From Mimi: Several small south Alabama airports, and a couple in southern Mississippi were on alert for Cherokee strafing runs last week, as Linda and I did a high speed round-robin to half a dozen little airports. Once again, I tried to remember which stop-watch button was 'start', which one was 'stop', and which one was 'reset.' Arrggh. You wouldn't think it would be that complicated. Funny how simple tasks gain complexity when attempted at high speed, with other chores also demanding attention. If Pilot Linda weren't so darned competent in the left seat (HER left seat, by the way), I might try to persuade her to let me simply fly and she could turn her prodigious organizational skills to record-keeping and stopwatch mastery. Seriously, with our newly redesigned checklists, it should go even more smoothly next time we practice together. Oh, wait. That's going to be in mid-June....
Looking forward to trying out the latest and greatest in navigational wizardry, as AnywhereMap has promised us their new Septa, due to start shipping any day now. WxWorx has lent us a blue-tooth XM-Wx receiver, and we'll be ever-so well fixed for figuring out where we are. Looking very much forward to figuring how to extract all that information.
Also, I've promised to get to work on a fund-raising letter to possible sponsors. With gas prices soaring faster than they can get the signs changed, we're going to need 'em!
Azalea City Avgals
On our way!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Girls Club meeting March 19
What a treat for the Girls Club and all of us adults!!
The special guest speaker was Bernice "Bee" Falk Haydu a member of the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) in 1944-45. She spoke of the training and ordeals of women learning to fly in that era. In July 2009 President Obama awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots with Ms Bee in attendance with other notable women pilots. She is a wonderful 90 years old with still the love of flying. She flew the 25th Powder Puff Derby and most recently she flew the ARC several years ago with Terry Carbonell as her Mama Bird.
The program for the forty plus girls in attendance were introduced to other women in aviation.
1) Lynda Meeks an airline pilot and founder of Girls with Wings (nonprofit organization using women in aviation to inspsire girls to achieve their full potential) presented an introduction to the cockpit instruments and radio communication. Two of the girls made a poster about aviation with a focus on Lynda. Side note Lynda flew the ARC also when a pilot became very ill. Lynda was able to qualify and flew in her place.
2) Julie Padgett a pilot with the US Coast Guard also gave a presentation of what is entailed as a pilot in the SAR (Search and Rescue) missions as well as in the law enforcement and natural disaster divisions. Julie had been on a mission at 3am that morning but would not miss speaking with the girls.!!
3) Other women in aviation careers who gave short introductory presentations to the girls were from Airbus, Teledyne Continental Motors, Air Traffic Control, GAT Airline Ground Support and UPS. The girls had a lot of questions especially about how many tests do you have to take!!
Lots of pictures but the most notable were; Ms Bee with Terry and Inger (director of the Girls Club), Ms Bee at the signing with President Obama and her gold medalk, Julie of the USCoastguard, girls with poster and Lynda, Mama Bird Terry and her two Baby Birds - Ms Bee and me and Inger and her tireless assistants.
Pizza was served and away the girls flew!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Linda
The special guest speaker was Bernice "Bee" Falk Haydu a member of the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) in 1944-45. She spoke of the training and ordeals of women learning to fly in that era. In July 2009 President Obama awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots with Ms Bee in attendance with other notable women pilots. She is a wonderful 90 years old with still the love of flying. She flew the 25th Powder Puff Derby and most recently she flew the ARC several years ago with Terry Carbonell as her Mama Bird.
The program for the forty plus girls in attendance were introduced to other women in aviation.
1) Lynda Meeks an airline pilot and founder of Girls with Wings (nonprofit organization using women in aviation to inspsire girls to achieve their full potential) presented an introduction to the cockpit instruments and radio communication. Two of the girls made a poster about aviation with a focus on Lynda. Side note Lynda flew the ARC also when a pilot became very ill. Lynda was able to qualify and flew in her place.
2) Julie Padgett a pilot with the US Coast Guard also gave a presentation of what is entailed as a pilot in the SAR (Search and Rescue) missions as well as in the law enforcement and natural disaster divisions. Julie had been on a mission at 3am that morning but would not miss speaking with the girls.!!
3) Other women in aviation careers who gave short introductory presentations to the girls were from Airbus, Teledyne Continental Motors, Air Traffic Control, GAT Airline Ground Support and UPS. The girls had a lot of questions especially about how many tests do you have to take!!
Lots of pictures but the most notable were; Ms Bee with Terry and Inger (director of the Girls Club), Ms Bee at the signing with President Obama and her gold medalk, Julie of the USCoastguard, girls with poster and Lynda, Mama Bird Terry and her two Baby Birds - Ms Bee and me and Inger and her tireless assistants.
Pizza was served and away the girls flew!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Linda
Sunday, March 20, 2011
March, hurtling headlong into April
The preparations are moving along-- Linda has been out practicing her high-speed low approaches in Ms. Lima, dealing with airplane readiness and paperwork, designing our business cards, and consulting with Terry Carbonell, our Mother Bird.
Terry flies her Cessna 182 up from her Florida home once a month to meet with some 50 or 60 girls from the South Alabama Boys and Girls Club, as they explore the joys and possibilities of aviation. After six months of talking about flying, the girls will be following the Air Race, adopting a team to follow, cheering us all on, and meeting us at the finish line. More on this to come.
As for her contribution to this whole thing, Mimi, mostly from her perch in North Carolina, has been eagerly anticipating, reading, compiling checklists, and figuring out the complexities of a new camera purchased in honor of the occasion. She has let her fingers do the flying- with a mouse moving over satellite images of the route- and says it's going to be some amazing territory!.
Mimi plans to be in Mobile for a few days in mid-April to compare notes, and looks forward to another chance to do some real flying. After that, it may be mid-June headed for IOW before we can get together again, unless Ms. Lima can be coaxed to fly northeast for a pretty spring week.
Terry flies her Cessna 182 up from her Florida home once a month to meet with some 50 or 60 girls from the South Alabama Boys and Girls Club, as they explore the joys and possibilities of aviation. After six months of talking about flying, the girls will be following the Air Race, adopting a team to follow, cheering us all on, and meeting us at the finish line. More on this to come.
As for her contribution to this whole thing, Mimi, mostly from her perch in North Carolina, has been eagerly anticipating, reading, compiling checklists, and figuring out the complexities of a new camera purchased in honor of the occasion. She has let her fingers do the flying- with a mouse moving over satellite images of the route- and says it's going to be some amazing territory!.
Mimi plans to be in Mobile for a few days in mid-April to compare notes, and looks forward to another chance to do some real flying. After that, it may be mid-June headed for IOW before we can get together again, unless Ms. Lima can be coaxed to fly northeast for a pretty spring week.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Practice run!
From Mimi- Yr humble prospective co-pilot was in Mobile last week, and had a chance to see what this racing thing's all about. To start with, it was a perfectly gorgeous day, mid-70s, clear, and smooth. Linda and I departed Mobile Regional in her pretty Cherokee, headed for a tiny strip in Mississippi, and then several more uncontrolled fields in a nice round-robin, on our way to a touch-and-go at Mobile Downtown Airport, which will be the real race's terminus. Past forest fires (prescribed burns, apparently), over winding rivers and checkerboard farmland we flew, at the Cherokee's top speed- averaging about 127 knots. The fly-bys were fun. Long accustomed to nice gentle descents and mannerly arrivals, our zooming straight at the end of the runway at full throttle, then continuing the length of the runway at 300 feet, was a new experience for me. Whee! Only messed up the stop watch once...and almost always found the runway before we were there, so maybe we really will be able to do this thing. Eventually. I still have much to learn, but one thing's obvious-- this race is going to be a blast.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Well, it's official!
We're in! After much deliberation, we've named ourselves 'The Azalea City Avgals,' in honor of our hometown, Mobile, Alabama. We're also known as Linda Keller and Amelia (Mimi) Reiheld, and we're embarking on a grand adventure this summer, flying Linda's Cherokee 180 in the 35th annual Air Race Classic. The Air Race Classic arose from the ashes of the old 'Powder Puff Derby', and continues that tradition of women pilots racing stock airplanes across America.
We'll join dozens of other women pilots in mid-June, plotting our course from Iowa City, Iowa to Mobile, Alabama, taking the scenic route. To begin the adventure, we'll cross four or five states just getting to Iowa City for the start of the race. Then we'll spend several days in the company of other women pilots, learning safety considerations and race rules, having airplanes inspected, meeting new friends, and greeting old ones. The race begins on June 21, and we'll be off to cross Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, before alighting, finally, four hectic days later, at Mobile Downtown Airport for the Air Race finish.
From Mimi: I grew up in Mobile, and caught my love of flying and sailing there. Life intervened, and my journeys in subsequent decades have taken me all over the country. I'm now settled with my husband, Rob, in pretty, historic little Edenton, North Carolina. We get down to Mobile fairly often to visit family, though, and whenever my Mooney 231's wings cross that lovely delta, I feel very much at home again.
From Linda: As the saying goes, I'm not from here, but I got here as fast as I could, arriving 'home' to Mobile nine years ago after criss crossing America from midwest to northwest to southeast to midwest back to the southeast!! For the first 40 years of my life I was happy to be just a passenger in a plane piloted by my father-in-law Ace Keller a retired Air Force pilot. I learned to fly in the great Northwest shortly after turning that awful age of 40. My husband Bruce earned his private certificate also and is a GREAT copilot. After 20 plus years we still just love to go flying!! When I am not flying I am a realtor with Coldwell Banker Charles Hayes Real Estate and an avid tennis player. We are the proud owners of N5174L, a 1967 Piper Cherokee 180, nicknamed Ms Lima - she will be our ride for the big Air Race Classic with ladies only!
News Flash! We've just learned that we are Air Race Classic Team Number 6. As first-time racers, we're fortunate to have as mentors, that is, Mother Birds, Team Wild Mama, skippered by Terry Carbonell. Wild Mama was last year's winner. We plan to do some serious brain-picking.
We'll join dozens of other women pilots in mid-June, plotting our course from Iowa City, Iowa to Mobile, Alabama, taking the scenic route. To begin the adventure, we'll cross four or five states just getting to Iowa City for the start of the race. Then we'll spend several days in the company of other women pilots, learning safety considerations and race rules, having airplanes inspected, meeting new friends, and greeting old ones. The race begins on June 21, and we'll be off to cross Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, before alighting, finally, four hectic days later, at Mobile Downtown Airport for the Air Race finish.
From Mimi: I grew up in Mobile, and caught my love of flying and sailing there. Life intervened, and my journeys in subsequent decades have taken me all over the country. I'm now settled with my husband, Rob, in pretty, historic little Edenton, North Carolina. We get down to Mobile fairly often to visit family, though, and whenever my Mooney 231's wings cross that lovely delta, I feel very much at home again.
From Linda: As the saying goes, I'm not from here, but I got here as fast as I could, arriving 'home' to Mobile nine years ago after criss crossing America from midwest to northwest to southeast to midwest back to the southeast!! For the first 40 years of my life I was happy to be just a passenger in a plane piloted by my father-in-law Ace Keller a retired Air Force pilot. I learned to fly in the great Northwest shortly after turning that awful age of 40. My husband Bruce earned his private certificate also and is a GREAT copilot. After 20 plus years we still just love to go flying!! When I am not flying I am a realtor with Coldwell Banker Charles Hayes Real Estate and an avid tennis player. We are the proud owners of N5174L, a 1967 Piper Cherokee 180, nicknamed Ms Lima - she will be our ride for the big Air Race Classic with ladies only!
News Flash! We've just learned that we are Air Race Classic Team Number 6. As first-time racers, we're fortunate to have as mentors, that is, Mother Birds, Team Wild Mama, skippered by Terry Carbonell. Wild Mama was last year's winner. We plan to do some serious brain-picking.
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