Race day 2!

We started the day in Borger, TX after a somewhat short night's sleep at a very nice hotel. We took off at about 6:30 this morning after getting to the airport around 6. It was a low stress departure flyby and we continued enroute to our next stop in Norman, OK which is basically in Oklahoma City. We flew a good leg with decent tailwinds and calm air.





After landing around 8:30, we were greeted by more friendly volunteers with cold water, sack lunches, snacks, and gifts. They even shuttled us to the terminal in a golf cart cuz it was already hot!





We ate a giant bowl of oatmeal in the restaurant and checked our weather. Our next stop, El Dorado, Arkansas, was reporting IFR due to low ceilings. Because we must remain VFR for the whole race, we decided to wait for the clouds to lift a little further before departing.

After about an hour, we taxied back out for our departure flyby in Norman. This one was a little hectic because the airport is busier and towered (apparently a non-FAA tower). We had to extend about 5 miles out on our downwind and we were following 2 planes ahead of us for the flyby to start the clock. We had them in sight and our spacing looked good. There was another plane behind us that apparently wasn't sure who they were following and they cut in front of us from out of nowhere as we were lined up on final. After our interesting flyby we continued on course to El Dorado.


During the enroute portion we were passed by a Cirrus flown by some ladies from Jacksonville. We were talking to them on the air-to-air frequency and had each other in sight and it made for a good photo op.


El Dorado is an interesting place. The airport is cut out in a clearing of trees and it's difficult to see. Every clearing we saw, we thought it was the airport. The hazy air didn't help either. We found it just fine though and lined up for our flyby to land.

We were starving when we got here. We asked if volunteers were available for shuttle rides to local restaurants and when the stop chair (person in charge of making sure all the race-related things are getting done at each stop) said no, he proceeded to hand us his car keys. Super nice of him. So we went to Sonic.





We debated over staying vs continuing to our final stop of Mobile, Alabama today. The winds were slightly better today, but there were thunderstorms and marginal VFR conditions at Mobile. We decided we needed to be in the air by 5pm or else we could be cutting it close on time since we have to land before Air Race Official Sunset.


After deciding to stay and waiting for a ride, we were amused by this dog digging in the bushes outside of the terminal.


We shall see how it is tomorrow morning. We're hoping to get an early start as we make it to the finish line.