NEWS FLASH : Carbon Deposits aren't METAL!!!



Home Sweet Home!

 Julie's husband, Howard, flew into ELD to diagnose the Maule's condition!  Turns out that it in fact WAS the Prop Governor!!!  He discovered carbon deposits, not metal!!!!  These deposits had 'sloughed off' giving the appearance of metal.  Magnet use showed NO METAL!!!  He changed the prop governor, changed the oil, cranked it up, flew it around and HOME to H75!  Julie was proud to report yesterday afternoon that Classic Racer 13's Maule was indeed home!  Sad part is that we would not have been able to finish the race due to having to wait for the prop governor to arrive on the following Monday after the Terminus!!!  There is a silver lining, though . . .no major engine repair was needed!!  Hallelujah!  Praise God!  Lucky 13, again!!

Our Team Plane : Maule M-5 235hp



Pilot in command, Julie, with her pirate-ized plane.
Hernando, MS

The Air Race Classic 2011 has come and gone!  It was memorable, to say the least.  A special thanks goes out to Julie, the pilot in command of our team, Classic 13.  I can only imagine her thoughts.  Surely after leaving the Maule behind in El Dorado, AR was disappointing.  After returning to our perspective homes, she flew back to El Dorado to check out her plane, thinking only an oil change would be all that was needed along with the prop governer she'd ordered and had delivered there.  Upon changing the oil, she discovered more bad news.  There were tiny bits of metal in the oil filter, etc.  We're so thankful knowing we indeed had left the plane there instead of trying to fly it on to Mobile, AL.  Now, on to getting the necessary repairs.  At the present, she and her husband plan on going to remove the wings and transport it to their home in Hernando, MS for the engine repair.  We're on stand by to help them.  Best of luck on what they find later on.  AaRrRgGhHhH!!


Oil filter paper, ELD.



Checking the prop governor, ELD.



Checking the prop governor screen, ELD.






Bits of metal in can, ELD.



Yes, we do!!
Camelia from Peggy's garden, Spring of 2011.



The Big Celebration: BANQUET



Leaving Iowa City, IA
Thank you Wolfords!!!

 

Pirates Peggy and Julie cruising during the race!

 After a good Post-Briefing Breakfast, MANDATORY, on Sunday, June 26th, the teams were excused for the afternoon, doing what they wanted to do, at their leisure, then coming back together for the big BANQUET!! Julie went to Pensacola, FL with other teams to the Naval Museum while Charles and I went to Dauphin Island, AL for lunch (we'd been to the museum 2 times earlier this spring).  Great fun at Barnacle Bill's Marina Grill!  Thanks, Frannie, for your wonderful therapy session! Later, Julie met us for cocktails in our room to get our final pirate gear together for sharing with the other teams, our last time together!!  SIGH :-(  We gathered our newfound friends closeby to enjoy the evening celebration.  Charles told us that we might be in for a surprise, but, we kept telling him we were out of the race and to not expect anything.  He was so excited for us!  The SILENT AUCTION was in full swing!  Running around trying to be the highest bidder on items we thought we needed ;-)))  Great fun and a wonderful cause for future Air Race Classics!!!! Bidding was CLOSED!!   We all sat down for a wonderful prepared meal.  Enjoyed visiting with friends, saying our goodbyes and farewells.  The awards banquet began!!!  Sitting there cheering on our friends that were winning was great... and for all those fantastic teams that weren't winning anything.  We were ALL present, ALL teams that participated in this wonderful event!!  How rewarding was that!!!??!  All of a sudden they called out " Julie Thomas and Peggy Tucker, Classic Racers 13, better known as the Pirates of the Mississippi, 2nd place Leg Winners for the Great Bend, KS and Borger, TX leg!!! "  Oh my goodness!!  Charles was right!!!  We were listed on the roster as Incomplete BUT had won a leg prize prior to that!  Can't describe the feeling of happiness!!  We ran up to gather our beautiful bronze charms, handshakes, and photos.....Charles said I was shouting with my arms up?!...he was most likely right again.   We were thrilled!  In spite of our placement on the roster we were WINNERS!!!  Go Pirates of the Mississippi!!  Lucky 13 wasn't all that bad afterall!!!  Great experience we'll never forget!


2nd Place Leg Prize



Pirates Charles and Julie during Teledyne tour
Mobile, AL



Peggy and Charles
Barnacle Bill's
Dauphin Island, AL





Teledyne Continental tour
Mobile, AL



The TERMINUS: Mobile, AL



Pirates arriving Mobile, AL
via Cessna 736XD
Thanks, Charles!!!

 

Congratulations, Peggy!

 


Meeting our adoptee, Trinity Stroud with sister Lydia.

 


 Good morning Mobile!!  Yep, the Pirates are HERE!!  We hijacked a boat, manuevered into the Mighty Mississippi, floated down to New Orleans, rowed East in the Gulf of Mexico into Mobile Bay.....viola....WE'RE HERE!!  AaRrRgH??  After a good nights rest, Julie and I attended the First Time Racers' Debriefing and Score Sheet signing(June 25, 20ll).  Our times were 'right on' with the timing judges!!  We ran upstairs getting changed into 'long pants and closed toe shoes' for the Teledyne Continental Tour which we found very nice.  We all learned so much from this tour!  We quickly left to get back to the hotel to grab our 'pirate gear' we'd brought along for our Adoptive Girls at the Racers & Youth Event at the USS Alabama Battleship & Air Museum.   We had been adopted and this was their event!  We brought along various items : inflated Pirate chest which we used in the back seat of our plane for our own personal cooler holding water, etc, Parrot visors, skull and crossbone items, pencils, stickers, etc!!! So nice to meet one of our girls and her family, Trinity Stroud.  We were free the rest of the evening.  Charles made reservations for our evening meal at Wintzels Oyster House: fried, stewed and nude is their logo. Team 28, Mae Marquet and Janet Miller along with Mae's husband, Ed, joined us.  We had a wonderful time sharing our race stories.  Julie and I had our picture taken with the pirate in the corner of their restaurant.  Patrons shook our hands, asking if we were participants in the race...instant celebrities!  :-))  Team 1, Joyce Wilson and Rebecca Hempill,  invited us to their Guns n Racers meeting at Buck's.  Julie was game but I was POOPED, asking for a 'rain check'!   Sunday morning (June 26th) was the All Contestant Breakfast Debriefing...MANDATORY!  Lots of teams told us how sorry they were we didn't  finish the race, saying we had been their favorite team and how cool our plane was . . .on and on!  I responded saying, "Well, now you tell us!!" :-))  During the race most racers are so intense on winning that they don't stop to compliment the other teams.  At this breakfast, everyone had finished the race and were much more relaxed . . . the race was OVER!!  Great friends were made during this historic event.  We were so thrilled to have been in the company of so many talented aviatrix's.  How lucky were we. . .Lucky 13??  All of us together after our own individual participation in the great Air Race Classic! Being a pilot is one of the most thrilling accomplishments I've ever experienced and being in the company of so many talented women pilots was truly overwhelming!!!  Awesome!  I'm very pleased to have entered the race.  Having many valuable stories from other women pilots . . .amazing!  Tonight is the ARC Awards Banquet.  Julie and I will be there 'with bells on' . . .cheering on our fellow women pilots!!



At Wintzell's, getting FRIED, 'STEWED' or NUDE!!



AaRrRgH!!


















On the back of Trinity's shirt!







 

El Dorado, AR : "Houston, we have a problem!"



Strategy meeting : Teams 12, 13, & 27 in El Dorado, AR





Arriving in El Dorado the afternoon of June 23rd was uneventful.  More heat, more fanning . . . what's new?  Right?!  A nice gentlemen, Michael Norris, brought us a sledgehammer to help secure the stakes to our plane.  They were B U S Y!!  As it turns out, Josh Zylks, the manager, was new to his position at the airport and his volunteers ditched him at the last minute.  He offered us his personal car.  I finally asked if they had a courtesy car!!  YES THEY DID!!  Off we go to find a hotel.  We'd made contact with some other teams and discovered FREE DRINKS were being served downtown!!  We're IN!  Enjoyed strategizing with the DC3's , Team 27, and Lin and Susan of Team 12.  We even got a private tour of the old theatre!!  After a good night's rest, we picked up our friends across the street and headed out to the airport(June 24.....Terminus).  We checked the weather, checked the oil, etc . . .we were off to Mobile, AL, the last leg of the race!!!  On our runup, we noticed the prop was not cycling as it should.  We waited.  Started over,  did  it once more.  It was 'better'!  Julie's thinking it'll be okay.  Off we go!! "Classic 13, departing, etc".  We're up!!  Flying the pattern to set up for the flyby to start our time, she discovers the gauges were red lining.  Not a good sign.  We spoke briefly and decided to land and NOT do the flyby....go down and check it out!  Right? After we landed she said, "ok, we didn't do the fly by, right?"  I reassured her we had not.  GREAT!  Michael Norris is a qualified airplane mechanic!!!  He's right there waiting when we arrive and park.  Julie and he discuss the problem in the air and what the gauges were showing.  She makes certain he is qualified to sign any papers necessary as far as maintenance goes that are required by the Air Race Classic.  She takes off the cowl.  They're thinking it's the prop governer.  Off it comes. . . they cleanse it with aviation fuel, hoping to free it of any debris that may be sticking inside. We start making calls to anyone we can think of that might have one on a shelf!  No luck!  Julie talks to her mechanic, the people who had done the last major work on the engine,  my mechanic, people from Monroe Air, Ruston folks, people Michael knew, etc.  After taking off the governor and cleansing it, they knew they needed a sealant to put it back together.  Julie goes into town, after taking sandwich orders,  and picks up the sealant.  We eat lunch, one by one.  Julie, Michael and Sarah Childs, who is a test away from her license, are making the necessary steps to get us going, once more!!  2:30 pm we try it again!  At this point, we've got a cheering squad on the ground. Our Mother Birds are there, Maureen Kenney and Barb Goodwin.  We take our pics with them!  Go 13, Go!!  Maureen and Barb taxi out in front of us.  We tell them we'll wait on our departure after their flyby, which is appreciated.  We do our runup.  Things look great!  Off we go!!!  Julie's taking great care of the plane, cycling after up, making sure it's working properly....it's fixed!!!  YEAH!!!  Or so we thought!  We fly the pattern getting lined up for the full throttle flyby.  Red line again!!  Julie announces Classic 13 inbound to land.  Our mother birds hear us and say their condolences....'oh, so sorry....better safe than sorry...we know how you feel...has happened to us before...hope to see you in Mobile' . . . long faces are on the ground.  Our devoted cheering squad tells us how great we sounded and how impressive they were with Julie's nose up attitude in the air!!  Ed Frost calls her a 'show off'!!! ;-))  We realize then that we will in fact not be flying to Mobile in the Maule.  My husband is there, in Mobile, waiting for our arrival.  I call him to report we are on the ground in ELD and asked if he could come retrieve Team 13.  Of course, he would....gladly.  We leave El Dorado in my 172 XP and arrive in Mobile, AL approximately 10:30pm.  Melt down party has come and gone but we had friends waiting on us to arrive at the Holiday Inn Downtown.  Charles(having logged 8 hrs that day) and I said a quick hello and goodnight and Julie stayed to rehash the events only she could tell.  Disappointment for certain for Team 13 but we felt very lucky!!!  We had flown the race, had the good sense to land our plane and made it to Mobile safe and sound!!  Julie and I feel very lucky, still!!  Lucky 13, we will never forget you!!


Julie and Michael discussing the problem.





Classic 13 with their Mother Birds!
Peggy Tucker, Maureen Kenney, Julie Thomas and Barb Goodwin




"Houston, we have a problem!"

 


Max Westheimer : Norman, OK



Say arrrgh!

 Home of Oklahoma University! June 23, Julie and I had another long, hot, 'no tailwinds' adventure!!!  Thank goodness for our Frogg Toggs scarf and towels.  They certainly made our time in the HOT cockpit easier to bear! Hospitality in Norman was A plus!! We were warmly received by volunteers  of the community with bottles of cold water at the planes and a quick ride in their golf carts to the terminal building! People from the school had tables set up with t-shirts and books for sale which we gladly indulged. Icechests full of snacks and more.  .  . good. .clear. .water!  water! water! water!(there's a song about that I think?) We felt like celebrities!  Another quick look at the weather showed no tailwinds, again. We cooled off a bit, rested and visited with the local waitress in the cafe. She kept telling us how much she loved our uniforms!   Company logo shirts with theme patches here and Black polo shirts with patches there . . . knowing we had improvised with our own personal resourses with an impressive result!!  SWEET!  We handed out more pirate gear to anyone willing to accept . Little children love stickers!!  Some adults even asked for some!!!  Julie and I were in great form.  We left a 'souvenir ribbon' on their gate.  On to El Dorado, Arkansas.........our final stop for the day!


Hello Norman, OK



Peggy purchasing t-shirts for her Grands!



Borger, TX : "Classic 13, what are your intentions?"




Peggy and Julie in front of the 'Lunar Rocket'!
Maule M-5 235 hp

 

Flying the Air Race Classic was one of the most exhilerating experiences we've ever done!  Maybe MORE exhilerating than we liked at times!  Our flight to Borger, TX , June 22, had no tailwinds, to say the least.  We trudged on, trying to find anything favorable in winds aloft.  ZIP!  Hot in the cabin, Peggy used old sectionals to fan the pilots, hoping to bring some sort of breeze for cooling.  There in front of us in the distance was Borger, TX . . .and an airplane!!  Could it be that we would do a dual flyby with someone else??  NO!!?  Not with our slow speed and 31" Alaskan bushwheels dragging in the air ;-) !!!  But, there they were.  Julie announced Classic 13 had them in sight, alerting them we were coming up behind them in the distance.  This was something we learned to do in our many briefings, making sure if you were to actually DO a dual flyby the other plane would be aware for safety purposes.  As we approached the airport we realized we would not be making the dual, but that 2 other planes were in front of us.  Landing lights on! "Classic 13, flyby to land", Julie announced.  We made the flyby which stopped our time. The timing judges were asking, "which one was 13, what were the other numbers?"  We announced we had in fact been the 3rd one in the short period of time they were talking about.  All of a sudden we had NO BATTERY POWER . . .no radio, no intercomm, etc.  We panned the horizon, making sure the other planes had either continued on or had landed and cleared the runway.  We had to shout to make sure the other one could hear what we were reporting.  "No airplanes in the air, no airplanes on the runway, Julie, you've got it, clear to land!" I shouted, trying to support the PIC . I snugged up my seatbelts.  "Good job, Julie, good job!!" as our tundra tires touched the runway.  We were a bit shaken but knew we needed a mechanic and a Chair person to explain our actions after our flyby.  He was in full agreement with our decision making, landing safely with no radio contact.  The rules of the race are that if you have maintenance done there is paperwork involved.  There were no mechanics in Borger, TX.  We got permission from the Chair person of Borger to remove the battery, charge it overnight, hoping it would be all that was needed.  We were transported to the hotels by church volunteers.  We were so exhausted  that night.  I had picked up Subway sandwiches, cheese and grapes from Alliance, NE Chamber members to take along when we left.  That was our evening meal!!  Friends told us they could hear the tower when we were trying to land saying, "Classic 13, what are your intentions!! " The next morning we arrived the airport hoping the overnight charge was all we needed to proceed on.  NOT!  After our runup, we started hearing the same sounds we had heard the day before when we lost battery power.  We decided to delay our departure and try to purchase a battery, thinking we may have to order one and get it the following day.   No one had one, they thought.  Out of the blue, a man walked up with a NEW battery in a box with acid, etc.  With a little charging, we were off again.  On to Norman, OK!! Team 13 was lucky again!



'"Where 'ya want me to stick this?"
Julie had to leave the building!!





Scenery in Borger, TX