda taking a pix of while I am taking a pix of her
The Dixie Diehards, one of the bands entertaining all day Saturday
This group was really enjoyable to hear
Linda's tatoo
Me admiring an old Model "A"
Benson and Dad in the cockpit with Mom looking on
More Benson and Dad
One of the racers giving a ride
The Delaney's
More Delaney's
Arianna Delaney, future woman pilot?
Another form of transportation
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday June 27, 2008
Our last race day, and our most difficult weather wise. The forecast the night before predicted poor visibility early in the morning, so we slept a little later. When we arrived at Franklin Airport, many of the racers had already left. I got the weather which was not promising, and we got more gas. Usually we only take enough gas for one leg and stop and refuel, but today we wanted to do a flyby and continue flying to Mansfield. The weather forecast was calling for T storms later in the day. We took off and flew our time line flyby to start the clock and then we settled down for the flight. The question of the day was "should we climb above the clouds, or slog around in poor visibility below them. We opted to fly above them, and eventually only had small holes where we occasionally saw the ground. As we got nearer to Saratoga Springs we could hear many of the racers on the frequency asking how the weather was along the route. One of the aircraft had to reverse course as the clouds and mountains tops were coming together and they went back to where they could climb above them. We held out above the clouds till we were almost at Saratoga Springs, and then the cloud deck began to drop away below us. We eased down with them and when the sky cleared we were about 20 miles out. We did our fly by at Saratoga Springs, and continued to Mansfield MA. Weather wasn't as bad for us on that leg, although we kept calling ASOS and AWOS frequencies to listen to what weather they were reporting along our route. Again the weather was okay at the destination and we finished our race. As the day lengthened many of the racers arriving later said the weather was getting worse as they did the Saratoga to Mansfield leg. Only one team didn't make it out of Saratoga Springs, the weather was too bad to continue. They were automatically disqualified as they didn't reach the terminus by 5PM on Friday. Another team started the night before from Franklin and couldn't get to Saratoga Springs for their flyby and had to file a flight plan to get into Mansfield. They were also disqualified. Yet another team that started the night before from Franklin had to file a flight plan and land in Albany and spend the night, which disqualified them. Much of this is luck with the weather. We had pretty good luck with weather, but not much when our handicap was assigned. We protested it, but I doubt it will change much. It kept our score down, but not our spirit: we enjoyed this race enormously. We are better pilots for having flown it, and we recognize how it changed us forever as people by our facing the challenges it presented. We are proud of ourselves for finishing.. I would recommend it to any pilot to try. We were picked up from the hotel at 6:30 by Paul of our host family. Paul, and Jennifer, Arianna 5, Benson 3 and Grandmom, Lynn who let us entertain them with tales of the race, which we were happy to supply and fed us a sumptous meal. We offered to let the children sit in the airplane on Saturday for pictures. They picked us up and took us to the airport. The airport had an aviation day going all day with music, rides and lots of food. After that we offered the kids a chance to swim in "our" pool. Right now the children are swimming with Mom while I write this blog and Mary and Paul watch them. We have a "meet the racers Lobster bake" tonight back at the airport and a dance under the stars after that. The whole town
is in on the act with the race terminus being there. They make us feel like celebrities!
Our last race day, and our most difficult weather wise. The forecast the night before predicted poor visibility early in the morning, so we slept a little later. When we arrived at Franklin Airport, many of the racers had already left. I got the weather which was not promising, and we got more gas. Usually we only take enough gas for one leg and stop and refuel, but today we wanted to do a flyby and continue flying to Mansfield. The weather forecast was calling for T storms later in the day. We took off and flew our time line flyby to start the clock and then we settled down for the flight. The question of the day was "should we climb above the clouds, or slog around in poor visibility below them. We opted to fly above them, and eventually only had small holes where we occasionally saw the ground. As we got nearer to Saratoga Springs we could hear many of the racers on the frequency asking how the weather was along the route. One of the aircraft had to reverse course as the clouds and mountains tops were coming together and they went back to where they could climb above them. We held out above the clouds till we were almost at Saratoga Springs, and then the cloud deck began to drop away below us. We eased down with them and when the sky cleared we were about 20 miles out. We did our fly by at Saratoga Springs, and continued to Mansfield MA. Weather wasn't as bad for us on that leg, although we kept calling ASOS and AWOS frequencies to listen to what weather they were reporting along our route. Again the weather was okay at the destination and we finished our race. As the day lengthened many of the racers arriving later said the weather was getting worse as they did the Saratoga to Mansfield leg. Only one team didn't make it out of Saratoga Springs, the weather was too bad to continue. They were automatically disqualified as they didn't reach the terminus by 5PM on Friday. Another team started the night before from Franklin and couldn't get to Saratoga Springs for their flyby and had to file a flight plan to get into Mansfield. They were also disqualified. Yet another team that started the night before from Franklin had to file a flight plan and land in Albany and spend the night, which disqualified them. Much of this is luck with the weather. We had pretty good luck with weather, but not much when our handicap was assigned. We protested it, but I doubt it will change much. It kept our score down, but not our spirit: we enjoyed this race enormously. We are better pilots for having flown it, and we recognize how it changed us forever as people by our facing the challenges it presented. We are proud of ourselves for finishing.. I would recommend it to any pilot to try. We were picked up from the hotel at 6:30 by Paul of our host family. Paul, and Jennifer, Arianna 5, Benson 3 and Grandmom, Lynn who let us entertain them with tales of the race, which we were happy to supply and fed us a sumptous meal. We offered to let the children sit in the airplane on Saturday for pictures. They picked us up and took us to the airport. The airport had an aviation day going all day with music, rides and lots of food. After that we offered the kids a chance to swim in "our" pool. Right now the children are swimming with Mom while I write this blog and Mary and Paul watch them. We have a "meet the racers Lobster bake" tonight back at the airport and a dance under the stars after that. The whole town
is in on the act with the race terminus being there. They make us feel like celebrities!
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