Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Remos, Smart car kick off airshow

By Sarah Brown

The two pilots peered out of the side of the Remos GX, looking for their counterparts on the ground. They were scheduled to make a low pass over Lakeland Linder Regional Airport[Lakeland, Florida] in perfect synchronization with a Smart car racing down the runway—a grand finale for the Road and Runway Rally, and a kickoff for the Sun ’n Fun airshow—but the Smart car was nowhere to be found.
Pilot in command Alyssa Miller and her co-pilot Jason Paur continued toward the field for its pass over the grass to the right of the runway. They finally spotted the car on short final, and soon they were neck-and-neck with the Smart car, which had been there the whole time: The roughly 9-foot-by-5-foot vehicle had been nearly invisible from a distance, swallowed by the circle in the "9" of the 8,500-feet-by-150-foot runway. The Smart car kept pace with the Remos for a bit until the airplane climbed and went around for a landing.

After four days of flying and driving adventures, the four contestants in the Road and Runway Rally arrived at Sun ’n Fun in style. Along the way, they met circus performers and pilots-to-be, tested their driving skills at the Grave Digger’s lair, and compared the size of the Smart car to everything from the Mercury capsule to a monster truck tire. Each team got two days in the Smart car and two in the Remos—which, by the way, weighs less than the tiny Smart car. The winners? The jury’s still out. But one thing’s for certain: Both teams had a whole lot of fun

Read full story here.

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