SANDPOINT — When Dr. Pamela Riddle Bird takes off from the runway tomorrow morning to compete in the Air Race Classic, her thoughts will turn to the pioneers of aviation who made the flight possible.

    In particular, she will be thinking about the generations of other female pilots who fought the odds and flew anyway, despite the pejorative nicknames that followed in the wake of their courage. The men around them called them “fly girls” — as if calling them female pilots was too much to expect — and would not allow them to take part in race events. Not to be outdone or shut out, women of the day organized their own race in 1929 and called it Women’s Air Derby.

    Tomorrow morning, taking off as part of team number 43, Pam Bird will wear the name fly girl with pride, because she is competing with more than 100 other female pilots in an event that will carry her more than 2,300 nautical miles from Concord, Calif., to New Cumberland, Penn., over the course of four days.

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