It's been called the Women's Air Derby, the All Women's Transcontinental Air Race and the Powder Puff Derby, but today it's simply the Air Race Classic.

Forty-seven teams of two or three women each are entered to fly the race, which this year starts in Oklahoma City and concludes 2,573 miles later in St. John, New Brunswick.

Alaska is represented by Aircraft No. 10, a 232 horsepower, 1955 Cessna 180, "an old Alaska bush plane," according to its owner, Jacquie Biloff of Pierre, S.D., and a former Alaskan. Her teammate, Charlotte Luckett of Palmer, is a former flight instructor who works for the Federal Aviation Administration in Anchorage.

Biloff and Luckett worked together as flight instructors at Mustang Air in Palmer.

Gary Baker, owner of Mustang Air, gave the two a good chance to win the race, which relies on good planning and knowledge of airplane performance more than being faster than the next pilot.

"I'd give them an 85, 90 percent chance" of winning, Baker said Wednesday. "They do their homework. They know how to do their cross-country planning. I'd give them a pretty good chance."

Biloff left Alaska 11/2 years ago with her husband, Neil, a minister in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, after 15 years, she said. A pilot since 1971, she said she holds an air transport pilot's license and also flew glacier landings and flightseeing for K-2 Aviation in Talkeetna for 1 1/2 years, she said.

"My dad was a pilot and he built three different experimental aircraft. He was just a general aviation pilot," Biloff said by phone from South Dakota. "What really sparked my interest were air shows. He would take me to air shows."

Biloff still flies, but not as much as she'd like, she said. She flies her husband on his ministerial travels and started up a graphic arts business -- greeting cards and such -- with an aviation theme.

Luckett was out of state on family business and could not be reached for comment. Biloff said she and Luckett make a good team. "Just because we worked together and we know each other so well, we would probably work together under a stressful situation," she said. "We're more like sisters."

The race is open to any woman pilot, but one pilot on each team must either hold an instrument rating or have logged a minimum 500 hours flight time, according to the Air Race Classic Web site. Biloff said she's logged 4,500 hours.

The race draws pilots with thousands of hours of experience and those with just over 100, said assistant race director Dustin Wilcox. Relatively new pilots share the sky with longtime pilots. Ruth Sheldon, who's almost 90, teamed with the CEO of Mooney Airplane Co. last year and placed 10th.

"You name it, we've got it," Wilcox said.

The object of the race is to fly the perfect cross-country flight, taking into account weather and aircraft performance. Each aircraft is assigned a handicap speed.

For Biloff's Cessna, that's roughly 126 knots. The goal becomes to fly the racecourse at better than 126 knots. The handicap puts lower horsepower aircraft, 145 horsepower being the minimum in this race, on the same plane as the race upper end, about 500 horsepower, Wilcox said.

"The race, very intense," said Biloff. "It is very precise, precision flying because you fly every knot to the hundredth of a second and everything has to be calculated to the hundredth of a second. Any deviation ... can be devastating as to time."

She said a number of sponsors in Alaska stepped forward to help the team, including the women pilots of the 99s in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and businesses like General Family Dentistry in Palmer, Northern Lights at Merrill Field and P. Ponk Aviation, which donated a $13,000, three-blade prop, and Tailwind Aviation, which donated tires.

The race starts June 19. Participants must at least fly over the airports that designate the route and finish by June 22.

Contact Mat-Su editor Joseph Ditzler at 352-6715 or jditzler@adn.com

MORE INFORMATION

Find out more about the race at www.airraceclassic.org and visit Jacquie Biloff's Web site at www.borntoflygraphics.com.