Today we had a mandatory breakfast and All Racer's briefing at the Atlantic Community Center. The judges and timer each presented a report, then people gave praise for things that worked well and raised some issues that might be improved in the future. One of the racers broke her arm last night while having dinner with a host family, so the list of injuries is growing longer! The back of Mary's ankle is now an impressive bruised color, but the swelling is coming down and it seems to be healing very well. Then we drove over to the airport to refuel our airplanes, and picked up a guy who had just flown in representing Wings of Hope. This is a charitable organization that the Citabria race team is sponsoring, so he had flown in to be at the banquet. We dropped him back at the hotel, then went for lunch (Chinese, with fortune cookies).
At 1pm we joined another tour we had prebooked, to see the Iowa Aviation Museum in Greenville. Also with us were various racers including Mary and Cyndy, Linda, Sandy, Minnetta, Bernice, and the Mooney team girls. The museum was on a small airport in the middle of rolling cornfields, and was delightful. The collection included a Stearman, a Taylorcraft, two DeHavilland Gypsy Moths, J2 and J3 Piper Cubs, plus various other airplanes and some very scary looking early gliders. Bernice Heydu, our racing WASP, said that the Taylorcraft was the airplane she learned to fly in, so we took pictures of her with the plane. The Iowa Aviators Hall of Fame included Netta Southern, a woman who taught Amelia Earhart to fly! Just got back from there, off to the banquet in an hour or so to get our final positions....
