Ox, Sparky, and I opened our freshly painted hangar doors to the public for the first time during the American Barnstormer Tour last week.  We hosted the adventurous pilots during their stay, and had a great time - of course, riding in Hank and Ray's 1928 TravelAir 6000 was my favorite.

With the Barnstormers as the obvious main attraction for oggling, our hangar was the event's petting zoo.  We learned that a Pitts has some kind of magical magnetism for children, so every few minutes we learned to automatically recite, "please enjoy looking but, for the love of God, it's a plane - not a toy."

Tuesday evening was a highlight of the week when the City of Ames held their After-Five party in our hangar.  Over 400 Ames dwellers ventured in for a snack while they watched the coming and going of nearly 20 Barnstormer planes from the golden age of aviation. 

Our flying adventures have become a little soggy lately with the June rains in Iowa.  With the longest take-off roll ever, water splashing all around, and plenty of praying on my part, Brian got the Stearman into the air and made it to higher ground before the Saylorville flood gates were lowered and flooded Y76 (Morningstar).  We are now considering the fun we could have hooking floats onto the Stearman.