Women's Air Race Classic - calling other Mooneys?

[Becca]

Its official, after years of talking about wanting to do it, I am making it happen and signed up for the Women's Air Race Classic.  I see at least one other Mooney on the registration list so far - any other lady Mooney pilots going to be joining me this year?

Anyone done this race in the past and have useful advice, tips, or tricks to flying fast?

https://www.airraceclassic.org/racer-list.htm

(I also plan on continuing to participate in some co-ed racing through Sport Air Race League as often as I can, so looking forward to seeing if anyone can best my speed there too!)

[N201MKTurbo]

I looked at the web site and I have no idea how the race works. How do they handicap the different airplanes? If somebody shows up with a TBM do they instantly win? That is a long way to fly in a single day. Are the legs scored individually, is your refueling time counted? Where are the rules?

 

[N201MKTurbo]

OK, finally found an FAQ link that worked. It answered most of the questions.

I used to do the Kachina Doll Air Rally here in AZ. Until the year the organizers screwed me (and the FAA guy) over.

[carusoam]

From a 2017 thread…

Over the Moon has been racing a while…  Registration shows Quakertown, PA.

Pilot/copilot names sound familiar…

Go Becca!

Best regards,

-a-

 

 

[Sue Bon]

Yeah Becca! I'm routing for you!!

[Echo]

9 hours ago, Sue Bon said:

Yeah Becca! I'm routing for you!!

With the beautiful sectional section on your tail I bet you are a fantasic "router".  I am rooting for Becca too!  Go Mooney!  

[neilpilot]

14 hours ago, Sue Bon said:

Yeah Becca! I'm routing for you!!

Have you considered joining Becca’s crew?

[carusoam]

2 hours ago, neilpilot said:

Hove you considered joining Becca’s crew?

Time for Sue to get to the States!

Best regards,

-a-

[Sue Bon]

16 hours ago, neilpilot said:

Have you considered joining Becca’s crew?

If I route the way I root, I'll just slow Becca down. Better for her to stay rooted in her own routine  

[PeteMc]

On 1/24/2024 at 12:03 PM, neilpilot said:

Have you considered joining Becca’s crew?

If I were still on the East Cost I would have gotten involved.  To bad the race isn't on the "other" coast where I am now.

 

[jetdriven]

They’re pretty tight lipped over there at the ARC. They ain’t gonna give you no tips on how to fly faster, but maybe somebody will tell you how they put helium inside the structural fuselage tubes to lose a couple pounds of weight and move the CG back.  
personally, it’s easier just to let 20 pounds of air out of each tire that’s 40 pounds right there

[Nokomis449]

1 hour ago, jetdriven said:

it’s easier just to let 20 pounds of air out of each tire that’s 40 pounds right there

[Pinecone]

On 1/25/2024 at 7:21 PM, PeteMc said:

If I were still on the East Cost I would have gotten involved.  To bad the race isn't on the "other" coast where I am now.

 

@PeteMc Not a valid excuse, the race is in the middle of the country.

 

[neilpilot]

2 hours ago, Pinecone said:

@PeteMc Not a valid excuse, the race is in the middle of the country.

 

@PeteMc just to be clear, we're discussing the Women's Air Race?

[PeteMc]

1 hour ago, neilpilot said:

@PeteMc just to be clear, we're discussing the Women's Air Race?

Yes, but can't men help on the Support Team?  That's what I was replying to. 

 

[neilpilot]

4 hours ago, PeteMc said:

Yes, but can't men help on the Support Team?  That's what I was replying to. 

 

You replied to “Crew”, not support team

[PeteMc]

3 hours ago, neilpilot said:

You replied to “Crew”, not support team

Really???  You wanna go back and take another look.      If you did, I bet you'd find I said.... "If I were still on the East Cost I would have gotten involved.  To bad the race isn't on the "other" coast where I am now."   And "involved" is not "crew" as far as I know. 

But then it could be!  I could have been part of the "Ground Crew" "Pit Crew" "Line Crew" aka crew /kroo/  a group of people who work closely together

 

 

[Hank]

These days, @PeteMc, you could probably talk your way in as a pilot . . . . Seems a lot of men are winning women's competitions nowadays.

[Will.iam]

On 1/25/2024 at 7:14 PM, jetdriven said:

They’re pretty tight lipped over there at the ARC. They ain’t gonna give you no tips on how to fly faster, but maybe somebody will tell you how they put helium inside the structural fuselage tubes to lose a couple pounds of weight and move the CG back.  
personally, it’s easier just to let 20 pounds of air out of each tire that’s 40 pounds right there

Also easier to do a colonoscopy flush the day before the race, can lose some pounds there too especially if you are full of shit like I was   

[PeteMc]

On 1/25/2024 at 5:14 PM, jetdriven said:

They ain’t gonna give you no tips on how to fly faster,

So you're saying the tip to make sure to carry plenty of survival gear and water for 3 days wasn't a real thing???  

 

[Will.iam]

3 hours ago, PeteMc said:

So you're saying the tip to make sure to carry plenty of survival gear and water for 3 days wasn't a real thing???  

 

That was just a ploy to slow the competition down with extra weight. 

[jetdriven]

The results are in.  14th of 50.  https://www.airraceclassic.org/results/

A few observations. There were 9 legs.  18 hours of 1000 AGL and full throttle, 2700 RPM, and mostly full rich. Lots of moderate turbulence and 90+ degree heat.

They placed 14th of 22 non-college teams. 

Leg 5 was a killer, a huge diversion around weather which resulted in a 21mph loss on that leg. This stuff built up right in front of them, had they taken off 5 minutes sooner, it wouldn't have yet been there. The top few teams on that leg had around an average of -3mph, so the net loss was 18mph, averaged to 2 MPH over the whole thing.

"out of the flyby box" penalties amounted to 1.33 MPH.  The allocated flyby boxes are 400-600' wide, beside the runway, and depend on the airport.

There were some extensions past the runway for traffic or wider turns which added some time. One in particular was MBY which added 3 miles to the upwind leg before turning, slow traffic executing a VFR landing to the opposite end of the runway.

So, had leg 5 gone nominally, no penalties, and some tighter turns on course, they would have placed 3rd.  But no race is perfect. Too many variables, unpredictable weather, other pilots, etc.

On the leg home, we stopped at Carhenge at Alliance NE, then flew 984NM non stop to TSO in Ohio for dinner, then home.

 

Next week, Airventure Cup race, a different race entirely. Class plyon racing. Run what you brung.

[Becca]

16 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

The results are in.  14th of 50.  https://www.airraceclassic.org/results/

A few observations. There were 9 legs.  18 hours of 1000 AGL and full throttle, 2700 RPM, and mostly full rich. Lots of moderate turbulence and 90+ degree heat.

They placed 14th of 22 non-college teams. 

Leg 5 was a killer, a huge diversion around weather which resulted in a 21mph loss on that leg. This stuff built up right in front of them, had they taken off 5 minutes sooner, it wouldn't have yet been there. The top few teams on that leg had around an average of -3mph, so the net loss was 18mph, averaged to 2 MPH over the whole thing.

"out of the flyby box" penalties amounted to 1.33 MPH.  The allocated flyby boxes are 400-600' wide, beside the runway, and depend on the airport.

There were some extensions past the runway for traffic or wider turns which added some time. One in particular was MBY which added 3 miles to the upwind leg before turning, slow traffic executing a VFR landing to the opposite end of the runway.

So, had leg 5 gone nominally, no penalties, and some tighter turns on course, they would have placed 3rd.  But no race is perfect. Too many variables, unpredictable weather, other pilots, etc.

On the leg home, we stopped at Carhenge at Alliance NE, then flew 984NM non stop to TSO in Ohio for dinner, then home.

 

Next week, Airventure Cup race, a different race entirely. Class plyon racing. Run what you brung.

I am pretty happy with it all things considered for a first race and learned a lot about how to do better next time.  We also won prizes on 4 of the legs (1 first place leg, 2 second place legs, and 1 third place leg.)

3rd place overall went to a very experienced Mooney racer flying her M20J, team “Over the Moon.”

I feel a little bit like someone who trains for a marathon and says “I just want to run one once and cross it off my bucket list” only to be looking for the next marathon opportunity right when they get home. I hope to do it again, but the time commitment is pretty steep for anyone with limited vacation time.  
 

One amazing thing about this race is the airports in the route - amazing, they had food, spectators, hordes of volunteers from 99s, EAA, CAP, local schools acting as pit crew, meteorologists on site for briefings, water, swag, rides to hotels, etc. It was an overwhelming amount of support every time we landed.