race, I completed my BFR (biennial
flight review) in April, took a six-hour
IFR (instrument flight rules) refresher
course, and attended several air safety
workshops. A week before the race my
copilot decided to drop out, and I had
to scramble to assemble a new team.
The air race had a small pool of pilots
from which I could choose. They try to
match up the pilot to the copilot, and
other crew. I had not flown with Barb
Goodwin or Maureen Kenney before.
I knew Barb from previous races, but I
did not know Maureen.”
we were in constant communication
with each other determining the
course and the altitude. We would
talk about the flyby procedures for
each landing repeatedly. Each of us
had a timer, so when we went over
the timing line, Barb would yell time.
Then we would all click our timers.
We wrote this information down and
compared it with the actual scoring
of the air race. It all worked out well.
We even won a leg prize on the third
leg for which we are very proud.”
Mother Bird
“I have a Stormscope in my airplane,
and since I have a fast airplane, I would
fly ahead and report weather conditions
back to the teams that were behind us,”
Carolyn said. “We worked as a team in
the airplane, but we also worked with
the other girls to keep them informed
Pre-race Problem
“On my way to Kalamazoo, on Tuesday,
I had problems with my transponder,”
Carolyn said. “I don’t fly anywhere
without a transponder. I talked to
the mechanic in Kalamazoo, and he
attempted to repair the transponder. I
called my mechanic in Pennsylvania,
and he overnighted a transponder.
Unfortunately, it did not fit into the
cavity. He sent a second transponder,
and that did not fit either. We made
many phone calls trying to figure
out what I was going to do with the
transponder. Finally, I decided while
I was in Kalamazoo to buy a new
Garmin transponder. We installed the
new transponder, which was tedious;
it took about six hours, but we were
done by Thursday afternoon, and we
were in Denver well ahead of the start
time for the race.
“There is a lot of anxiety hoping
that we put together a compatible
group of ladies because it’s very close
living, and it is talent that is really
needed during the race. We worked
beautifully together; it took us a
couple of legs to be synchronized
on who is doing what. I was doing
the flying; Barb was the copilot
and in charge of navigation and
communication. Barb has flown in
the air race several times and has
been flying since 1984.
“Maureen Kenney is new to air
racing. She has about 600 hours and is
working on her instrument rating. We
had three GPSes in the airplane, and
