Hangar Flying

Air Racing 101
A Primer on Cross-country Handicapped Speed Racing
By Pat Lowers

Here is a basic list of tasks that will need to be performed during a race. Use it as a starting point and add your own items as they occur to you.

• Assign all tasks
• Make hotel reservations
• Bring Extra engine oil
• Bring Rags/water for cleaning plane
• Bring Pens/pencils - other materials
• Bring Current charts
• Bring legal paperwork (log books, etc.)
• Bring emergency tools
• Bring Water/food
• Select/bring Clothes
• Bring camera/take photos
• Bring/attach Race numbers
• Get Weather briefings
• Conduct Preflight
• Order and monitor Fuel
• Time takeoffs/flybys
• Time checkpoints
• Calculate ground speeds
• Calculate race progress
• Operate Nav radios
• Operate Com radios
• Operate GPS
• Manage Flyby instructions
• Make flyby calls
• Watch for traffic
• Watch for obstacles
• Ensure plane is tied down

I hope this simple primer helps you decide to participate in air racing and helps you understand and enjoy it.

Blue Skies,
Pat

Here's what Pat has to say about herself:
I've been flying since 1989 after I stopped skydiving. It was my way of staying in the air. With over 1000 hours and an instrument rating, I've been checked out in taildraggers and had a floatplane lesson.

I bought my beloved C172, Becky, in 1991 and learned how to do my own maintenance (all that is legal for me to do myself). I keep her hangared at RHV and try to fly every week. My favorite local place to fly is Hollister where I get the best chocolate milkshakes west of the Mississippi.

I've flown as far east as Maine and Daytona Beach, as far north as Fairbanks, and as far south as San Diego, although most of that was in Susan Larson's C182 (Mikey).

reprinted with permission from the author.

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