track leaders

Here is the link so that you can follow everybody once the race starts http://trackleaders.com/arc14. It's fun to see where everybody is.

Fun with a WASP

A.J. Starr is a WASP and a displaced North Jersey Ninety-Nine.  Both she and Marilyn Patierno belong to the North Jersey Chapter.

Marilyn and Shannon Osborne picked her up and took her to the Racer BBQ in a huge hanger.  She had a great time meeting everyone, participating in the activities and checking out all the race planes on the ramp.  She was not familiar with the new models.  One curious race plane was shrink wrapped with advertising.  She was so pleased to be with a hangar full of young and seasoned pilots.  Both the young and seasoned had lots of questions for her.

When we returned her home, she handed me a copy of her Ninety-Nine medal.

Thank you

Yesterday was youth program day.  We were divided up into 3 groups.  The Baldwin Family Flyers and Kayleigh Bordner from the Flying Sycamores and I were a team.  We had over 60  Girl Scouts and chaperones.  We were outside where the local 99s had painted a 99s compass rose and the airport layout - to scale  - just beautiful and so much easier  than drawing with chalk.  We talked about ATC, flying out of different types of airports, procedures during the air race and other topics.  We were able to get everyone a tour of Concord tower so they had a bird eye view of  the airport.  A big thanks to Tower Manager, Charles Deavers (and I hope this is correct as auto correct did something else when I made a note)

A big Thank you to Tammy and Tim hand for the wonderful California wine, for their company during the BBQ and for taking Alison and Terri for a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge as all our airplanes as impounded.

San Franscisco here we come

You didn't hear from us yesterday bacause we were sightseeing.  We don't usually get to sight see when we are racing but we got here early enough to  sign up for an aquarium tour and a boat ride of the San Franscisco Bay.  Since they were short volunteers I got to drive a big old Tahoe and Marilyn got to drive a Ford Focus for the tour.  I made Juliet navigate.  It's a small aquarium but full of interesting things.  We had a wonderful lunch at Player  on Pier 35 and then we took a boat ride down to the Golden Gate Bridge around Alcatraz and back.  Since we had the cars for 24 hours we went to Ghiradelli Square and we drove down Lombard Street and in the not too distant future they are passing legislation to prohibit people who don't live there from driving down the street so how lucky are we!!!  Of course, it took us FOREVER to get back.  Juliet, our professional photographer took pictures and age will post them for sure at http://phillieflyersblog.com

We came back in time for me to drive everybody down to the Lazy Dog for dinner only to run into Sandy and Tracy.

Today we were all business.  We started with breakfast with our Eastern Pa. girls, followed by Credentials and plane inspections - which we passed with flying colors.  Thank you Pat Ohllson for helping with that missing piece of paper.

It was a beautiful day and Juliet wasn't impounded yet so we decided to go for a ride.  Linda and I got to navigate so we vectored  her right over to the Golden Gate Bridge - what a beautiful view.  Linda liked it so much she took her airplane and Barb and Juliet and did it again.

Bobby I brought both my good luck bracelets - I expect to do very well.  Thank you

Some beautiful country we have.

Our trip took us past some great parts of the country.  Here are a few photos which, of course, isn't as spectacular as seeing them out the airplane window, up close and personal.

Mount Shasta up close and personal.

Part of the great Salt Lake

 Bear Co Airport and lake

What a difference a day makes!!!

Last night when we went to bed the forecast was for VFR (visual flight rules) somewhere between 9 and 11AM.  What a nice surprise to wake up to a beautiful, calm wind day.  We were airborne by 7:30 this morning.  Tonight we are in sunny California.  Won't have much happening until later on in the week.  We will keep you posted.

Time to spare

We conned the airport guy out of the crew car last night but didn't want to abuse his hospitality so we were back early this morning only to sit here all day in Scottsbluff waiting for Mother Nature to be kind to us.  The good news is Classic 41 is close after only leaving this morning and Team 12 - freaking awesome has joined our party.   We would rather deal with this weather this week than during the race.  After we were able to get a rental car we went to Scottsbluff.  Juliet, our professional photographer took some fabulous pictures.  Check them out at Phillieflyersblog.com - besides being beautiful it will show you why we are still on the ground