Air Race Classic to visit Scottsbluff during June 16-19 race

From: http://www.starherald.com/news/local_news/air-race-classic-to-visit-scottsbluff/article_4703822d-e273-590e-be6d-0190a0c9a543.html

Aviation enthusiasts can get a glimpse into one of the oldest air races as the annual Air Race Classic visits Scottsbluff next week.

For more information visit www.info@airraceclassic.org  

A total of 52 planes will fly this year as they take part in the 2014 ARC that will be held June 16-19. The all-female pilots will make 10 intermediate stops throughout the race with one stop scheduled at Western Nebraska Regional Airport in Scottsbluff. ARC Stop Chairman Sherry Fisher said, depending on the weather, a few planes are expected to arrive at the airport on Monday night with others coming in throughout the day on Tuesday.

The four-day competition will begin in Concord, Calif. and will travel 2,338 nautical miles to New Cumberland, Pa., with all racers competing for the fastest time. The ARC began when aviation legend Amelia Earhart held the first Women’s Air Derby in the United States in 1929. Since it was forbidden for female pilots to race against male pilots, Earhart and 19 other women took matters into their own hands and created the first all female race.

Today, women from 17 to 90 years old start with a race team of two pilots that must fly by the Visual Flight Rule of only flying during daylight hours. Pilots are also given four days to make the flybys at each en route timing point and then land at the terminus.

“The participants will fly sun up to sun down,” Fisher said. “They will start at 6:30 in the morning until 8:30 at night.”

In preparation for the event, pilots will undergo briefings, flight planning and a fly-by study prior to take off. Pilots will race against their own best speed time in a small airplane of their choice. The aircraft must be a stock model and have their handicap speed identified with a check pilot.

These female pilots will also be building up their experience and refining their flight skills since the route changes each year to make the competition even more challenging.

“It’s just like the Sugar Valley Rally, but it’s done with airplanes,” Fisher said.

WNRA will be the fourth stop of the race. Local residents will also be able to visit with the pilots free of charge at the airport during the pilot stops. After the pilots take a brief break, they will travel on to Norfolk Regional Airport. WNRA Chairman Don Overman said everyone at the airport is enthusiastic for the ARC to be making a landing in Scottsbluff.

“I’m pleased that they (ARC) chose Scottsbluff,” he said. “It will be exciting for people to come out and meet the pilots.”

Toy Planes For Girls - with Powder Puff Derby Logo

This toy is on ebay for another few hours. I had hoped to buy it, but $30 was my max bid, and its now up to $60.

It is copyright 1966. Has the Powder Puff Derby logo and is obviously for girls - although boys of course could play with it too...although probably didn't.

In 1978, Buddy L came out with a set of 3 planes . The box had the Powder Puff Derby logo (even though the PPD had ended in 1977), and there's an androgynous female character in the right hand corner (if you look at the fingernails you can figure out it's a girl, but other than that it looks like a boy to me!) The planes say Buddy L on them, rather than Powder Puff Derby

An Orion Slave Girl Won the Powder Puff Derby in 1970

Yesterday, I was going through a Star Trek Memorial site, which paid tribute to all of the actors who had worked on any of the many incarnations of that show, who had passed away.

One of the actresses who had died - relatively young - was Susan Oliver. She'd only been 58 when she died of cancer. She'd been born in 1932 and died in 1990. (She played Vina in the first Star Trek pilot, "The Cage".

I checked out her biography on the IMDB, and much to my surprise discovered not only that she'd been a licensed pilot but that she'd also flown in - as co-pilot, and won the 1970 Powder Puff Derby.

Here's what the bio said:

She won the Powder Puff Derby in 1970.

Was a licensed pilot.

Was named Pilot of the Year in 1970.

Attempted to become the first woman to fly a single-engine plane solo from New York to Moscow, but was deterred in Denmark when the Soviet government denied her permission to enter their air space.

So I checked my Powder Puff Derby Record and it's true - she did. There's even a photo of her and her co-pilot in the book, albeit a poor reproduction of it since it was taken from a newspaper.

Indeed, in July 1970, Oliver got a lot of publicity from her win. It's interesting to read some of the other articles on the pages that features comments on her victory, detailing men's opinions of women in general in the 1970s... I'll share some PDFs of those articles tomorrow.

The 1947 Powder Puff Derby

The first Powder Puff Derby Race took place in 1929, and featured 20 pilots including Amelia Earhart, Louise Thaden, Ruth Nichols, Marvel Crosson, Pancho Barnes, and so on. It was held in conjunction with the National Air Races being held in Cleveland that year.

There was no such race held the next year.

In 1935, women were allowed to compete against the men in the Bendix Trophy Race. In 1936, Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes won this race.

During WWII, of course all air racing stopped.

After the war, the Powder Puff Derby race was revived.

The 1947 race perhaps doesn't really count, as only two teams participated. The race began in Palm Springs, California and ended in Tampa, Florida. It was termed the Amelia Earhart Memorial Derby.

The Florida Chapter of the Ninety-Nines, full of WASP, founded the Florida All-Woman Air Show and invited races to terminate in Tampa as part of the show.

Unfortunately, further details were not sent out, so that when the time came, only two entries from the California Ninety-Nines began the race. Mardo Crane was the chairwoman of the race.

Dianna Bixby was to fly her military A-26 bomber and Caroline West, with co-pilot Bea Medes, flew a Eurocoupe.

As it turned out, Bixby had engine problems and never even got started, but West and Medes completed the entire journey. It took 21 hours and 45 mintues. It was only when they touched down in Tampa that they learned that Bixby had never started.

From this inauspicious beginning, the Powder Puff Derby began and would run for 30 years (with one miss in 1973 due to the oil shortage), with the final race taking place in 1977.

At its height, over 100 women would take part in the race each year.

After the Powder Puff Derby (more officially known as the All-Women's Transcontinental Air Race (AWTAR) ended, a scaled-down all-women's race was intorduced called the Air Race Classic.

The 2010 Air Race Classic, or ARC, will take place from June 22 - 25, 2010, from Fort Myers, FL to Frederick, MD.

Award-wise, the Air Race Classic started in 1977 with an $8,550 purse for the top-ten crews, with additional leg prizes for those finishing outside the selected group of ten. The awards have been increased over the years, so that the current top-ten purse is $15,000.

In 1947, Carolyn West and Beatrice Medes, who only participated in this race out of all of them, flew from Palm Springs to Tucson, AZ, Tucson to El Paso, TX, El Paso to Dallas, Dallas to Shewveport, LA, Sheveport to Monroeville, Al, Monroeville to Cross City, FL, Cross City to Dunellen, and Dunellen to Tampa.

The winners were awarded trophies and cash to cover their gas and oil for the round trip back to California.

The start committee had consisted of Mardo Crane, Dee Thurmond, Irma "Babe" Story, and Helen Hooper Moore.

Helen M. McGee has passed away

Newswoman, pilot McGee dies at age 83

Helen McGee didn't take up flying until the age of 40, but she went at it full throttle, participating in several Powder Puff Derbies (until they ended in 1977), and winning a 2nd and 4th place trophies.

She was also the co-owner of the Union Democrat newspaper.