Fifteen students from a Topeka private school toured Philip Billard Municipal Airport on Wednesday and learned about aviation from an air race pilot.
Joyce Parker, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, showed the students around her plane, "Joybird," which she will fly from Arizona to Florida next month in the 2016 Women's Air Race Classic.
"This plane is going to be a real jewel when we run it in the race," Parker told wide-eyed students from the International Academy in central Topeka.
Parker and a co-pilot, Athina Holmes, will compete in the nearly 3,000-mile race from June 21-24. The ARC began in 1929 and was run that year by Amelia Earhart, who finished third.
Parker retired from the Air Force in 2009 and has lived in Topeka since. She taught at Highland Park High School as a Junior ROTC instructor and at Cair Paravel Latin School.
"She is just so positive. She has such a great spirit," said Darlene Palmer with the International Academy.
Parker flies a 180-horsepower single-engine Beechcraft. The recently remodeled plane is painted red, white and blue and has the names of Parker and Holmes on the side, as well as the Bible verse John 3:16.
As the students toured the plane, Parker offered sage pointers, such as "you don't want to get close to the propeller" and "airplanes love wind." Once inside the aircraft, students questioned Parker about how to keep it airborne.
The tour was arranged by International Academy headmaster Sandra Lassiter.
"When I realized we had a female pilot who was in Topeka and who happens to be African-American, it was just wonderful," Lassiter said. Most of the students in the school are African-American.
Before their time with Joybird, the students toured a control tower at the airport, learning the ins and outs of air traffic control from manager John Alspach and the men inside.
The students tried their hand at shining handheld lights used to guide planes to the airport's three runways after dark. Parker and the traffic controllers recreated radio communication to give students a sense of what pilots hear as they come and go.
"That's how it works, and it's wonderful," Parker said.
