Flying Educator Will Compete In Air Race

By Bill Johnson Published Jun 11, 2002 07:05 pm Updated Jan 31, 2009 05:27 pm

Columbia Elementary School Principal and local pilot Kathy Walton will put down the school books and put on her aviator goggles next week.

The flying educator, joined by pilot partner Joyce Wells of Larkspur, will compete in the 26th annual Air Race Classic, an all women transcontinental flying race.

Walton said this isn´t the first time her and Wells have competed in the race. The pair have done well in the past.

“Last year we were fortunate enough to finish in third place,” Walton said.

The two women will leave California Saturday to be in Silver City, New Mexico for the 8 a.m. Tuesday morning race start.

The two women have been flying together for thirty years. Walton has competed in 14 of the air race classics. The flying educator says being first to the finish line is the not main reason she flies in the race.

“We always hope, but you don´t do it to win,” Walton said. “We do it for the fun and all the other things that go with it.”

The route will take the pair´s Cessna 182 over Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and South Carolina, finishing June 21st in Portsmouth, Virginia.