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from the yoke of Teresa ... |
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nuggets of wisdom from the right seat |
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This is the 2nd installment of a 3 issue article that I penned for the 99’s Waypoint Magazine. (#2/6) April 2008 |
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“A Classic Adventure“ (Issue 1, Part2/6) By Teresa A. Camp
My preparation has been perhaps more rigorous, because I wasn’t rated to fly in her type aircraft with a constant speed prop and retractable landing gear. At the time we started talking about our plans, I had 260 hours, mostly in a Cessna 172. I had ratings for SEL, SES and instrument, but I wasn’t current for IFR flight. I had to get busy. Evelyn suggested a local flight school and instructor and they proved to be great! Every weekend I would go out for about 2 hours and learn to fly the C-182-RG. It took about 4 flights and I earned both my complex and high performance ratings. I used this as an opportunity to build towards my WINGS credits, but I still have some work to do on my instrument currency. The air race is purely VFR flight, but experienced pilots tell stories all the time of surprises where they end up in bad weather. Being IFR current in this type aircraft just makes good sense. I’m not working towards minimum requirements. This is a commitment to continuously build my proficiency, so I still have more air work to do.
We met for the first time to discuss the race more specifically in January. Evelyn gave me the application, and we talked about our expectations and preliminary plans. We set a goal to submit our application by the end of February. She also cautioned me that I had to memorize the ARC rules. So, I spent the next few nights reading through the materials. There was nothing in the rules that seemed too difficult to grasp, but it was quickly apparent to me that there must be many other things one needs to know beyond that booklet. I filled out the application, and it was pretty much what one might expect. There were questions about your flying credentials, experiences and interests. The one section that surprised me most was the requirement to name several local media contacts. I was able to complete this section by doing a little research on the internet. What ever did we do before we had the net? The last weekend in February we met at SMARTT field for lunch. The weather was bad, so we didn’t fly, but we did get our picture taken with Trixie. This completed the last part of our application, and Evelyn put it all together so we made our first goal: we submitted our application by the end of February! |
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