Handicap Flight

Date: Tuesday, April  23, 2013

Location: Winnemucca Airport (KWMC)

Pilots: Heather McCoy and Eric Bradley

In order to have many different types of aircraft compete against each other in the Air Race Classic, every airplane must be assigned a handicap speed. By establishing a handicap speed, airplanes that fly at different maximum speeds can compete against each other in the same race. The goal is to try and fly your plane faster than your handicap speed by taking advantage of winds aloft, routing, and other strategic maneuvers that will be kept secret at this time.

In order to be fair, all handicap flights must be flown with certain conditions met. The airplane must be flown at full power in race configuration at a density altitude of 6,000 feet, and the plane must be flown in a square pattern with each leg being flown for five minutes each. A data logger supplied by ARC officials is used to accurately record flight data.

An unbiased handicap pilot must be in the co-pilots seat for this flight to record airspeed every 20 seconds, ensure that all requirements are met, and to submit the data collected from the in-flight data logger to the ARC officials for review. The handicap pilot must be of roughly the same size as the pilot that will be sitting in that seat during the race – which is Moe. This will probably the only time that Moe wishes she weighed more. Finding a small enough pilot within 10 pounds of Moe’s weight was not easy, but luckily Eric Bradley, Assistant Chief Pilot for Ameriflight met the requirements and flies into Winnemucca frequently.

Heather and Eric prepare for the handicap flight

The flight was successful. The data downloaded from the logger showed that the altitude and speeds were consistent enough to allow the ARC handicap committee to compute our handicap speed (which will not be announced until all racers complete their handicap flights). From the picture of the course generated by the logger, my square pattern is a very elegant parallelogram. Indicative of the lovely winds aloft that are enjoyed by so many pilots this time of year.