Entries For The All-Women's Cross Country Race Opened January 2

Entries for the Air Race Classic opened on Thursday, January 2, 2014. The four day all-women transcontinental air race will be capped at 55 teams this year, and collegiate teams normally make up nearly 20% of each year’s racers.

This year's race will begin at Buchanan Field in Concord, CA (KCCR) on June 16 and hopscotch across the middle of the United States before ending in New Cumberland, PA at Capital City Airport (KCSY).

According to a race brochure posted online, teams, consisting of at least two women pilots, must fly VFR during daylight hours only and are given four days to make flybys at each en route stop and then land at the terminus. The race routes change each year and are approximately 2,400 statute miles in length. Each plane is flown in race configuration to determine its handicap speed – and the challenge for each race team is to achieve actual ground speeds as far over the handicap speed as possible. The pilots strategize to play the elements, holding out for better weather, winds, etc. The objective is to fly your “perfect” cross-country. In this type of race, the official standings are not known until the final entrant has crossed the finish line. Indeed, the last arrival at the terminus can be the winner!

With over one hundred female racers each year, over twenty of them will be women actively enrolled in an Aviation education. The young female pilots not only compete to refine their flight skills, but also to help increase public awareness of general aviation for future aviatrixes. The collegiate teams have effectively remained competitive gaining momentum each year. In 2013, four teams took Top Ten.
 
Entries are expected from the following universities: Purdue, Liberty, Cargill Aeronautical Academy, Texas State Technical College, Jacksonville, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical, Daytona and the University of North Dakota.

(Race route map provided by Air Race Classic)

FMI: www.airraceclassic.org