The 2025 rally will be a 1 leg event originating at Hayward and landing at our destination this year of McClellan Airfield, Sacramento. Other than a mandatory course and safety briefing Friday afternoon, all rally events will occur on Saturday. An awards banquet will be held Saturday evening at the Aerospace Museum of California on the field at McClellan. Museum admission is included with your rally entry!

2025 Entry Information and Registration Package

Download and post the rally flyer!

A tentative schedule of events will be as follows:

Friday May 30:

Noon - 4P - Early arrival checkin
4P - Mandatory course and safety briefing (on-site and Zoom)

Saturday May 31:

7:30-9:30A - Arrivals and checkin
10A - Fly!
2-6P - Hospitality suite at the Lions Gate Hotel
6P - Awards banquet at the Aerospace Museum of California

Countdown to the first starting flag:

The Hayward Air Rally Ray Hazel Memorial Scholarship

Applications now open

Details on our scholarship page, or at the GoingMerry scholarship portal where we are taking applications.

The application deadline is April 30, 2025.

What is the Hayward Air Rally?

"It's like a scavenger hunt in the sky!" - Michelle MacDonald, 2024 Race 13

The rally means different things to different pilots, but for all it's a combination of competition, challenge, and camaraderie. The event is open to all pilots (student and recreational pilots must be accompanied by a suitable pilot in command) and most piston-powered GA aircraft (including LSAs and experimentals).

Competition

The specifics of the rally course are released at the rally briefing. Participants flight plan for the course and produce flight time and fuel consumption estimates for each leg of the rally. Scoring is based upon the performance of the accomplished flight against the pre-flight estimates, course checkpoint identification (the aforementioned scavenger hunt), and navigation equipment used. Details on the competition structure may be found via the About links above.

Challenge

While competition rules allow for the use of GPS navigation (and even digital fuel totalizers), many participants elect to use the scoring system that allows only "traditional" radio-based navigation aids - even if their aircraft are GPS equipped. As a proficiency rally, the course is designed to exercise cross-country navigation and pilotage skills. Enroute checkpoints have included identification of such items as bridges, distinctive buildings, and unimproved (think emergency) landing strips.

Camaraderie

Not everyone who flies in the rally is in it for the competition. For some, the rally is simply a weekend getaway with a group of great fellow aviation enthusiasts. The rally provisions a "hospitality suite" at the destination hotel where participants can gather to socialize, hangar fly, and boast or commiserate over competition performance. There is ample free time to explore local points of interest prior to the awards banquet.

Whichever reasons appeal to you, we hope you'll join us at the starting line for this year's Hayward Air Rally! Entry information may be found here.

Congratulations to Race 77, Shawn and Owen Britton, for winning the 60th Annual Hayward Air Rally!

Shawn vaults into Masters Class in record time! Back to back wins in only his second year flying the rally!

Masters Class - Race 11
Red Baron - Race 96 (broken alternator belt required plane swap the night before)
Tail End Charlie - Race 31
Best Fuel Score - Race 4 (0.01 gallon error)
Best Time Score - Race 11 (1 second)
Best Rookie - Race 6 - in a diesel DA-40! (first time we've had a Jet-A entrant)

More details on the 2024 rally are available on the 2024 course page.