Air racers return to West Lafayette

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - After covering thousands of miles and several states in only four days, a pair of Purdue aviation students is back on the ground in West Lafayette.

Senior captain Juliana Lindner and Junior co-pilot Lauren Steele finished fourth among college teams in the 2009 Air Race Classic.

The duo finished 15th overall against 31other all-female teams.

Lindner and Steele said they made plenty of friends along the way during the nine-state trek, and even found an inspirational mascot in Texas.

"Cowboy, the dog, he was an old one. He just took a liking to us when we landed in Sweetwater on our way out to start in Denver, so we kind of used him as a good-luck charm and named our plane 'Cowgirl,'" Lindner said with a laugh.

Steele was glad to find a nickname for the team's Piper Warrior airplane.

"We always have a nickname for our plane and you know the co-pilot is supposed to come up with it, and I'm like 'I don't know what to do,' so in my mind I was thinking 'Wouldn't it be funny if we named it Cowgirl after the dog since it was Cowboy?'" Steele said.

Steele said she is already looking forward to the 2010 Air Race Classic, where she plans to be the Purdue team captain.

Lindner said she does not want to stay away from the race for long, and hopes to find a sponsor and co-pilot for future races. You can read the team's blog posts and see a map of their route at WLFI's Air Race Classic Tracker Page .