Merritt at Dinner


Cliff Kramer at dinner

Cliff Kramer and Kali at dinner. Cliff is one of our friends from K-State@Salina and he is currently an intern at Frontier Airlines here in Denver! So he picked us up and took us out to dinner at this wonderful restaurant right on the Centennial Apt. It was wonderful food! Thanks Cliffy!!

We've had a wonderful first day at Centennial. Mountain time (compared to central) is a bit of a change, and we both woke up quite early. After a quick breakfast and checking in with Robin (Robin, we can't thank you enough for all of your help!), we headed to registration. We were quite surprised to find that though we are some of the youngest and lowest-time pilots we have some of the highest ratings......but we have EVERYTHING to learn from these experienced women!

After registration one of the Ninety-Nine volunteers drove us from our hotel back to Centennial airport for the maintenance inspection. We can't thank K-State Mx enough for providing us with a perfectly maintained aircraft, and the thorough inspection was a breeze. The hardest part was parking the plane after we finished the static run-up and inspection. The wind picked up and made it extremely difficult to push our plane back into its tie-down spot!

At tonight’s opening reception we talked with our Mother Birds, Carolyn and Barb. They are so friendly and helpful, and we feel much more confident and prepared. This is Carolyn's 17th race, and she entertained us with previous race stories and clarified our questions concerning the ARC rules. Tonight Merritt and I will prepare for the first day's legs of the race.

Quick Snapshots!

Here are a few pictures taken by yours truly, LaVonne Farney. LaVonne is the one who is gracious enough to take countless "first solo" pictures at K-State Salina. LaVonne does countless things for the aviation program out of the "flight operations" room in the Aviation Center on campus (mainly keeping all the pilots in line!). Thanks for sharing some pictures LaVonne!

This picture includes (Left to Right):
Niki, Merritt, Kali, Dr. Kurt Barnhart

*(Niki is a previous air race competitor and also helped this year in getting paperwork and logistics handled so that the ladies could compete. THANKS Niki for ALL your hard work!!)

*(Dr. Barnhart is the K-State Salina Aviation Department Head)



Here is a picture of Kali and Merritt with the tail number, race number, and our beloved wildcat on the C172's:



Today (Saturday) Kali and Merritt will be getting through all the check-in information. This part consists of verifying paperwork, going through an aircraft inspection and run up, as well as completing other various tasks for race preparation.

Today will also be their first full day of meeting other air race competitors, as well as a chance to see their collegiate competitors. Today will be long and busy, but maybe the girls will have time to write a personal note about their adventure thus far.

Air Race Classic Depart Today!!!

When Kali and Merritt arrive in Colorado, they will have several items to attend to. Since they will be busy being first-time racers, I will be updating their blog periodically with news and information. My name is Robin Laws. I am a graduate of K-State Salina’s Aviation program and previous Air Race Classic Competitor. Here’s the latest news:

The girls will be taking off from Salina, Kansas (KSLN) and heading to Denver, Colorado-to land at the Centennial Airport (KAPA). The trip will take them around 3.5 hours and is a distance of about 340 Nautical Miles.

There has been a short delay in departure, as our awesome maintenance staff is making a few final adjustments before the ladies depart.

(yes I still call them “our” maintenance crew-the K-State Maintenance crew is among some of the finest.-ok so I am a BIT biased, but seriously-these guys have worked effortlessly over the past several years to ensure that the air race teams are taken care of. When I raced, they even made sure that the aircrafts were washed, waxed, and even had a “to-go” cleaning kit with anything that we might need throughout the trip. The term “AWESOME” just doesn’t do them justice!)

Have a safe flight ladies!!!

We can't believe the race is just a few days off! I'm have so much fun getting ready for it, but I'm sure I am forgetting to do and pack a few things. Just part of being a first-time racer. The K-State girls who raced a couple years ago are an incredible help, suggesting what to bring, what to expect and even offering to help out with weather updates when we're on the race. Thanks, Niki and Robin!

Right now one of the big challenges is packing for ourselves and the airplane (bug cleaner, oil, etc.) for eleven days. ARC requires us to start the race with full fuel. This leaves very, very little weight for charts, headsets, clothes, laptop, engine oil, everything! We also want to keep our speed up, so the luggage weight needs to stay down.

Today a report from the Kansas City Star interviewed each of us, so expect to see a story in the KC Star sometime this week or early next week.

We can't thank our sponsors enough. Merritt and I have had our eye on this race for a couple years now, and neither of us could go without everyone's support. Thank you!

So far so good...

Weather.com is predicting clear skies all next week at every one of our stops (knock on wood)! How exciting is this!

We leave in 4 days!!

Hello!

Kali and I are both getting very excited about the race!! We leave on Friday the 19th from Salina and fly to Denver, Colorado (Centennial Airport). We are fortunate it is only about a 3 hour flight! We will be in Denver until Tuesday the 23rd, the day the race begins. During our time in Denver we will be in briefings and meetings a lot of the time. Also, while in Denver we are hoping to get to see some friends and family during our down time.

Since we are girls one of our big concerns was our outfits. Last week we got matching tops for every day of the race. They also all happen to be purple to show our K-State pride! We also have very similar shoes and very similar khaki pants...needless to say, we are going to look cute!!

Since we are in a Cessna 172 (G1000 thankfully) we can't take much luggage. So deciding what to take and what to leave home has been difficult. My parents are coming after the race for the post race activities which will be great because they can bring more clothes then! But we are trying to limit everything into one backpack. We will only need a weeks worth of clothing and thank goodness its summer! Also, we will be needing to pack some food and some water for our journey. We are thinking like breakfast and energy bars to get us through the race plus lots and lots of water! I hope our little skyhawk can handle this all!!

For preparing for the race I have been reading diaries of ladies who have competed in the race in past years. This has been very helpful. I have been learning a lot about how things work and what other teams have done to succeed. Without those diaries I would be very nervous right now!

Keeping checking our blog during the race, hopefully we will have time to update and post pictures!!