Air Race Classic Opens Registration for 2025 Air Derby

For pilots looking to test their skills in precision, flight planning, and navigation, registration for Air Race Classic’s 2025 ARC Air Derby officially opened on Monday. Entry is available to pilots of all different levels of expertise.

The ARC Air Derby is a one-day flying event designed for pilots around the world to challenge themselves in a flexible setting where contestants design their own routes, chart their estimated completion time, and fly as closely to their planned time as possible. Flights must be conducted between October 1-14, and winners will be announced during a virtual banquet a few days after the event’s conclusion on October 17.

“The [Air] Derby continues to be a fun and flexible way for pilots to test their skills, build confidence, and connect with a passionate aviation community,” said Donna Harris, president of Air Race Classic Inc. “We’re excited to launch registration and look forward to welcoming both returning and first-time contestants this year.”

Participants must register as a team consisting of one pilot and one copilot—one of which must be a woman. Each designed route is made up of five individual legs, with each being at least 65 nm. Timing is measured by designated waypoints that pilots will fly over in order to start and end their times for each leg. Each team must fly under VFR for the entirety of their route. 

All routes are required to include a “must-land” airport during the route for added “complexity to the time estimations.” That airport must be located at the end of one of the first through fourth legs. Timings of those specific legs will be calculated once the pilot reaches the midpoint of the runway at the designated airport. 

To participate, pilots must have a sports pilot certificate or greater and at least 50 hours of PIC time in the class of airplane they plan to fly. The derby is open to any aircraft under 12,500 pounds, including light sport, experimental, powered glider, and turbocharged, that has the range to complete the minimum leg length. 

Tracing its roots back to 1929, in which a group of women aviators, including Amelia Earhart, raced from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland, the Air Race Classic is an all-women, four-day race, where each year participants embark on a 2,400-mile competition that encompasses most of the continental U.S.

In 2021, the ARC created the spinoff Air Derby as an alternative to the traditional race due to scheduling woes created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Registration fees for entry are $200 per team, and teams have until September 26 at 6 p.m. EDT to complete registration and secure one of the 99 available spots at this year’s derby.