We Did It!

Classic 14, Baldwin Family Flyers landed at Drake field in Fayetteville, Arkansas at 1900 CDT on Friday June 21, 97 minutes before the arrival deadline.  Perhaps we would have made it if the deadline was not extended but probably not. The race rules state that if the start is delayed by four hours or more then the terminus deadline will be extended from 5pm to local sunset time.  So we were grateful for that rule and extension, and happy to arrive, thrilled with our race and excited to see Bill and Marc.  

We did four legs of the race in a day, two days in a row, flying over beautiful landscapes of the US of A.  The Rockies, the Platte and Missouri rivers, the Arkansas far from the headwaters in Lydia's home state of Colorado, the plains, rain-soaked South Dakota and dry La Junta, CO.  We had a fabulous adventure. 

More to come on the race flying and Fayetteville fun.

John Day, Oregon

We are spending the night in the most wonderful FBO.  Grant County municipal airport in John Day Oregon is a beautiful building and Team Baldwin Family Flyers is hunkering down to spend the night in the pilot's lounge.  The airport sits on a shelf above the town of John Day with views of the Strawberry mountains to the South and the Blue Mountains to the East. We aim to be able to take an early AM departure to go East over the hills and into Idaho.

But, let's back up.  At 1:30PM Pacific time all teams gathered at Bergstrom's FBO at Tri-Cities airport in Pasco, Washington.  The plan was announced for the Race to carry on with a delayed start to be a fly-by over P&R field outside Mountain Home, Idaho.  How we get there is our decision, all teams having a PIC (pilot-in-command, for our non-certificated friends).  The message was to be safe and make good decisions.  Perhaps the deadline for arrival at the terminus will change, perhaps the route will change again, we do not know for certain.  What we do know if that there are some cloud and thunderstorm areas in the region interfering with our original route. 

We conferred with friends, consulted weather on-line, called for a weather briefing with Flight Service and reviewed charts.  Along with several other teams we decided to head South to attempt to avoid the clouds and rain.  After about thirty minutes we started to hit moisture-laden clouds. Earlier we thought we could avoid it but not so.  We descended but not too far.  Yikes - where's the closest airport?

Grant county!  Caroline did some tremendous piloting, flew the right pattern to land us at John Day's airport. Fueled up and felt welcomed by Leland.  Leland gave us a tour and offered the courtesy cars. This airport hosts a lot of forest service work.  The FBO has nice woodwork, art and lounges. 

At this time it is early am and we continue to watch and wait. Our overnight in the pilot lounge was comfortable and quiet. We are grateful for the company of our fellow racers and the gracious hosts at John Day airport.  Right now it is overcast, drizzly and pretty solid cloud cover. 
 Here are some photos of the flight out of Pasco, dinner at the Squeezeinn in town and views from the airport. 

Waiting

And we wait. 

The directors met and declared that we will wait until 1:00. Will we get out today?  Will the race remain all legs as planned?

Team BFF enjoys the fat tire bicycles at Bergstrom's Aviation. 

Stay tuned. 

Start delay

Ok. 

We wait. 

At this time we wait until at least 1100 for another weather discussion. 

Not what we planned for but hey, this is all part of the fun of it. 

We had a nice time yesterday afternoon with Chris and Maggie Fish. Thanks to Chris and Maggie for driving over from Seattle. 

Race Day!!

Good Morning

Race start day is here and we are pulling and putting ourselves together to ready for take off.

This year we have additional new gadgets. The Air Race Classic is trying new timing and tracking devices so we are carrying a Bad Elf pro GPS unit and a Spot tracker.  The Bad Elf will primarily aid the timing and ultimately scoring for the race. Spot is for safety and tracking. And- you can follow us via the Spot.

Go to www.trackleaders.com/arc13  

We are Classic Racer #14

In just a minute we are off to breakfast, our final briefing and then to the airport.  Plane #1 starts at 0800.  The skies are overcast but the conditions are VFR so we expect to roll by 0820. 

Tri-Cities, Washington

It's good to be here. Everyone has been so friendly, we have had beautiful weather, we had great flying yesterday, it is super fun to see fellow racers, and now there is time to recup and prepare for the race. 

After Thursday's wind and scattered storms we were thrilled to find calm winds and clear skies for our departure from Logan. With our pilot a-ready, team BFF set out to further our confidence with the fly-by departure plan out of Logan and onto Rawlins. We strategize and discuss options, keeping safety and success as priorities. 

Confident in our plan we turned on course to Pasco, leaving the Logan valley behind, views toward Salt Lake and the desert to the South and on towards Idaho, Oregon and Washington. 

Next up we scoped out the fly-by at the private strip near Mountain Home, Idaho.  Really really glad we did that.  P&R field is a private strip in the middle of ranching lands just outside of a restricted area, in a different location than marked on the sectionals and less than 20 miles from the Boise class C airspace!  The team works like a team, each teammate helping out, keeping us up, in line and having a wonderful time. 

Mountain Home is small with a wee little building and a wee little dog named Jack.  The airport manager had some great tips about keeping up with the wax to lessen the drag on our leading edges. Refueled and ready to move on, we bade U76 farewell until next week.  Up and over Boise we went and stayed over 7500' until just about into Washington.  This trip offered some magnificent scenery with views of the Pioneer mountains and Sawtooth Range, the Snake River, Twin Falls Idaho and the Wallowa mountains in Northeastern Oregon.  There were a few little bumps but overall smooth flying and with the exception of the Boise area the waves were quiet. 

Descending into the Tri-Cities, we overfly windmills and see the Columbia river ahead.  The landscape is quite different, with rolling hills of brown and irrigated green. This area is known for vineyards, orchards and nuclear energy. Are those commodities always in combination?  

Ok, it's been a while that we've been in the air, in new territory and arriving at a new airport. Lydia is in the left seat and Caroline in the right seat.  Towered airport.  Caroline offers to do the radio. Passed from approach to tower. Left base for 21Right. But Lydia starts to turn to 21Left. The tower verifies- are you sure?  Yikes. We did a 360, tower was gracious and patient, we were still cleared to land and at last we see 21R, a shorter runway squeezed in next to 21L. Ahhhhh  it's good to be here. 

Friday afternoon required credential and airplane checks, airplane inspection and rental car retrieval. Huge thanks to Bill Baldwin and Larry, N15695's mechanic, for helping us straighten out the AD requirements. 

By the end of Friday the Baldwin Family Flyers were completely exhausted.  Good news with The Ankle.  The swelling is much reduced. 

Saturday AM found us more rested and ready to check out the area. We toured Kennewick and then decided to head North to see the countryside.  Rolling hills of wheat and vineyards. Also happened upon the Lower Monumental dam. 

Cheers for now. 

Cara, Lydia and Caroline. 

Another Amazing Day

Thursday morning Team Baldwin Family Flyers awoke with great anticipation to find sky conditions that were not what we had requested.  While our Fort Collins day on Wednesday provided heat and the typical clear blue Rocky Mountain sky, we found sub 60 temps and overcast.  We were optimistic and prepared as planned. 

Marc ferried us to the airport and we readied N15695.  Many thanks to all of our family for their love and support. 

Where's the POH?  Oh gosh!  Ok we found it.  

Where's the visibility?  The forecast was to remain overcast with thunderstorms in the afternoon. If we delay a day will we make it to Pasco in time?

After nearly three ours of consulting FSS and the iPad we took off for Rawlins, altering our original course to avoid the low clouds over the mountains east of Steamboat. 

The morning flight was exciting.  We flew low over Fort Collins and followed the eastern edge of the foothills to Laramie and then followed I-80 to Rawlins. On our way in to Rawlins we heard Julia and Camelia on the radio. Once on the ground it was fun to see Mary and Juliet as well as Maureen and Barb. Rawlins Municipal hosts were fun and friendly.  The wind!!!  Wow. The Wyoming wind is wild and howling. 

We waited out some little rain and thunderylightningy looking things and then departed for Logan. 

Our course steered a bit more to the south to avoid weather, almost back into Colorado.  Saw the tip of flaming gorge reservoir, the  Green river, beautiful rock formations. Updrafts!  We flew as high as 10,5 to summit the River Range and safely ride into Logan.  The hosts at Leading Edge aviation at Logan-Cache airport are wonderful. We enjoyed the company of teams 15, 30, 31 & 36. After waiting to assess the route beyond and some threatening weather we spent the night in Logan.  Must find out what the meaning is of a tabernacle. 

This morning it's off to Idaho and Washington. 

Fort Collins day

Classic Racer 14 was reunited last night upon Cara's arrival at DIA.  Caroline had a smooth flight from KSVC via KLVS, flying up to FL12 to rise over Raton Pass. 

 Cara arrived on crutches after a collision on the soccer field yesterday morning. Lots of bruising and swelling, not too much pain thankfully. 

After some well deserved rest we got up to a beautiful day.  Alas the ankle is swollen!  Off we went to Urgent Care. 

X-ray showed lots of tissue swelling but no fracture!  So now a new leg decoration for Cara- the boot!

Team Baldwin Family Flyers has spent the afternoon flight planning and ankle resting. It's a hot one in Fort Collins with temperatures in the 90s. 

Tomorrow AM its off to the airways. We plan to fly up to Rawlins and then continue West. 

Hello and here's the route !!   How exciting !!   I believe I've never been in Idaho nor at any of the airports on our route.    Since we start in Pasco, WA, our first adventure will be flying to the Start.   


 AIR   RACE   CLASSIC   2013 





Tomorrow, I plan to leave home before 5:30 am to depart Grant County airport (KSVC) by 6:15 for Ft. Collins, CO.   I do not expect anyone except my dear Bill to be there to see me off.   The very early departure is to get a bit ahead of expected winds in La Vegas, my mid-flight stop, and predicted winds late in the day in Ft. Collins.     Granddaughter Cara will take a commercial flight from Pittsburgh to Denver tomorrow.  Then, we three will have a day together at Lydia and Marc's home before heading west to Pasco.  

Amelia Bearhart

Meet Amelia Bearhart

Amelia Bearhart accompanied Lydia back to Fort Collins from today's Colorado chapter meeting of the 99s.  Amelia Bearhart is a member of the South Central Section of the 99s.  The Colorado chapter received the travel award at the recent section meeting and thus Amelia Bearhart was sent on her way to accompany Colorado chapter members on their travels.

Although Lydia has not consulted Caroline and Cara regarding the additional team member, she hopes this will be acceptable. 

In other Air Race news, several new documents were published for the racers today so we are even more zippy with excitement.  Airport waivers - these are a big deal.  The FAA grants special waivers to the racers to fly at low altitude (usually 200 or 300 feet AGL) over the airfields.  We must carry these waivers in the plane.  Fly-by procedures - these are also a big deal.  We must perform the fly-bys accurately.  Most importantly these procedures must be followed to maintain safety for everyone.  In addition, if we are not compliant with fly-by procedures there could be a penalty on our score.  We do not want any penalties.  And, we want to practice safe aviation.

On another note some preliminary thanks are in order to some of our supporters. 

Thank you to Roxie Juul for your support.

Many thanks for the continuing sponsorship from David Martin of High Mountain Aviation at Grant County / Silver City NM airport KSVC  www.highmountainaviation.com  We are grateful for your ongoing support!

Wind

Caroline and her friend flew the Cherokee yesterday.  The numbers stayed tight and the plane flew great.

This morning Lydia drove East to Greeley-Weld County airport, KGXY, for the Colorado chapter of the 99s airmarking meeting.  Due to high wind the compass rose painting was postponed but the chapter had a nice meeting.  Gretchen Jahn, flying with Classic Racer #16 this year, was also at the meeting.

The wind is strong in Fort Collins.

On Tuesday we hope for favorable winds to guide Caroline North to Fort Collins and Cara West to Denver.

We are 10 days to Race Start day.

11 Days Before Race Start

A lot has happened today.

We secured a hangar for N15695 at KFNL for July and August, after the Air Race, and before Caroline takes her home to KSVC.  We want to keep the plane safe and secure.

Serendipity was at play.  Through a series of little events Lydia happened upon Paul Brevard who owns Crossfire Magneto Service (www.crossfiremagneto.com) and 'Sure, he would help us out for a bit of time this summer'.  Yes!  Lyd was jumping for joy on the inside and trying to appear calm on the outside.  AND - Paul said, 'Oh, the Air Race Classic?'  He said that he knows some of the ARC pilots and helped restore an engine and more.  Judy Tokar?  Yes, we know her.  Paul used to live in Florida and was acquainted with some racers there.

All Right!

And, the GPS tracker arrived.

And, the iPad arrived today.  The delightful little computer is fresh and ready for action.  Like the team of Classic Racer #14.  Almost.

Lots to do and prepare. 

Classic Racer #14

N15695 becomes Classic Racer #14

Caroline and her friend Judy worked hard to apply the race numbers. 

They look marvelous!

17 Days before Race Start Day

Boise area...
Hmmm - Class C Airspace, restricted area,
the Snake River.  This will be fun!

June 1, 2013

WOW!  June, that means Air Race month. 

Marc is doing his VFR flight review today.  Lydia will do hers in August and, lucky Lyd, she will get to do it in the Cherokee after some amazing cross-country flying.

The planning continues...
Lyd bought an ipad.  Apple is sending a refurbished, 4th generation, 64GB + cellular, white ipad.  Yippee.  Must patiently wait a few days for it to arrive.  Then Classic Racer 14 will enjoy the moving map and more! 

Today the charts are laid out across the floor and AOPA flight planner is open.