On Saturday, the High Trestle Trail officially opens between Woodward and Ankeny. This is one of the largest trail bridges in the world (yeah, that's right. The. World.). If you're grounded, grease your bike or brush off your walking shoes. Woodward, Madrid, Slater, Sheldahl, Crocker and Ankeny have quite a bit of festivities planned for the event. If you're into wine, Snus Hill is having entertainment for the day.

If you're lucky enough to fly this weekend, give those bikers and walkers a nice fly-by or two. As for me, I'll be at the Woodward Library promoting my book coming out in May. I'm hoping Brian will give the town a noisy, smoke-on pass (is there any other kind?). Stop by if you're in the area! 

For more information, visit the High Trestle Trail page: http://www.inhf.org/trails/high_trestle_trail/hightrestletrail.htm 

First and most important: we have a tagline for Half Fast Flying Adventures! We figured if Nike can have a tagline (Just Do It), there's no reason we can't have one. So our new tagline-which you'll see at the top of this site-is... drum roll... "surprisingly adequate." We felt it fit our style and we will be launching an online store of tee-shirts, caps, stickers, and more this summer. The store will be available on this site. I think you'll enjoy our brand of humor. Stay tuned! 

As for other news, we spent the weekend at the hangar and found the easter bunny left some eggs for us to find as well. Okay, maybe the easter bunny is actually a chirpy little robin who is watching over three little blue eggs on our hangar's electrical box. Now if we can only keep our bird dog distracted once they hatch. 

Brian and I wish you a wonderful, chocolate-filled Easter this weekend. And hopefully the weather will allow us all to fit in a bit of flying!

Brian has a new aircraft to add to his list of flying adventures. On Sunday, he logged nearly six hours in a Cessna 421 owned by Hap's Air Service. Brian took advantage of an open seat Jeff Smalley had for an air sampling assignment. It was Brian's first experience as PIC (pilot-in-command) of an aircraft with a pressurized cabin, and it kept him on his toes. But he came home with a smile on his face, so I think he enjoyed both the airplane and the company. Thanks for the awesome opportunity, Jeff! 

Brian got his new iPad last week.  Here's a sample of what he's done with it so far. Have a great weekend!

It's too darn windy to even think about flying right now. So Brian and I reminisced about some of our favorite flights in OPP's (Other People's Planes). Here's a photo of Brian in the backseat of Tony Buechler's Petie 2nd. What are some of your fondest flying memories?

How about this weather? Even though the wind kept us from flying today, it couldn't keep us from enjoying the first beautifully warm weekend of spring. Dan Sokolowski came over for the weekend and helped us polish the airplanes (thanks, Dan!). Matthew Sawhill stopped by to deliver tow bar hooks he engineered and built for the Red Baron. These hooks work, even with the wheel pants on (photo), and they are so well designed they look like art (thanks, Matthew!). To top off an already great--and productive--weekend, we tried our hand at American Pickers and drove up to Story City and checked out a Clarkat in much need of some love and restoration. We hope to adopt the pup-sized tug... we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, enjoy this weather!