‘It’s just so refreshing’: All-women airplane race sticks the landing in Spokane

Before Bella Memeo learned how to drive, she learned how to fly.

The Washington native was around 15 years old when she took her first flight at Felts Field.

On Friday, she landed in her home airport once again along with 43 other teams competing in the 48th Annual Air Race Classic, a yearly all-women flight competition.

Spirits were high as planes slowly trickled in to the final stop of their journey. Loved ones carrying neon signs cheered and waved as aircraft lowered from the skies. Pilots were golf-carted to the airport’s Historic Flight Foundation to recuperate from their four-day journey and socialize with their comrades.

Memeo is a part of the “Whiskey Row Racers,” a two-person team with her copilot Yuka Noguchi from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. This is their second year flying together, and they plan to fly again next year. She was still reeling with excitement after landing Friday afternoon.

“It’s crazy, but it’s worth it,” she said. “I love this. I want to volunteer with the race for as long as I can.”

The event traces its lineage back to the 1929 Women’s Air Derby, the first official women-only air race in the United States and Amelia Earhart’s first competitive air race.

The 2,426-mile route spanned nine states, starting at the H. L. Sonny Callahan Airport in Fairhope, Alabama, on June 17. The pilots ranged in age from 17 to older than 90.

Whoever reaches the finish line first isn’t the winner, though.

Rather, each team’s plane is equipped with a unique handicap that limits their speed. This evens the playing field, allowing slower and faster planes to compete equally – instead of racing each other, they are racing themselves, and the team that beats its handicap by the largest margin wins.

They encountered a few roadblocks at the beginning of the competition.

Dangerous weather on the first day forced them to cancel their first stop in Starkville, Mississippi. But they adapted, and the rest of the competition has been smooth sailing, said President of Air Race Classic Donna Harris.

Harris has competed in the race before, but her love for making participants happy and her lack of competitiveness is what keeps her on the ground helping with logistics.

“Even after 96 years, there are still a few people who discourage women,” Harris said. “It’s still a lot to overcome, so having this support system and having the encouragement and camaraderie is just priceless to many of these people.”

Samantha Inguanzo from Hollywood, Florida, competed in the event for the first time this year with Violet Czyszczon as the team “Tropic Thunder.”

She arrived at Felts Field on Friday morning wearing a shirt that read “one of the 8%” in reference to the fact that women comprise close to 8% of certified pilots, according to Women in Aviation International.

Racing with other women has been a supportive experience, she said. Using air to air frequency, pilots would chat with each other about the scenery and check in on one another throughout the race.

“Being all together, even just seeing each other in the hotel rooms and the restaurants and at the airport, it’s just so refreshing,” Inguanzo said. “It’s just really nice to see everybody doing well and achieving this big milestone in a lot of people’s careers.”