Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Home!

We made it! 3 states in one day and we were back before noon AZ time. We left Amarillo at 7am IFR for Albuquerque. We had smooth skies and the headwinds that seem to follow us everywhere.


More rising terrain was another good sign that we were heading in the right direction.






We had some traffic above us coming into ABQ (this was the view through our sunroof, a Twin Otter):


And had 3 airliners holding short of the runway for us to land.





I'm sure they enjoyed our 65kt final approach speed.

We got topped off at Cutter


and continued on our way. We decided to go VFR direct to Prescott so we could stay a bit lower (10,500 instead of 12,000), which was easier on my congested head.






The skies were pretty hazy from the forest fires burning around NM and AZ.


But eventually the end was in sight and terrain started looking more familiar.





We landed, unpacked our plane that we've been living in for the last 2 weeks, and went home to clean clothes, a warm shower, and comfy beds. And it was still only 11:30am. Thank god for time zones.

We both want to thank all of our supporters, the race volunteers, and all of the friendly and welcoming people we met along the way. It's been an unbelievable experience and something we'll never forget. We made a great time and shared a lot of great experiences, not to mention about 45 hours of cross country time, over the last 2 weeks. I want to thank Kristen for being a great team mate, and I can't wait to race again next year if the opportunity presents itself.

See you in the skies!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Oh Texas

We made it across the state of Texas today. Had to take a taxi from the hotel with a pitstop at Target for medicine, which they were of course out of. The FBO we went to at Longview, KRS Jet Center, is super nice if anyone is ever in that area. Anyway, we took off around 10am from Longview and flew IFR to Wichita Falls/Sheppard AFB which took about 2.5 hours.





We flew into Oklahoma for like 30 seconds so that was exciting.


And then we landed and took their crew car to get lunch.

On the previous leg, we did a little flight planning enroute and decided to continue to Amarillo after refueling in Wichita Falls. So when we got back to the airport, that's what we did. There are a lot of T38s at Wichita Falls. You can see a few taxiing off our wingtip in this picture:


We also had two fly near us after
we took off.





We're finally starting to remember that the world isn't flat and the terrain is starting to rise again, so this is a good sign. The updrafts are welcoming us back home.





This was also my leg to relax.


We landed in Amarillo,


took a break and decided to get some soup in town. We were waiting for some thunderstorms in Albuquerque to clear out since we were hoping to get there today. It didn't happen. I'm still sick and was starting to feel worse again so we decided to just stay here.

Tomorrow we'll be back in Prescott.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Made it to TX

Today we started the journey back to AZ. We took off around 10:30 this morning from Mobile and flew through 4 states before making our first stop. First state, obviously, Alabama:








Mississippi:





Louisiana (Baton Rouge):















And Texas.












And we saw a lot of this:






It was a miserable 3.5 hr flight for me cuz I'm still sick and feel like I'm getting worse. I cannot stop coughing. We went to a really nice FBO at Longview, which is where we stopped. We took their crew car and got lunch, and then decided to stop here for the day since I feel so crappy. One of the FBO employees gave us a ride to the hotel.





It must be fate that our hotel room number has a little airplane picture next to it.






Stopping here will make for a longer day tomorrow but hopefully I'll feel a little better and Kristen won't have a completely useless left seat occupant like today.


Last day in Mobile

We started our last day in Alabama with a mandatory breakfast meeting where all the racers gave feedback to the judges and members of the Air Race Board. We also got our airplane keys back since the planes were officially released from impound. After the race, all of the planes are impounded so that racers can't get back into them. It helps to eliminate cheating because the top finishing planes are always re-inspected and sometimes re-handicapped.





Forgot to mention this yeaterday, but I got a really nice card from Kristen's parents. I thought it was kinda odd that they gave me this card:


But then I turned it upside down and it made more sense.


Either way, there was cash inside so I was keeping it.

Anyway, we decided to head back to the beach on Dauphin Island, which was a great idea. I could sit there for hours.





I love the houses on stilts.


Then we drove around for what seemed like hours trying to find somewhere to eat lunch. Eventually we did. Then we got ready for the banquet. It was really nice and we had two ERAU tables.





And we took a lot of pictures. With an increasing number of people each time.











We had dinner and waited for the scores. Unfortunately this year we placed in the middle of the pack. However, we had a great time and wouldn't change anything. We made the best decisions we could based on the information available to us. We learned a lot, and made some great friends. And I can't wait to be back next year when the race starts in Lake Havasu. Kristen and I are both very proud to represent Embry-Riddle.

Tomorrow the journey home begins...

Saturday, June 25, 2011

A day to relax




Today we got to rest and relax, and play tourist with Kristen's family and fiancé.


We started the day by getting breakfast and signing our official score sheet. Then we headed out for Gulf Shores, which we heard was a really nice beach on the coast about an hr away. After getting lost multiple times and driving to within 10 miles of our destination, we got stuck in horrendous stop and go traffic. So we elected to not go to the beach because we wanted to be at a museum before 3pm. So we participated in what was probably the world's longest drive (1.25 hours) to a Sonic drive-in for a snack. I gotta have my tots...


From there, we headed to the battleship USS Alabama. It ended up being a really interesting museum but it was miserably hot inside that ship. If it were air conditioned, we probably could've spent a few hours there.








There were also some planes and a submarine that was really cool, but it was too hot for us to spend more than a couple hours there.

From there we headed back downtown and met the Executive VP of ERAU, Dr. Ayers, and his wife for dinner. It was a lot of fun and a good chance for us to get together again with the girls from Daytona.


Tomorrow is a mandatory breakfast and the banquet, and we're gonna try to find something fun to do with the free time in between.