Departure - Going to Atlanta:  Tuesday, February 24th was a beautiful day for a long flight from LaBelle to Atlanta. The air was cool, the winds were light and I was up for an adventure. The plan was to collect fellow racer, Jo Alcorn, in Winter Haven around 9-ish; proceed to Waycross to chat about the Air Race for 2010, then head in to Peachtree Airport near Atlanta where we would get our rental car, load our exhibition materials and head to the WAI conference by 2-ish. I should have learned long by now that one cannot use the words "plan" and "airplane" in the same sentence unless it is something like: "The trip with the airplane did not go as planned".  

With a "chirp" the landing at Winter Haven was picture perfect. Jo was ready and we were back in the air in no time flat. We had just enough room in Wild Mama to stuff Jo's bag as the plane was packed with convention gear - display booth, promotional material, computers, convention booth decorations and 20 pounds of chocolate. We flew off into a cross wind for the majority of our trip to Waycross, GA, the wind gaining strength as we proceeded northward. The ride was actually getting quite rough and I had to hand fly the plane to try to smooth it out a bit. But after 1-1/2 hours of speed bumps we arrived in Waycross no worse for the wear. Another "chirp" and we taxied to the ramp for some chatting about the Air Race and lunch.

Just after noon we were ready to depart, said our good-byes and headed off to runway 5 for departure. The wind was 120 at about 10 kts so either runway 5 or 18 would have worked equally as well. We made a final zig zag to check the turn coordinator. We zigged to the left but kept on zigging. The right brake just failed! Chop the power to stop from runing off the taxiway and straighten out so we can get turned around and get back to the ramp. "You guys lost out there?" Smart guys from the FBO. We taxied back in to ask for a local mechanic. There were none to be found so we called Vern to come rescue the plane.

By the time Vern gathered tools, parts and a plane and made the trip to Waycross, it was nearly 4:00 p.m. He immediately went to work on the brake only to discover that it was not going to be a simple fix and would require much more than he had at his disposal. With the time too late to rent a car, Vern loaded all of our stuff into the twin Aztec and flew us the remainder of the way to Peachtree. By the time we landed, ate, got our car, took Vern to Walmart for overnight supplies and dropped him at a hotel, it was after 10 p.m. Jo and I still had a 30 minute drive to downtown Atlanta to get to our hotel for the evening. We promptly crashed in bed upon arrival.