{"id":10550,"date":"2018-05-31T21:18:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T21:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=10550"},"modified":"2018-05-31T21:19:14","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T21:19:14","slug":"saluki-female-aviators-to-compete-in-air-race-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/aviation-education\/saluki-female-aviators-to-compete-in-air-race-classic\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Saluki female aviators to compete in Air Race Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo above -\u00c2\u00a0Gabrielle Escudero, left, and Rachel Piacentini, are preparing for the 42nnd annual Air Race Classic transcontinental aviation race next month. Escudero is a senior in SIU Carbondale\u2019s aviation management and flight program; Piacentini is a certified flight instructor with the program and 2017 graduate. (Photo by Russell Bailey)<\/em><\/p>\n

by Pete Rosenbery<\/p>\n

Competing in the 2018 Air Race Classic will hold a special meaning to Rachel Piacentini and Gabrielle Escudero, who will represent Southern Illinois University Carbondale in the annual transcontinental aviation race next month.\u00c2\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s such an honor to fly with such driven, intelligent and competent women who are there to further aviation, women in aviation and minorities in aviation,\u201d said Escudero, a senior in aviation management and flight from Aurora.<\/p>\n

Piacentini and Escudero will be among 54 other teams competing in the 42nd annual event that traces its roots to the 1929 Women\u2019s Air Derby, where famed aviator Amelia Earhart and 19 other female pilots flew from Santa Monica, California to Cleveland Ohio. The \u201cSaluki Aces\u201d will be among 22 teams from 18 colleges and universities competing.<\/p>\n

Race will cover 2,656 miles across 15 states in four days<\/strong><\/p>\n

The event starts June 19 at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas and end in Fryeburg, Maine on June 22. One of the intermediate stops will be at Galesburg Municipal Airport in Galesburg, Illinois.<\/p>\n

As a handicap race, weather, pilot strategy and airplane speed are important factors as teams race against their own best time, not against one another. The team that beats its handicap by the largest margin wins. Standings are not determined until after the last team crosses the finish line.\u00c2\u00a0The event website will have real-time tracking of the racers\u2019 locations.<\/p>\n

Previous experience will help this year<\/strong><\/p>\n

Piacentini, an instructor in aviation management and flight, competed as an SIU student in 2016 with instructor Jessica Reed, where the pair finished 17th overall and eighth in the collegiate division. There is a different feeling this year, said Piacentini, who earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in May 2017, and who is from Steger.\u00c2\u00a0\u201cI think I learned my personal minimums, how to fly the airplane better and plan a little differently than we did last time,\u201d she said. \u201cA few little tricks of the trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuning up for the event<\/strong><\/p>\n

Piacentini and Escudero, who have a \u201cSaluki Aces\u201d Facebook page, have been practicing together to learn how each other flies and how they will divide tasks. Piacentini anticipates that Escudero will fly most of the legs while she will do the \u201cflybys,\u201d where planes hold a certain altitude and distance from the runway.\u00c2\u00a0Depending on the distance of each of the nine legs and wind, each leg can last two to three hours.\u00c2\u00a0\u201cI will get a lot more experience flying and apply everything I am learning; how to manage checklists and how to work with someone else whom I haven\u2019t flow with as much,\u201d Escudero said.<\/p>\n

Piacentini explained that keeping up energy during the flights is important.\u00c2\u00a0\u201cWe are going to get to know each other pretty well,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a serious race and you have to keep yourself on your toes but you have to have some fun with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

SIU entries in the race<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the fifth year SIU will have a team in the field. In 2015, Reed and Jessica Armstrong won both the overall and collegiate title.\u00c2\u00a0The university pays fuel costs but Piacentini and Escudero are responsible for lodging and meals. In addition to selling T-shirts, the team received sponsorship funds from Republic Airline Inc., an Indianapolis-based regional airline.<\/p>\n

SIU and the airline entered into an \u201caviation interview partnership\u201d last fall that allows qualifying students to receive a preferential interview with the airline and a conditional job offer after they achieve their instrument rating, if all qualifications are met.\u00c2\u00a0The pair will compete in a Cessna 172R Skyhawk, one of five the department bought in 2011. The plane features state-of-the-art avionics glass cockpit technology that shows primary flight, engine and sensor data.<\/p>\n

Race helps promote future of female pilots\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Air Race Classic is important for SIU Aviation, and aviation in general, because it promotes women in aviation,\u201d Michael Burgener, interim chair for the Department of Aviation Management and Flight and chair of the Department of Aviation Technologies. \u201cAviation is a non-traditional field for women and anything we can do to promote and support our excellent female pilots is good for SIU Aviation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Various recent media reports indicate that about 6 percent of commercial and non-commercial pilots in the United States are women. However, at SIU, the number of female students in the aviation program is at about 10 percent, Burgener said.\u00c2\u00a0Aviation market projections from Boeing also show a strong need for pilots through 2036.\u00c2\u00a0\u201cThat SIU is letting us do it is not only a good way to get our name out there but to show our support for women in aviation,\u201d Piacentini said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome to go out and see all these other women aviators who \u201c\u2026 are driven to get aviation out to the local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Escudero is president of the university\u2019s Women in Aviation student chapter, and historian and past president of Alpha Eta Rho, both registered student organizations.<\/p>\n

Different ways of reaching the same goal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Escudero, the daughter of Clym and Jodi Escudero, said her aviation interest was sparked when her dad took her aboard a discovery flight when she was about 15 years old.\u00c2\u00a0\u201cWe flew through the clouds and I really wanted to stick my head out of the window,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI got so airsick that flight, but I loved it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piacentini, the daughter of Jim and Patti Piacentini, took her first commercial flight while on vacation when she was about four years old.\u00c2\u00a0She later played on her dad\u2019s Microsoft flight simulator and did the tutorials. She was also attracted by the atmosphere that generally comes with aviation and airports \u2013 \u201ceveryone is going somewhere and everyone is happy to be there usually.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above -\u00c2\u00a0Gabrielle Escudero, left, and Rachel Piacentini, are preparing for the 42nnd annual Air Race Classic transcontinental aviation race next month. Escudero is a senior in SIU Carbondale\u2019s aviation management and flight program; Piacentini is a certified flight instructor with the program and 2017 graduate. (Photo by Russell Bailey) by Pete Rosenbery Competing in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/air-race-classicedit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10553,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10550\/revisions\/10553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}