The need for speed!

Mia Hallgring is flying from Texas to Maine against international competition — before she begins training Navy pilots

By Richard W. Dionne Jr. rdionne@eastbaynewspapers.com
Posted 6/20/18

Twenty-one-year-old pilot Mia Hallgring, a Portsmouth High School graduate, has taken to the sky to race in the 2018 Air Race Classic. The four-day, all-female flying race started Wednesday, June 19, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


The need for speed!

Mia Hallgring is flying from Texas to Maine against international competition — before she begins training Navy pilots

Embry-Riddle University pilot Mia Hallgring, a Portsmouth High graduate, poses with the school’s Cessna 172 Skyhawk before leaving for the start of the 2018 Air Race Classic in Sweetwater, Texas.
Embry-Riddle University pilot Mia Hallgring, a Portsmouth High graduate, poses with the school’s Cessna 172 Skyhawk before leaving for the start of the 2018 Air Race Classic in Sweetwater, Texas.
Submitted Photo
Posted

Twenty-one-year-old pilot Mia Hallgring, a Portsmouth High School graduate, has taken to the sky to race in the 2018 Air Race Classic. The four-day, all-female flying race started Wednesday, June 19, from Sweetwater, Texas, and will end on Friday, June 22, in Fryeburg, Maine. It is a nine-leg race and covers more than 2,600 miles.

“You play with the weather and the wind and try to fly the best possible race that you can to win,” said Ms. Hallgring in a phone interview as she was getting ready for the race in Texas. “There are nine airports that you have to get to and you can take whatever route or altitude that you want.”

Ms. Hallgring, a Little Compton resident, acquired her affection for flying as a Wilbur-McMahon eighth-grader.

“My dad had his friend Billy take me up in a Piper Cherokee out of Newport,” she said. “I sat in the front and I caught the bug.”

Ms. Hallgring embarked on her flying career at age 17, learning how to fly in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, a four-seat, single-engine, fixed-wing aircraft. The Cessna’s top speed is 188 mph and is the same plane she will use in the air race.

She earned her private pilot license as a senior at Portsmouth High School and headed for Emery-Riddle Areonautical University after graduating in 2015.

She finished her collegiate degree in Areonautical Science in three years and became a professional pilot and certified flight instructor. She will teach Navy personnel how to fly this summer as a civilian contracted flight instructor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

But for now, she has her focus on the Air Race Classic.

This is Ms. Hallgring’s second try at the air race. She and her co-pilot, Jodie Brandel, an Embry-Riddle senior, will fly for one of two Embry-Riddle Racer teams.

“We will race a couple of legs over eight to nine hours each day. It’s mentally and physically exhausting,” she said. “There is a lot that goes into the race, though you can’t really plan for it. We have to look at the wind and weather and adapt.”

According to Ms. Hallgring, teams can use any kind of single-engine aircraft. Her favorite part about the race is meeting the other contestants.

“I think one of the coolest parts about the race is that you get to meet hundreds of females in aviation and hear their stories. You can definitely learn a lot from the race,” she said.

History of the race

According to the classics’s website, the first women’s air race was called the Women’s Air Derby in 1929. Twenty pilots raced from Santa Monica, Calif., to Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1947, the All Women’s Transcontinental Air Race, better know as the Powder Puff Derby, was created. It was discontinued in 1977. The Air Race Classic stepped up to continue the tradition of transcontinental speed competition for women pilots and had its premiere race in 1977.

This year, 56 teams of 121 pilots from 35 states, including teams from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Kenya and New Zealand, are in the competition, including 18 colleges or universities.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.