Official Site of the Government of Stevens Point, Wisconsin

Piper Cherokee Places 3rd in National 1,800 mile Air Race It's the classic Tortoise and the Hare story. Wanda Zuege, CFII, ATP and John Thompson, CFII, flight instructors at the Stevens Point Municipal Airport, raced a Piper Cherokee 1,800 miles across Kansas, Colorado, South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota and home to Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The "Cherokee Chariot" without wheel pants had a top speed of 125 mph and raced against 11 other airplanes with top speeds ranging from 156 mph to 297 mph. A.M.R.&D. gap seals, vortex generators and modified wing and prop tips were the only performance modifications used.

The racing goal is not to arrive at the finish first, but to average the highest speed above the plane's top speed. Pilots must meticulously plan their routes to take advantage of weather and wind speeds and avoid straying off course. Out of the 12 racing teams, nine averaged higher than their plane's top speed. Flying a home built Glassair, the first place racing team, Mike Jones and Richard Vandam, averaged 13.6 mph faster than their plane's top speed. Representing Stevens Point's flight School, Am I High Aviation LLC, Wanda Zuege and John Thompson, captured third place with an average speed of 8.1 mph above their plane's top speed. Third place netted the team $1,200 and a trophy that can be seen at the Stevens Point Airport terminal. They were also recognized by Plane and Pilot Magazine as the 2006 Best Placing Rookie Race Team and by the New Piper Aircraft for Best in Piper Fleet for the highest scoring team flying a Piper airplane. In addition to flight instructing, John and Wanda have over 1000 hours each of ground instruction time, preparing students to pass the Private Pilot and Instrument Knowledge Test in two days.

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