7:00 pm landing in Lufkin, TX

Kali and Merritt have safely landed in Lufkin, TX. After being up since before 5 am this morning, the ladies have had a long, but profitable day. While I cannot disclose ALL of their secrets, I can say that it sounds like they had some good flying weather and speeds along the route.

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They mentioned that their flyby's went well and were pretty exciting.

*For those of you who do not know, a "fly by" is when the aircraft racing literally "flies by" the timing line which starts the time for the given leg of the race course. For the first leg of the race, the timing line was somewhere along the runway. For every other leg of the course, the ladies will take off, then depart the airport area, then re-enter the airport area and "fly by" a predetermined timing line to start their time for the leg of the race. Timing lines are extremely important, as that is how scoring is done-as judges/timers write down the race number and time you crossed the line. From the start of the timing line (at the departure airport) to the stop of the timing line (at the arrival airport) is how the time is measured for the given leg of the race. Each aircraft has a set handicap so that all airplanes are evened up AKA have a "level playing field" to start at *(since there are a variety of aircrafts flown, each type of plane will have a handicap to even out the competition).

This year, the ladies told me they are allowed to do "dual fly by's", which means that 2 aircrafts can fly by the timing line simultaneously~! WOW! and I thought fly by's were crazy before. The fly by's usually happen around 200-300 feet Above Ground Level *(AGL)* so now there is the possibility of 2 aircrafts flying next to each other at a low pass! how exciting! (kind-of like in Top Gun when Tom Cruise flies by the tower-for example)

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They have just gotten checked into their hotel and have their eye on a big glass of water and some hearty food. They will be waking up early agian tomorrow, hoping to avoid any weather that might be along the route. With the first 3 legs of the course completed, they have made excellent progress thus far. They only have 6 more legs to go and 3 days to complete them in. They are well set up for the next few days.

Good luck ladies!