Bryant on race route, revels as pilots stop in
BRYANT — A lawn mower towed a line of eight kids, all sitting in miniature airplanes. In the seventh plane, two kids sat together. One of them was a little girl with her light-brown hair pulled back into a sloppy ponytail and her cheeks puffed out, as if she was blowing into the propeller in front of her.
The kids were attending a roughly 1,200-person picnic that the city of Bryant hosted Tuesday to celebrate the Air Race Classic, an all-women’s transcontinental flying competition.
The race, involving about 50 teams, included a stop at the Saline County Regional Airport. The airport was one of seven required stops in this year’s race, which started Tuesday morning in Jackson, Tenn., and will end in Ontario, Canada, at 5 p.m. Friday.
Off icials change the 2,400-mile race route yearly, according to information from the Air Race Classic.
The race consists of 109 racers, according to a Bryant news release. Per race rules, the women fly only during daylight. The pilots range in age from 21-90 years old.
Air Classic Inc. operates
the race, the longest-running, cross-country air race for women in the world, according to information from the group. The race was first flown in 1977.
Race volunteer Camelia Smith, who has participated in the race 10 times, said that to win the race the team has to beat a previously established time.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “It’s very intense.”
Winning takes strategy and can depend on the
weather.
“You are trying to go over your speed faster than anybody else goes over their speed,” Smith said.
Most of the teams arrived in Bryant between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesday, said Jan Green, who also volunteered at the race. Each team consists of at least two pilots.
Four teams were staying in the city overnight, Smith said.
Green stores her Bonanza airplane at the airport and is part of the Aircraft Club. She got her pilot’s license in the 1980s and plans to fly in a race next month, she said
“It was the one that was zooming by,” Green said about her plane. “I did the flybys.”
Green and Smith expressed excitement that there were collegiate women participating in the race. According to information from the organization that runs the race, about a third of participants are collegiate women.
The annual race requires hundreds of volunteers, including timers, judges, airport support staff members and safety officers.
At this year’s event, Jonathan Bailey attended, wear
ing a Hawaiian shirt and sporting a graying beard that reached to about the middle of his chest.
He said he was there because when he was younger, he had a wish to pilot planes. He has 12 hours toward a pilot’s license but spends much of his time these days at his job working with computers.
Bobbi Bowling said she was at the race to give her kids something to do. She liked that the race volunteers gave each child a bag that said Apollo 50 on it, and that the volunteers cooked burgers and hot dogs for the people who showed up.