2002 Air Race Classic 'flight log'
by Michelle Homister
June 19, 2002
FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. -- Greetings from Tennessee. We left Oklahoma yesterday and stopped in Hot Springs for fuel and some lunch. It was nice to see green again. From there, we went onto Fayetteville.
It was a challenging leg due to airspace that was on our route. We got to Tennessee all right; however, during landing, we caught a gust of wind, and it made our airplane float upward. What goes up must come down, and we hit the runway rather hard. During that bounce, we struck the tips of our propeller and bent them. Our plane is being repaired, and WMU is flying down another Mooney so we can continue in the race.
The bottom line is that we are safe and can walk away from
this and learn from it. Tomorrow, we will continue on to South
Carolina and maybe Virginia, weather permitting. We will keep
you updated on our status.
Michelle and Michelle
Michelle Homister is a flight instructor in College of Aviation and a graduate of the WMU aviation program. She and Michelle Glisan, an aviation flight science major from Byron, Ill., are competing against 39 teams from around the nation in the 2002 Air Race Classic June 18-21. The race route covers more than 2,100 miles from Silver City, N.M., to Chesapeake/Portsmouth, Va.
Media contact: Cheryl Roland, 269 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu