Race Completed - How Flying a Race and Writing a Book Are Alike

Team Friendly Fliers -Alicia Sikes and Emily Lewis completed the Air Race Classic cross country yesterday in the early afternoon. Whether or not they win any prizes, finishing the race a day early is quite an accomplishment. Especially when they faced problems with weather and also an engine that wouldn't start. That happened in Danville IL. They were fortunate to have a mechanic named Mike there who hand-started the prop for them. They knew that once the engine was started that way, they would be unable to restart it again until it is repaired. That meant flying non-stop from Danville to the final destination, Harrisburg PA. Overall, the team flew 2810 miles across the United States at an average moving speed of  210.7 mph. A final awards banquet will take place Saturday night. Alicia and Emily hope their goal of inspiring other women to become pilots has been accomplished.

"Weather Along the Way" ©Alicia Sikes

While closely following the progress of Team Friendly Fliers on my computer screen, I started to think about how flying this race was a lot like writing a book. For the race, the team made lots of plans ahead of time. They planned their route; they researched the weather across the nation; they documented their trip. Now they are evaluating what happened. Planning the route is like creating an outline for a book project; research ahead of time is really important in the process of writing; documentation of the writing journey helps in the marketing process at the end. I suppose evaluating is a little like writing the blurb for the cover of a book.

What do you think? Are flying in a race and writing a book a little bit alike?