In the spirit of Amelia Earhart
Pilot bringing women's race to Mansfield
In June 2008, after having flown 2,400 miles across the country, about 50 small planes will land at Mansfield Municipal Airport, terminus of the 32d annual Air Race Classic. All 100 pilots and co-pilots will be women.
The Classic descends from a long line of all-women transcontinental air races that began in 1929 with the Women's Air Derby in which 15 female pilots, including Amelia Earhart, flew from Santa Monica, Calif., to Cleveland, Ohio, to prove that women could competently navigate the skies.
Several years ago, five-time Classic competitor Kathy McDonald, who lives in Easton and bases her Piper Dakota at the Mansfield airport, decided to bring the race to Massachusetts. Known as The Flying Nonny after a nickname coined by her granddaughters, McDonald, 53, has been working since with town and airport officials to give the plan wings. "This is big," said McDonald of the four-day event that will celebrate 79 years of women's air racing. "It will put Mansfield in the national spotlight and place this area in aviation history."
The Classic's multi-leg, west-to-east route changes every year. This year's race starts in Oklahoma City, and finishes in Saint John, New Brunswick. Teams have four days, flying only in daylight, to cover the distance between the start city -- rumored to be in Montana for 2008 -- and the terminus, with required stops at designated cities along the way. Only once before, when Barnstable Municipal Airport was the 2000 terminus and Plymouth a fly-by control point, has the Classic's route included Massachusetts.
Hyannis pilot and Griffin Avionics co-owner Jean Griffin led the 2000 Cape Cod terminus effort, and she'll lend a hand with the 2008 edition. In 2000, the pilots enjoyed a post-race whale watch and clambake and, wrote Griffin in an e-mail, "I know some of these gals are coming back for the New England hospitality."
The biggest planes usually land first, beginning on Day Two of the race. But landing first doesn't mean you win.
The Classic's handicap scoring system assigns each plane a handicap speed based on the craft's horsepower and design, and pilots try to beat that speed, not one another. The team whose overall speed most exceeds its handicap wins. The last team in on Day Four, if it best manipulated wind, weather, altitude, and other variables (and had Lady Luck riding shotgun), could take first place. It ain't over 'til the last ladies land.
Thousands are expected to visit Mansfield on race weekend, and the national race organization estimates economic impact to the area of up to a million dollars.
McDonald chairs a race committee of volunteers from Mansfield, Easton, Attleboro, and other towns, and she's thrilled with the project's early momentum. "People just keep coming forward," she said. The committee meets monthly at the airport, and "every meeting, new people show up to help. It's amazing."
McDonald needs a few hundred volunteers for the event to run well at full throttle, and groups like the Girl Scouts, Mansfield Women of Today and airport-based Experimental Aircraft Association and Civil Air Patrol have already stepped up. Local pilots are offering flight-seeing rides to the public and donating proceeds to the race committee. McDonald needs families "to invite the girls home to a dinner," and businesses to donate regional memorabilia, healthy snacks for pilot goody bags, and water -- lots of water. "That's all we want when we land," she said. "It's hot in those planes."
Town manager John D'Agostino expects plenty of local interest. "If something benefits Mansfield," he said, "this community will participate. They love to get involved." D'Agostino, who's logged "a couple hundred hours" of cockpit time, knows the economic value of a thriving municipal airport and knows the Classic will put Mansfield's in the limelight. He's working to build enthusiasm and financial support for the race and has begun approaching businesses like Mansfield-based luggage manufacturer
The Air Race Classic committee plans a fall kick-off gala to promote advertising and sponsorship.
Airport manager Dave Dinneen is excited about the event -- he calls it "food, flying and fun" -- and serious about executing it safely and smoothly. "My priorities," he said, "are safety and security first, then ensuring that the airport continues to function while the race is going on."
Dinneen, an aviation history buff, appreciates the Classic's venerable lineage and its significance for female pilots. "It's a wonderful thing to be part of," he said in a phone interview. "Women make incredible pilots. They're graceful. They have a nice feel of how things should go." The airport flight school has "a ton" of female students, and Dinneen hopes the Classic will encourage many more.
Each June, a hundred women soar above and across thousands of miles of American landscape, enjoying the challenge and camaraderie of the Air Race Classic. They range in age from 20-85; come from small towns and big cities; are college students, entrepreneurs, lawyers, nurses, career aviators. Between them, they fly props, gliders, copters, seaplanes, jets -- even the Airbus A300.
And, like Amelia Earhart before them, they remind us the sky's the limit. 