Barbara Harris-Para is getting ready to take off on an exciting adventure, one that will crown her 25 years of experience as a pilot.

On Tuesday, June 22, the Whispering Pines resident will climb into her Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft to compete in the 2,483-mile route of the Air Race Classic.

The 34th running of the classic this year begins in Fort Myers, Fla., and ends up in Frederick, Md., with stops in Waycross, Ga., Tuscaloosa, Ala., Hot Springs, Ark., Cameron, Mo., Carbondale, Ill., Elkhart, Ind., and Parkersburg, W.Va.

The theme of each year’s race is “Thousands of miles, countless places and a lifetime of memories,” and as Harris-Para and her co-pilot, Laurie Zaleski (who happens to be a former flight student of Harris-Para’s), chase that dream, they will join 54 other two-woman teams in what was once dubbed a “Powder Puff Derby” by Wiley Post more than 75 years ago.

The annual competition for women pilots began in 1929 and continued until the beginning of World War II. After the war it was reinstated and was run again until 1972. Then, after a brief hiatus, the Air Race Classic has taken place every year since 1977.

The original 1929 race, officially called the National Women’s Air Derby, took place from California to Cleveland, Ohio. It was at the conclusion of the Derby that a group of women who had flown in the race, among them Amelia Earhart, Phoebe Omlie and Louise Thaden, came up with the idea to form an association for women pilots. At the time there were 117 women in the United States who were licensed pilots.

Engraved invitations were sent out for a meeting on Nov. 2, 1929, at Curtis Field in Valley Stream, Long Island. Eighty-nine responses were received, and the day of the meeting, 10 more women showed up. Consequently, the organization was named the 99s. Today, the 99s are more than 5,000 strong, with chapters across the country, and it has become international with chapters in such locations as Russia, France and Israel.

An active member of the Carolinas Chapter of the 99s, Harris-Para first started flying in 1984. Her husband, Fred, got his flying license a year later.

“Then we both got our instrument tickets, and I continued on, getting my commercial license, and qualified as a certified flight instructor,” she says.

Taking some time off from flying while she underwent treatment for breast cancer, after her recovery she became qualified as a certified instrument instructor. This all took place while the couple lived in New Jersey, where she taught school and her husband worked for Trump Properties.

“I was getting ready to retire after 29 years of teaching, and as a retirement gift, I was given funds to study for and receive my FAA multi-engine flight instructor rating,” Harris-Para says.

Along the way, she and Fred, have flown in their own plane throughout most of the United States and to several of the Canadian provinces. They bought property in Moore County in 1999, although it would be a few years before they built their home and moved here. Meanwhile, Harris-Para, who can best be described as a human dynamo, came out of retirement and worked for the FAA

Laurie Zaleski, her co-pilot in the Air Race Classic, suggested that this was the year they should enter the race. Zaleski, a professional photographer, is from May’s Landing, N.J., and she too was formerly an FAA employee.

The pair must arrive in Fort Myers by June 18, even though the race doesn’t start until June 22. The mandated preliminaries include impounding the plane, which undergoes a thorough mechanical check-up, going to safety seminars and completing briefing sessions.

Harris-Para explains that the entire route must be flown in visual conditions (no instruments) and during daylight hours only. The individual legs of the route are about 300 miles or less, and the total course must be flown in four days from June 22-25.

“The winner of the race is not the plane that gets to the finish line first,” says Harris-Para. “It is the plane that maintains a predetermined airspeed that each competitor has calculated before the start of the race. These calculations take into consideration prevailing headwinds and tailwinds, fuel consumption of the aircraft and other technical factors.”

Spotters are at every airfield.

“You have to do what’s called a flyby at each field,” she says. “Points can be deducted from your final score due to infractions such as cutting off other aircraft in the flyby mode, missing an airport, off airport landings, and you also have to have 30 minutes of reserve fuel when you land, which is carefully checked at each location.”

According to Harris-Para, many of the women flying in the race have participated in the event several times before and know the ropes. Some represent college teams and some are newcomers like her and Zaleski. Each team is assigned a “mother bird” who will help answer their questions, but a lot depends on chance, good weather patterns, the reliability of the aircraft, and the valuable skills of both the pilot and the co-pilot.

Prizes range from $5,000 for first place to $350 for 10th place.

“We don’t think we can win top spot, but we would like to be at least in the first 10,” Harris-Para says.

The women have chosen “Zippy Chicks” as their team name. And the Zippy Chicks are still looking for a few sponsors to help put them over the top with their expenses. They estimate their participation in the race for aircraft fuel, meals, accommodations and miscellaneous expenses to total about $7,000. So far they have picked up major sponsors such as Arnold & Arnold Investigations, Aviation Crash Investigators and ARTZGraphics, Zaleski’s company.

The Carolinas Chapter of the 99s has contributed $99, Eileen Malan of ReMAX, a fellow 99s member, and eight other individuals have contributed varying amounts. One business and five couples have also joined in, showing their support with funds. To be a part of the Air Race Classic by sponsoring the Zippy Chicks, those interested can contact Harris-Para at bpara@embarqmail.com, or by telephone at (910) 949-2854.

Contact Pinehurst writer Mary Elle Hunter at mhunter104@yahoo.com