MSU aviation majors raising money for Air Race Classic

May 2—For Sami Naples, her future was mapped out at age 12.

For Grace Ackerman, her epiphany came later, in high school when she was deciding her path.

Both women are set to represent Minnesota State University during the upcoming Air Race Classic. It's a women's airplane race for all ages, from 17 to 90 years old.

Along with Madi Luebke and Ella Jones, their team called the Purple Tails will compete in the collegiate division of the Air Race Classic, with Naples, Ackerman and Luebke in the plane and Jones assigned to assist from the ground. Forty-four teams are registered to compete.

The aviation majors will fly in a rented Piper Archer plane and will cover 2,400 miles in the race. They begin in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and complete the race in Homestead, Florida.

The team is trying to raise $15,000 to cover the cost of renting the plane and fueling it, and had raised about $10,000 as of late last week. (To give to their fundraiser go to Gofund.me/8656b2a2.)

It's the second time MSU has participated in the Air Race Classic, with the first being seven years ago, Naples said. She calls the competition the "epicenter of women's racing."

Held from June 20-23, the Classic welcomes competitors from across the country.

"None of us has flown a small airplane out of the Midwest," Naples said. "So we'll have different climates and elevations and we'll see the country, which is really cool."

"We are all really excited for this," she said. "This has been planned since September."

She caught the flying bug as a child growing up in Mankato after her mom's friend — and a professor at MSU — invited her on a Delta WING flight. WING stands for Women Inspiring the Next Generation and featured an all-female crew flying a plane full of girls.

Naples went to Seattle and it was a memorable trip for her. "I went home and was like, I'm going to be a pilot," she said. "I was 12 years old."

Ackerman, a Rochester native, said she got interested in flying while in high school. Her grandpa is a pilot and her mom is a flight attendant, so she was familiar with the field.

"I didn't ever really consider it until my junior year of high school," she said. "I asked my mom about her job as a flight attendant and she told me, 'The view is better from up front.'"

During her first flight, she took the controls and saw "what it feels like to fly. I loved it. We flew over my house and I thought it was the coolest thing ever to actually be flying a plane."

As for the Air Race Classic, Ackerman said she's super excited. "I think it's going to be a really good opportunity for all of us to demonstrate and celebrate how far we've come in our training.

"It's just a unique opportunity," she said. "It's the only women's air race that I know of. If any young girl, or older ones, out there can see us and see that it's possible for them to fly, that can make a difference for someone. People don't consider it until they see someone doing it."