Air Race Classic in the news

From the Maryland Life magazine (http://www.marylandlife.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=issue.featured_story&story_ID=339)

Women Pilots
Female Flyers Descend on Frederick
Mary K Zajac
5/1/2010

In 1929, Amelia Earhart and 19 other women pilots made history by taking to the air in the first National Women’s Air Derby. Just over a century later, 40 more ace women pilots will commemorate that race and celebrate 100 years of certificated women pilots in the 81st annual Air Race Classic, whose terminus is the Frederick Municipal Airport.

“This is essentially the gold cup of women's competitive air racing,” says event coordinator Gail Mesa Norman. When the majority of the planes arrive in Frederick on June 25, “they’re going to come in hot and fast.”

And the public can be there to see them.

The race begins in Ft. Myers, Florida, on June 22, when 40 teams of two pilots flying single- and twin-engine planes will begin the 2,400-mile journey, which includes stops as far west as Cameron, Missouri, and as far north as Elkhart, Indiana, before concluding in Frederick.

The planes are handicapped based on weight, explains Norman, and the flying route changes each year to allow pilots to experience different flying conditions. This year’s course includes the challenge of negotiating the Camp David presidential site, with its restricted fly zones.
The public is invited to a weekend of events to commemorate the race. Sponsored by the Sugarloaf Chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots, activities include a 1929-style hangar “Meltdown” party, where the public can meet the flyers; a breakfast and airport open house; a screening of Heather Taylor’s documentary about the 1929 Women’s Air Race, “Breaking Through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby”; and an awards banquet, where Barbara O’Malley, a pilot and the mother of Governor Martin O’Malley, will present a special governor’s proclamation.

But even if you can’t make it to Frederick that weekend, you can still be part of the excitement. The city of Frederick will provide Twitter updates of the planes’ locations, and the Civil Air Patrol and HAM radio operators will be tracking the pilots across the country in real time and posting their progress on Google Maps.

You go, gals!

For more information on the 2010 Air Race Classic Terminus, call 301-846-7868 or visit www.arcterminus2010.com.