For Amelia Earhart Air Racers, the 'Sky is Home'

Eighty-seven years ago Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic ocean.

In Fredericksburg, Va., Monday an all female air race kicked off to comemorate the occasion.

The race dates back to 1929, when air racing became popular. At the time, women pilots were forbidden to race against men, so they started their own race. Earhart was part founder of the racing derby.

The 39th Air Race Classic draws female pilots from ages 17 to 90, from around the globe and from all walks of life.

The flying competition spans 2,400 miles from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to Fairhope, Alabama.

Racers will make stops at checkpoints in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee.

Pilots Jovita Perez-Segovia and Rebecca Davidson are team #51 "The Texas Tailwinds" from LeTourneau University, a Christian college.

CBN News met up with flying duo before the start of the race. Davidson is a May 2015 graduate of LETU's School of Aviation.

She grew up overseas as an Air Force brat. Moving from Panama to New Mexico to Italy--the one constant was the airplanes around her.

"I grew up working on cars with my dad and so when I went to college I figured I'd one up him and work on airplanes. So that kind of got me into the aviation world and then I started flying and I just got hooked from there," the 21-year-old Davidson said.

Perez-Segovia, of Mission, Texas, is a December 2014 graduate of LETU's School of Aviation--a school and major she locked in on while still in high school.

"Sometimes people say the phrase 'the sky is the limit,' I've even heard that from pilots before. But I think the sky's not the limit for pilots," she told CBN News.

"We do spend time in the sky, and for our careers we're going to spend more time in the skies, so I'd like to say the sky is home it's not the limit."

Track the progress of team #TexasTailwinds here.