MGA student completes four-day cross-country flight

Days away from the biggest race of her life, Annabelle Kellogg couldn’t wait to get up into the air. 

Months of preparation had gone into the 20-year-old aviator’s first Air Race Classic — a 2,425 mile flight race — between accounting for altitude, temperature, terrain, landing on the runway, what to wear and what to eat.

“There was a bit of nervousness, but I felt like I was very prepared,” said Kellogg, a third year Middle Georgia State University student. “The nerves kind of went away the first day, and they got better further along the race.”

The all-women’s race, founded in 1929, starts in Fairhope, Alabama and ends in Spokane, Washington. Racers started on Tuesday and finished in Spokane on Friday. 

The race was handicapped, where teams were scored based on their piloting skills rather than the capabilities of their aircraft to level the playing field.

Out of the 41 planes in the race, Kellogg and her copilot Gretchen Jahn finished fourth. 

“It was just a really big accomplishment,” Kellogg said. “I was so proud just to be able to, at 20 years old, fly my plane all the way across the country, and placing top five in the race was a super big achievement.”

The two pilots met back in February over Zoom, and their journey “took off from there,” Kellogg said.

Kellogg was in charge of directing the aircraft as pilot in command, while Jahn handled the radio communications and managed the plane’s altitude.

Kellogg said the race instilled more trust in her ability and taught her how to speak with a crew and work on a team.

Jahn, in her 28th race, said that while this was not her best performance, she was surprised by their placement given the strong headwinds on every leg of the race.

“Annabelle is an excellent pilot. She is precise and knows her airplane. I felt very comfortable flying with her,” Jahn said.

Their team name, The Skunks, comes from the black-and-white Skunk Works logo on the plane’s tail. “Skunk Works” is the official nickname for a Lockheed Martin design division called Advanced Development Programs. 

The pair flew Kellogg’s 1965 M20E, which Kellogg started flying three years ago.She has since amassed about 300 hours of experience flying the craft.

Kellogg said that while the plane has its quirks, it’s a “good, solid aircraft.”

“It really showed its worth on this trip and showed how awesome of a plane it was and how well it works,” she said.

For Kellogg, the race was her first time past the Mississippi — before the event, the farthest west she had been was Arkansas. The race had 10 stops across the South and the Rockies, with each leg lasting two hours.

“It was super fun to just be there and soak in the environment of all those stops,” she said.

Kellogg, a Cumming native, started flying her junior year of high school, and now studies aviation management at MGA at their campus in Eastman.

She said she thinks the race can have a “lasting impact” on her flying career, as one day she hopes to be an air medical pilot.

“I couldn’t really be any prouder of myself, and I’m excited to come back next year and see how I do then,” Kellogg said.