THE WOMEN BEHIND THE MACHINE: N638DS

First, let me apologize to all of our supporters, sponsors, friends, family, and all those that lent the "Wings of Dreams Raceteam" their support. As I'm sure you are all aware, I started a "blog" at the beginning of the race, but being computer illiterate, hit something that sent it before I was finished. At that point, being totally emersed in the race and the work that layed before us, I never tried to correct it. There was NO TIME at this juncture. I was really excited about the video cam at the Russellville, Arkansas airport and was looking up the address but accidentally hit the wrong button on my computer and it was now in cyberspace. I thought it would be great fun for everyone to watch us come in to fuel, BUT you didn't miss anything. Russellville was one of the airports we ending up just flying the timing line and headed on to Sparta, TN.Next, and certainly MOST IMPORTANT, is thanking Captain Bob Oehl and Susan King from the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum in Keystone Heights, Florida. They handled all the paper work on the Diamond DA-40, secured the aircraft for the race, and raised all the money from sponsors to make this epic trip a reality. Also, Capt. Bob for his time and effort to get Susan and I ready to fly this "Dream Machine" all over the U.S.As you have learned in previous "blogs" we were first to arrive at the Terminus in Atlantic, Iowa!!!! We were over 6 hours ahead of the #2 aircraft (which, ironically, came in dead last!!!!!!!) No names mentioned as they have now become good friends.Our mission for this race was to promote awareness for the WASPS throughout the U.S, which we did and did well. My understanding is that we made three major newspapers, but we have not had time to look up the articles so at this time cannot tell which they were.I received a call at 10:30 P.M. the night before the Banquet and was asked to be at the airport at 7:00 A.M. the next morning to re-fly the Diamond and make sure we had the correct handicap for the Judges. I considered this a quite exciting call as I didn't feel they would be re-flying the plane to check our handicap unless we were in the Top 10. When I arrived at the airport, there were 6 planes waiting to be reflown. Everyone there was telling me that all planes that were recalled were in the Top 10. The excitement was definitely mounting!!!! At the Banquet we had no idea what our position was. We found that we finished #18 out of 36 planes (72 pilots). Although we were dissappointed in our finish, we were thrilled to receive 3 gold medals for best time on 3 of the 9 legs. Not bad for a first-time racing team, an unknown aircraft, and certainly unknow panel.We subsequently found out that the reason for re-flying the Diamond was that the Air Race Classic committee wanted more information on how to come up with a handicap for the plane. There was another Diamond DA-40 in the race and they were also asked to re-fly.The race is over and thankfully it is now time for a much deserved rest. I never envisioned the stress and sleep deprivation we would encounter trying to bring the trophy home for the WASP exhibit in the Museum.After the race is over you learn what the pilots that placed in the Top 10 did. Certainly, it's all closed-lip before the race. The team that placed 8th had raced this race 33 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!We're a proud racing team. I am sure with the information now at hand, if the race was run this week, that trophy would be in Keystone Heights.Again, thanks to all for the incredible journey.

Results Update from Bee

Sunday Banquet Finale where winners announced. Sad to report we did not win but did find out why – WE COULD HAVE. We made mistakes. Our enthusiasm was to be the first to land which we accomplished along with the three final legs including the terminus, Atlantic, IA. We arrived after 2 ½ days at 11:15 and no one else there until 6+ hours later. We did have 4 days to complete the race and should have spread out our flying. We should have flown in the mornings and avoid the extreme turbulence encountered in afternoon flying . This does reduce your speed. We know the Diamond Star has the speed. Proving we had the right airplane is that the other Diamond Star came in second. They had only 2 in the plane and had raced before. There are no first time Air Classic racers – like us – who have ever won. At the Banquet we did receive good advice from the winners for future use.

We did not go home empty handed. We won 3 leg prizes out of total of 9 (one of which was the leg going into Sweetwater) and an unofficial one for having the oldest (88) participant. Our “Award of Merit” certificate along with the leg medals we won will be proudly displayed.
The hospitality shown us along the way was unbelievable. At the terminus we were divided into groups to have dinner at a local volunteer’s home. Lucky us we were invited to Mike and Kathy Henningsen. He had opened his private hangar at the airport to all of us in which, among other airplanes and restored cars was a P51. He gave a ride to someone whose name had been drawn from a hat. These wonderful hosts served a great dinner preceded by “diet” Margaritas and followed by Pink Rabbits and Grass Hoppers – a dessert to die for. After dinner we watched tapes of his P51.

All in all, the three of us are still speaking to each other and would consider entering another race but not now. There is a lot of preparation work and stressful flying. We learned not to take on tasks promised that could not be filled. When racing there is not enough time or energy to communicate on a daily basis.

Thank all of you for your support. I may check back later with some other thoughts and perspectives. Christy and Susan will give their accounts later.

Bee

Comments & Photos

I just wanted to say that I am so proud of these 3 ladies and their accomplishment - being the first to reach the finish line.... now all we have to do is wait for the results. Over the last couple of days I have received some beautiful and fun photos from Susan. I am posting a couple here - the rest can be viewed on the Wings of Dreams web site photo gallery.

This is the team after they were the first to arrive in Atlantic, Iowa.



Here's one of the Diamond - Outstanding in the Field!


And this one is my favorite! Who said Air Racing isn't tiring!


Thanks Susan, Christy and Bee for sharing these wonderful photos and for the privelege of posting them for you!

Lisa

Greetings From Atlantic, Iowa!!!

Bee has shared our great news in an earlier blog. We were first to arrive at the finish line. One other plane made it in about 6 hours later. Thanks to Capt. Bob for the great weather information and analysis, we were able to be the first to land at Jacksonville, Illinois.

We were cautiously looking at a convective sigmet between Sparta and Jacksonville that afternoon. We all studied the situation carefully and decided to go for it, watching the storm on the scope in the cockpit. As predicted, the system broke up and we were able to fly direct with no problem. The majority of the planes stayed behind, but six of the other contestants did arrive at Jacksonville in the evening.

Our team realized that with good weather analysis, an early start and the great performance of the Diamond Star, we could possibly be the first ones to Racine, Wisconsin and, if our luck and good planning paid off, the first to the finish line in Atlantic, Iowa…. And it worked!!! What a feeling!!!!

We have a great team with divided duties but everyone cross-checking the other. The efficiency of the cockpit resource management paid big dividends. We may or may not win the race, but we were the first plane to arrive at the terminus. To us, this is an incredible accomplishment.

Our apologies to family, friends, sponsor and supporters for the inability to track our flight on Flight Aware as we originally promised. We quickly realized that we would lose our competitive advantage by filing a flight plan, which would enter our N number “into the system,” thus engaging the tracking feature. We made a choice and, as much as we wanted everyone to track our progress, it was more important to give ourselves every advantage in this race. By filing a flight plan or using flight following, we would run the risk of being diverted off our course, losing valuable
time. And, with weather systems popping up throughout the Midwest, we realized that the sooner we reached our destinations, the better chance we had in continuing to move forward and not being “grounded,” which was the case with the majority of Air Race Classic teams.

And it paid off big time!!!! So we are going to be busy blogging and posting photos today and tomorrow to tell our story…… more later.

Thanks to all of you for your support!

Best - Susan King
2009 Wings of Dreams Team

UPDATE FROM BEE

We apologize for not communicating sooner but we rise very, very early to be among the first off. We must plan not to be flying past the mandatory time down which is grounds for disqualification. With temperature in the high range (Sweetwater 110), and thermals bouncing us around, we were exhausted at the end of each flying day.

If you’re looking for “Firsts”, we were the first to land at Atlantic, IA, the terminus of the race. We had 2 other “Firsts”, first to land at Jacksonville, IL and Racine, WS. Of course that is not to say we won the race because there is much calculation by the committee to determine the winner as well as the 9 leg winners. Handicaps play a large role in these calculations. We flew through 9 states, over 19 hours, 2700+ miles in 2 ½ days. We had hoped to be able to fly the race at higher altitudes but had to fly low to stay away from heavy headwinds. With the climbing ability of the Diamond Star we would have had an advantage. We will not know the outcome of the scores until the finale on Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed.

Bee Haydu

First Across Finish Line !!!

This is Capt. Bob. I just had a call from Susan, The Wings of Dreams air race team has crossed the finish line before any other plane at Atlantic Iowa! We will not get the official scoring until tomorrow, but we got there first! Congrats to Pilots Christy Smith, Susan King anf flight Engineer/WASP Bee Haydu for this historic accomplishment. More news soon!

Race update!

AsSusan, Christy and Bee are busy racing, I will give you a quick update on information I have to this point. They left Arapahoe airport in Denver and overflew their first checkpoint at Liberal KS on to a reported silky smooth landing at Sweetwater TX. As soon as the cockpit opened, they were instant celebrities with Bee Haydu returning to her WASP airbase at Avenger Field there! Traffic was a bit congested but hospitality was great and the WASP museum's personnel there did a great job of making everybody feel welcome.

The next long leg was flown at low altitude to Lufkin TX in moderate turbulence and scorching temperatures. The crew was feeling like they were in a paint mixer at Home Depot! They had covered 1100 miles the first day and chose to call it enough for that day. Night would be upon them soon.

An early start this morning had them over fly the checkpoint at Russelville AR and land at Grenada MS for fuel. They are currently enroute to Sparta TN for a fuel stop and will evaluate weather for the decision to continue to Jacksonville IL for the night. The DA-40XL is running great and on one leg they passed just about everybody! Spirits are good and we appreciate the media and financial contributions many of you are giving for our project to honor the WASP.