MURFREESBORO, Tenn. —
Gabriella Lindskoug and Jordan
Cantrell are the first Middle
Tennessee State University students to finish the grueling, all-female Air Race Classic.
Lindskoug, 20, a junior aerospace major from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, and
Cantrell, 27, a pre-med student majoring in psychology and minoring in
chemistry and aerospace from Nashville, achieved their goal in completing the
nearly 2,650-mile event and flew back to Murfreesboro June 29.
The Air Race Classic is the longest running all-women pilots
transcontinental air race. MTSU’s Alison
Taylor and Alexis Hutchinson
competed in 2013, but did not finish. For more about the race, visit http://www.airraceclassic.org.
Lindskoug, and Cantrell, who called themselves “White
Lightning,” flew the Cantrell family-owned Cessna Skyhawk out of Frederick
(Maryland) Municipal Airport June 20 along with the other 51 teams. (A
Washington, D.C., television station featured them at the start — http://www.fox5dc.com/news/262612321-story.)
Four days and 14 states later, they finished 26th overall at Santa
Fe, New Mexico, Municipal Airport.
On Facebook, Lindskoug posted, “Oh, my goodness. We just
completed the 2017 Air Race Classic! I cannot put into words what an INCREDIBLE
experience this was. One day we woke up in Indianapolis, then we were paddle
boarding on Lake Bemidji, and now we are in New Mexico. This has been
absolutely wild.”
Cantrell said she has “dreamed of racing airplanes since I
was a little girl. I am racing to become a better and safer pilot as well as to
see a lot of the United States that I have not had the pleasure of flying over
yet.”
Lindskoug, a commercial pilot with 200-plus hours of flight
time, is an MTSU flight dispatcher and member of the MTSU Raiders chapter of
Women in Aviation International. Her dreams are to become a fighter pilot with
the Air National Guard and work for a major airline. From a flying family, her
father is a pilot with a major airline and her grandfather flew fighter jets
for the Swedish Royal Air Force.
Cantrell, a private pilot with 260 hours logged, is owner of
Cantrell’s Airbnb and Springwater Supperclub and Lounge and vice president of
Bald Eagle Enterprises. She is a Professional Association of Diving
Instructors-certified scuba diver and beekeeper with her own honey label.
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