Azalea City Avgals

Azalea City Avgals
On our way!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

T minus three weeks and counting!

The support for our efforts so far is wonderful. We've had several very generous promises for a tank of gas (woohoo!) and one for dinner (an iced-tea toast to my friend!), so far. The SPOT satellite-locator gadget is on its way, according to Joe Ebert, from PilotJunk.com, and I'm thankful to say, it will arrive pre-subscribed and set up and ready to go. What a relief! And as if that weren't more than sufficient, he's also sending the charts we hadn't already acquired. What a dear! So, those who wonder how we arrived at our various destinations will, we hope, be able to follow the little dotted line on SPOT's website. Details to follow, with link.

A box arrived on my doorstep a day or two ago with snazzy Azalea City Avgals shirts in glorious hot pink and white, embroidered with azaleas and names. So exciting! We'll be highly visible.  Also in that same box was a wonderful, well-organized and well-written booklet by air racer Mary Pearson, that answered many questions, some I hadn't even yet formulated. It should be published and distributed to every ARC entrant, it's that good. In fact, it could be enlarged, with contributions from other successful air racers from recent years. Now whether any of this valuable information will be retained once the key is in the ignition is another question entirely.--

Cheers!
Mimi

Friday, May 20, 2011

Sponsors! We need sponsors

Do you have a burning desire to come along for our great adventure? We'd truly love to have you. While we don't recommend the back seat, -you might have to duck flying charts and water bottles-, you can enjoy the scenery, the weather challenges, the decision-making process, and the entire fabulous route without the bumpy air and low-tech climate-control. Just join us every evening right here for an update. We hope to have a breadcrumb trail courtesy of SPOT satellite tracking and the good technical advice of Joe Ebert at PilotJunk.com, and will try to post photos as we go.

 Even more to the point, we'd be ever so grateful for your support covering any of the following expenses. Here's what we need:
      *Registration fees-----$500 -2 of them.
      * A tank of Av-Gas--- $300 -  times 12.  (Yikes!)
      * A hotel room---------$100 for each of 8 nights.
      * Dinner for two-------$50 - again, times 8.
      * Lunch on the fly-----$20 for 8 aerial picnics a deux
      * Aerial charts----------$10 each, and we'll unfold 10 of them.
      * Your good thoughts, good advice, and encouragement- we'll happily accept all we can get!

A check in any amount would be most welcome and appreciated.


We will donate 20% of all cash receipts to our favorite southeastern aviation charity, Angel Flight Soars. It's a superb organization that coordinates free flights for people with a need for distant specialized medical care, through the efforts of volunteer pilots, including yours truly.

     

Friday, May 13, 2011

Where's the time gone?

From Mimi: Seems like it was just yesterday we had all the time in the world to prepare for this race. No problem! Now I'm looking at a calendar in a bit of panic, realizing that in one month, I'll be flying my Mooney toward Mobile, parking it there for a week and a half, and climbing in a Cherokee 180 bound for Iowa City. Whatever we didn't get done by then won't be getting done. Yikes!
So, now we have a couple of new sponsors! Don Ford, mechanic extraordinaire at Mobile Regional Maintenance, has lent his expertise to signing off Ms. Lima's annual and making sure she's in tip-top race shape. Also, Joe Ebert at PilotJunk.com has promised to lend us a SPOT satellite-based personal locater, so that we can leave a breadcrumb trail of our adventure. We may not be sure where we're going, but we'll have a record of where we've been!
Linda says our azalea-festooned shirts are ready, Ms. Lima's waiting for a part, and then she'll be all set, we've both completed on-line air safety courses. We need to make sure our log books are up-to-date, and a few hotel reservations made... and then we'll boot up GoogleEarth and fly this adventure in sea-level comfort. Whee! Somehow I get the feeling that it's going to look a bit different as viewed from Ms. Lima's cockpit.