I made it to the start & New race partner part 1

I made it! I made it! I made it! I made it! I made it!
I'm so exited that I did. I never thought that I would be able to say this, but I flew across the country by myself.

By myself, never alone

 I'm a lucky girl, even though I was by myself in the cockpit I was never alone. So many awesome people that were coaching me through this part of the adventure. Biggest thanks go to my mother-bird coach who was able to calm me down after I learned that I was going to have to continue by myself. She was able to talk me through the next steps that needed to happen 1) wait out the weather 2) make a flight plan based on the weather 3) find a new copilot. In addition she went over the weather with me while she was still flight planning to fly out here herself. It was just amazing.
More pilot friends were keeping an eye on me, and sending texts and calling with very good advise. Especially about evaluating my personal minimums, and then keeping myself to them.
My fellow racers and the race committee were an awesome support system. Helping me with finding a new co-pilot and giving me encouragement throughout the cross country.
ATC was very helpful in getting me across the country safely. Keeping me posted on where the bigger cells were located based on pilot reports. And every single time I requested a deviation from my IFR course to go around buildups or get out of bad turbulence, there were no questions asked and I could do it or there would be other solutions like a different altitude. Two controllers were actually keeping me company at different times, just chatting a little bit about the bad weather hahaha. I learned to value of getting flight following, especially when you are by yourself. And I called the flight service station before taking off on every leg, to get an extra pair of eyes evaluating the weather. All the people I talked to were super helpful, my faith in humanity is definitely restored!!

New co-pilot!

Not only am I fortunate to have been able to make it to the start, with pretty harsh weather conditions. I also am super lucky to have found a new race partner in this super short notice. Anita Mixon from West Palm Florida will be joining me in the Air Race Classic. We will be able to fly the race, but probably will have to be in the non-competition part of the race. In order to fly competition we need to refly the handicap flight because of the different weight of the co-pilot. The question is if we can still do that in time for the race kick off. But, even if we can't make it in the competition class we will still fly non-competition. The experience of being in this race will still be worth it!

~Flying Dutchess

A rough start, a team of two is now one

Finally, my first post from on the road, written while stuck in Amarillo Texas due to weather. I will try to keep up and blog as I go. Tapping away on my iPad I now realize that I can't seem to add the photos while on the iPad. I will do so when I return to California, the words will have to do for now.

Day one: KEDW-KMIT-67L-KFMN

Thursday June 11th, what an exciting day! Today was the day the epic adventure starts. And what an adventure it already has proven to be, only three days in. Let's start at the very beginning, the first divert from the planned route. 

Due to unforeseen events JJ wasn't able to come to Fox field KWJF in the morning, from where we were supposed to leave. Instead I flew from Edwards AFB KEDW where the airplane is based, to KMIT Shafter Minter to pick up the other half of the team. After a quick cup of coffee we were off.

The route from KMIT to Mesquite 67L Nevada took us throug the Trona pass between the restricted area's R2505 and R2524. We had planned to fly around the class B airspace of Mc Carran International airport KLAS in Las Vegas. But fortunately I had been flying with flight following. Las Vegas Approach assigned us a different squawk code and we were able to fly direct to Mesquite from south west of the class B airspace at 9500. It was really impressive to fly over the airport and see the large traffic takeoff and land underneath us. We also had a beautiful view of a dam that we mistook for the Hoover dam. Nonetheless, still a very nice view. 

After fueling we were back up in no time to head to Four Corners Regional KFMN New Mexico. At about half on this leg we caught up with bad weather that was in front of us. It was a bit of a struggle to weave our way through the cells and onwards to our next stop. We were able to make it by about 5 PM. The hotel shuttle came to pick us up and after a quick dinner my head hit the pillow. Closing my eyes my body felt as it was still in the airplane, avoiding clouds left and right. Rest was well deserved after 7 hrs of flying.

Day two: KFMN KDAH KAMA.

Friday June 12th. The weather looks terrible. It looked like it would definitely be a challenge to find our way to Perry F22 Oklahoma. And a challenge was an understatement, since we never made it further than Amarillo KAMA Texas.

I will spare you the details, but it was an exhausting day. We eventually made it to a hotel in downtown Amarillo. Apparently all the other hotels closer to the airport were all booked, since there is a rodeo in town. Unfortunately we were not able to agree in the cockpit on a few things and JJ felt that the weather was too bad on the way to the start line and for the race itself. She was thinking of withdrawing from the race. The next morning she told me that her decision had been made and she would not continue on to their start line.

Day three: Amarillo Texas, not giving up.

June 13th, the weather is terrible again. I decided to wait out the weather a day and the see if it will clear out enough by tomorrow for me to head to the start of the race. Today was busy with finding another co-pilot to fly the race with and I think I've succeeded to find someone. I'm not entirely sure yet, but I'll know more by the time of the next update.

I will continue the cross country to Virginia on my own where I hope to still start the Air Race Classic. Unfortunately, I will not be able to fly in the competition any longer. Since I would have to do another handicap flight for the new copilot, and it's too short notice to get that accomplished now. I hope to still fly in the non-competition class, so that I still will be able to experience the race fun. Fingers crossed for the weather to clear up tomorrow! 

~Flying Dutchess

Checking off the boxes on our ARC To Do list

Paperwork, most of it done

Nobody could have prepared us for the amount of paperwork that has to be done to enter the race. It started with the entry itself, that needed a lot of attention. It continued with getting the Airworthiness Directives submitted in the right format, and getting the necessary insurance we needed in order to be able to participate in the race. The insecurity of not knowing if our airplane would be able to race and would we get the needed insurance, definitely made us very nervous. Slowly but surely everything fell into place. Starting with us finding renters insurance that would suffice, and the submission of our Airworthiness Directives finally being accepted with this email:

You can imagine our relief when we knew that we could race the airplane we intended to race. I can't even wrap my head around how to get a different airplane and start the application process over again. Thank goodness we don't have to! 

Thank you so much to the airplane division for being patient with us and getting it done.

We also had to complete two courses online; Aeronautical Decision Making and the DC special flight rules area. Both courses were very informative and definitely good to have done before the race. The certificates needed to be send to the safety division of the race, and have been accepted, another box we could check. In addition we have the hotels booked for the start and terminus, as well as bought tickets to both the start and terminus events.

The handicap flight

A big milestone that had to be completed in order to compete, is the handicap flight. The Handicap flight determines the handicap speed of each team entering, to allow different make and model airplanes to compete in the same race. The challenge is for the teams to achieve actual ground speeds as far over the groundspeed established in the Handicap flight as possible. The trick is to fly the perfect cross country, play the elements and navigate the weather as efficiently as possible. The handicap flight needed to be completed before May 15th. Our initial handicap pilot ( a pilot that will judge that it is flown according to the rules) wasn't able to perform the flight with us before the deadline. But we were fortunate to be appointed a different handicap pilot. She was willing to come out to Lancaster CA on May 10th, which was mother's day! We were relieved to hear that we would be able to complete the flight before the deadline, weather permitting of course.

Our Handicap Flight flown on May 10th 2015

During the handicap flight the airplane is flown in race configuration, full throttle and leaned for max performance.  Four legs of 5 minutes were flown in a box pattern at a density altitude of 6000 ft. It needed to be a calm day, with no turbulence. This proved to be a little bit challenging in the Antelope Valley CA where our airplane is based at Edwards AFB. The spring is notorious for really bad winds and the heat combined with terrain and airspace restrictions made the handicap flight a somewhat difficult task. The ARC provided a data logger and this was backed up by the handicap pilot reading and manually recording the groundspeed from the aircrafts GPS. The data from the logger and the hand recorded data was then submitted to the handicap division for review, together with weight and balance of the aircraft.  

We were lucky, on May 10th 2015 the winds were not that bad and it was actually a relatively cool day for the time of year. The handicap pilot met with me at Fox field KWJF in Lancaster at 8 in the morning. After briefing the flight and going over the necessary paperwork we took off. My nerves were through the roof! Even worse than checkride nerves for some reason. But the flight proved to be a lot easier than I had anticipated. The airplane basically did it for me, on the autopilot. All I had to do was make sure the mixture was properly leaned and the throttle full forward. Also had to keep an eye on the airspace we were flying in, we didn't want to cross Edwards AFB airspace on our last leg. It was a great experience to fly the first official flight of our race. The following week we received the email stating that the flight was successful:

Looking fabulous

The final major milestone I'd like to report on is the completion of our team logo and shirts. Of course we need matching outfits to be looking fabulous throughout our flying adventure! 

Our next major milestones: purchasing the race number and applying it to the airplane, flight planning, and get the 100 hr inspection done before we leave on the 11th of June. 

Stay tuned for more from team Flying Dutchess and Soaring Eagle!

~Flying Dutchess

Almost there! 2 more days to go in our campaign

Thank you!!!

Thank you so much, to all our friends that have donated. The money will be used to help fund the fuel that we will be needing to participate in the race. We are definitely overwhelmed by all the support that we're getting and it is fueling our determination to do well in the race!

This is how well we did so far:

- We were able to raise 71% of our goal, the goal being $2000

- That 71% came from 3 different source: cash, check and crowd funding campaign.

We are hoping to get fully funded on the crowd funding campaign. There is still 2 days left, so if you are considering to donate, then you still have time to do so! We would be very grateful and there are awesome perks that are waiting for you. Find our crowd funding campaign on: 

http://igg.me/at/flysoarARC2015

In case you don't feel comfortable donating via the internet, then just send me an email, nancybradshaw@gmail.com,  and I'll send you my mailing address.

Poker Run Fun!

My chapter of the 99s, the Antelope Valley 99s, held the annual fund raising Poker Run at William J Fox Airfield. It was a great day to fly and there was a great turn out from local aviators. Aerotech News published a wonderful article of the event: 

http://www.aerotechnews.com/news/2015/04/15/antelope-valley-ninety-nines-celebrate-25th-anniversary/

Air Race Prep

In preparation of the air race we've been busy getting the aircraft paperwork in compliance with race rules. A fellow aviatrix told me, that just getting through the race without being disqualified, should be considered a win. I did kind of wonder what that meant, what would be harder than racing itself? But I'm slowly seeing the point, just getting everything in order to be able to race is a challenge all in itself. It will be a victory to get to the start line with an aircraft that is qualified to race. You will be kept in the know, every step of the way. Stay tuned!

~Flying Dutchess.

Race # 36

Following in the footsteps of the Powder Puffers

It's getting more and more real. Only 102 days left to the start! Last month we got our race number assigned and it is #36. Sounds like a lucky number to me! There are 52 teams already signed up with 3 more spots left. The next steps in following in the footsteps of the Powder Puffers is to complete the registration of our aircraft. We are renting a Cessna 172 with a glass cockpit for the race since unfortunately we don't have an airplane ourselves that we can compete with. It's quite the difference with what the ladies did back in 1929. When they were trying to navigate with paper charts and open cockpits. We will have the wonders of GPS and moving maps, accurate depiction of our fuel flow, autopilot etc.
We will also have to start practicing with flying together as a team. I know that some race teams are geographically so far from each other that they haven't even flown together before the start line. But we really want to practice beforehand. Last weekend we did finally get to fly together. The weather was great and timing was right and The Soaring Eagle's aircraft, the Ercoupe, was in great shape. We did a sweet little cross country flight to Harris Ranch 3O8 from Shafter Minter KMIT. Flying that vintage airplane comes with some challenges. It does not have an electrical system, so it needs to be hand propped for example. Not an easy task if you ask me. Definitely making me think of the challenges that women like Pancho Barnes and Amelia Earhart faced in those early days of aviation. In the near future we will start flying the 172 around that we will be racing, as to get comfortable in the cockpit and with the glass panel.

I've been very busy these last few weeks with sending out letters requesting sponsoring from various different companies. Unfortunately no luck so far, but I'm not giving up! In addition, I've completed the editing of our pitch video that we will use in our indiegogo crowd funding campaign that will be launched next Monday 3/16/2015. Be sure to take a look on Monday when the campaign launches and tell all your friends about us! We are trying to raise about $2000 to go to the fuel fund of the race. Every little bit helps and we are super thankful for your support. It would a great help, since with having to rent an airplane, this race is turning out to be quite the money pit haha! And don't worry, I'll be reminding you when the campaign launches!

With making our little pitch video I practiced my video editing skills and enjoyed it a lot. It's a preview for what you can expect from us during the race. I plan to document the whole journey and keep you updated with our progress.  Here's a sneak peek:

Wishing you blue skies!
~Flying Dutchess

And so it begins

Happy New year!

Flying Dutchess & Soaring Eagle
wishing you a Happy New Year!

Better late than never; Happy New Year everyone! I hope that everyone had a wonderful and fabulous holiday season and was able to start 2015 refreshed and energized. Team Flying Dutchess & Soaring Eagle had a flying start to the new year with starting the application process for the Air Race Classic 2015. 

Registration for ARC 2015 began noon January 2 2015 and will end noon April 1 2015.  The application process started with reading the Racer Registration Kit thoroughly and thereafter filling out the application pages online. It is very exciting to start on this journey and to follow in the footsteps of so many amazing pilots before us.

Great examples: Air Race Classic Racers 

Left: Lynne Hsia,
Team photo ARC 1984 

A wonderful example of an ARC racer is Lynne Hsia, secretary of the Antelope Valley Ninety Nines ( http://antelopevalley99s.wix.com/av99s ). Lynne is a very active member of our chapter and is an inspirational aviatrix with great experience as a pilot. In 1984 Lynne participated in the Air Race Classic flying a Beech Bonanza F33-A. Lynne was so nice as to share her official program booklet and we will be meeting up to hear more about her race experiences.

Rivals flying together, Nancy Bradshaw
and Mercedes Eulitt, ARC 2015

Lynne Flew with race number #25, and this year another member on the Antelope Valley Ninety Nines will be flying with that same Race number: Mercedes Eulitt. 

Mercedes will be our competition! But nonetheless she is willing to share her experience in racing with us. It shows how we all like to help each other out to be the best we can and more importantly, to fly safe. The race is about the wonderful experience of flying and making new friends, less about winning. Mercedes has participated in the ARC before and has over 2000 flying hours. The photo to the right was taken this morning, January 17 2015, it was a very nice day to fly. 

During the Bakersfield Ninety Nines holiday party we've gotten a lot of good advise from more former racers and future competitors. The overall theme: preparation is key!

A lot of work ahead

In the coming months we will have our hands full in preparing for the race. In the first place we will have to complete the registration process and receive our race number. Secondly we will have to plan the legs we will be flying in the race. Not only that, we will also have to plan the cross country flight that will get us to the start line and the flights that will get us home from the finish line. In a first rough estimate, we will fly a total of 5800 NM! This will require thorough flight planning.

Other tasks ahead are finding sponsors and trying to find media that would be interested in publishing about our adventures. If anybody has some tips or advise for sponsors, fundraising and media, we'd love to hear about it. We also plan to keep everyone updated through the wonders of social media, maybe even inspiring others to also take to the skies!

Keep an eye out for our updates and stay tuned

~ Flying Dutchess

New Team, New Team Name, Even More Motivated!

Not giving up.

Last year I wanted to race the Air Race Classic, an all women air race. Unfortunately I wasn't able to realize it this year, but I decided to not give up. I contacted the awesome people that had donated to help me race and asked them if they would like their donation back, or if they would be willing to let me keep it in order to race in 2015. The responses were amazingly positive, and it gave my no choice but to try and race next year in  the Air Race Classic 2015!

The team members.

J.J. Shapiro

This time I partnered with J.J. Shapiro, Vice Chairwoman of the Bakersfield chapter of The Ninety-Nines Inc. International Organization of Women Pilots. In 2006, after expressing a desire to learn to fly, J.J.'s husband dared her that she would never complete ground school. This stay-at-home mother of three and grandmother, accepted the challenge and prevailed. Not only was J.J. the only woman to complete ground school, but she was one of three that went on to receive her private pilot license. J.J. is the only member of her ground school class of 20 that still flies today!

1941 Ercoupe, shiny!! 

J.J. has been a private pilot since 2007. As a pilot she has had countless flying adventures and accomplishments. Two months after receiving her "ticket" she discovered a lump in her breast and was later diagnosed with breast cancer. Cancer did not curb J.J.'s passion for life and aviation. During this trying time she received her tailwheel endorsement and did acrobatic training. For eight years, J.J. has flown various aircraft and has accumulated over 800 hours. She has flown in Hawaii, soared over the Golden Gate Bridge, been a pilot for organ transport flights, and has experienced low altitude flying as a pipeline observer. Her latest flying adventure is being the proud owner of a 1941 Ercoupe. Her airplane has been restored to mint condition and is a rare beauty that still flies in the skies today. When she's not at her hanger or flying high, this fabulous aviatrix is proud to spend time with her family and be called "Grandmama!"

Nancy Bradshaw

As for myself, my name is Nancy Bradshaw. I am also vice chair women for my 99s chapter, the Antelope Valley 99s. I earned my private pilot certificate on the 4th of July 2013, my instrument rating February 15th 2014 and I just recently earned my commercial certificate Single Engine Land October 22nd 2014. I have 270 flying hours at the moment and I'm currently working on my tailwheel endorsement. A few of my flying adventures include crossing the ocean to fly to Catalina Island, and mountain flying to Big Bear and Mammoth.

 When I'm not flying I work as a discipline engineer at Edwards Air Force Base. I work in the structures group in flight test of the F35 JSF Lightning II. It has been amazing to work in such an inspiring environment. In my first year on base, 2009, I saw the space shuttle land and it is just amazing to see the B2 bomber disappear on  the horizon when driving to work. In addition to being a pilot and engineer, I'm a proud momma of two fur-kids, my dogs Mojo and Dropje.

The team: Flying Dutchess & Soaring Eagle.

Flying Dutchess & Soaring Eagle

Together we form the team: "Flying Dutchess & Soaring Eagle". 

Our team name references to our backgrounds. I am Dutch, hence "Flying Dutchess". I moved to Southern California in august 2009 to work on the F35. "Soaring Eagle" refers to J.J.'s native American heritage. We are both proud of our backgrounds and wanted the team name to reflect that. It just so happens that it makes for a really cool team name!

The Race.

The Air Race Classic is the epicenter of women's air racing. Pilots range in age from 17 to 90 years and come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Race teams, consisting of at least two women pilots, must fly VFR during daylight hours only and are given four days to make flybys at each en route timing point and then land at the terminus. The race route is about 2,100 miles in length.

Air Race Classic Route 2015 

Each plane is flown in race configuration to determine it's handicap speed - and the challenge for each  race team is to achieve actual ground speeds as far over the handicap speed as possible. The pilots strategize to play the elements, holding out for better weather, winds, etc. it is all about flying the perfect cross country. The last arrival at the terminus could be the winner!

To find more information on the race visit the website: http://airraceclassic.org

Starting the adventure, follow us!

We are more determined than ever to make this adventure happen. We have a whole lot of drive, motivation and determination. We still need to gather part of the funds to race and we are in need of an airplane. Unfortunately the Ercoupe doesn't have the required amount of horse power to compete. At this point we are exploring the options of renting and aircraft, looking for sponsors and means of fund raising. 

We will document our journey during, and leading up to the race in the various means of social media. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and we will keep you up to date with our progress on our blog. 

Thanks for reading our blog and stay tuned, Blue Skies!

~ Flying Dutchess & Soaring Eagle