2 Arkansas women with altitude

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Camelia Smith and Laura Berry are flying high today. They’re on the first leg of a race among female pilots that will take them from Montana to Massachusetts, as Michelle Parks reports in Tuesday’s Style section.

The women are the only ones from Arkansas competing in this year’s Air Race Classic, a transcontinental race of more than 2,000 nautical miles. The 36 teams have four days — until sunset Friday — to complete the course. This race is Berry’s first. Smith flew with a different partner in last year’s race. She hopes to improve on her 16th-place finish.

The women are flying in Smith’s 1979 Cessna 182RG, which has retractable gear and its original brown and rust stripes running down the sides. Smith, of Hindsville, bought the plane two years ago just for the Air Race Classic.

The women are following in some impressive tracks. Louise Thaden, a Bentonville native, flew in the first incarnation of this transcontinental race, the Women’s Air Derby, also known as the Powder Puff Derby, in 1929. In that trip, from Santa Monica, Calif., to Cleveland, Thaden beat her rivals — including Amelia Earhart.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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