Half-Fast SlowDowners...What's in a name?

Well, how the hell do you come up a name like that? It started back in the 2012 Air Race Classic from Lake Havasu AZ to Batavia (Sporty's Pilot Shop) OH when I met another race team - Sue Jones and Bev Weintraub. They were flying Sue's 1981 Beech Sundowner (BE23), and it got dubbed the SlowDowner.

Also I have some friends in Iowa with a company called "Half-Fast Flying Adventures", and of course, the "Half-Fast" part of the name might have another connotation if said quickly and not carefully enunciated.

Move forward to last year's 2013 ARC when "Kool Katz With Attitude" Lynn Sykes and I flew to Cheyenne to meet up with Sue Jones flying her "SlowDowner" to Pasco WA. Sue was flying solo and looking for some company flying thru the mountains to the Start. While she was looking for assurance flying this route, she just lead the way and did a damned fine job navigating it all.

The Sundowner and the Cardinal on the ramp at Baker City OR for a fuel stop in 2013 on the way to Pasco.


The three of us had a blast flying my 1978 Cardinal Classic tandem with her Sundowner from there. It was my first time flying with another plane like that, and it was always fun talking with the air traffic folks about a plane flying 1-2 miles off one of our wings. Definitely a conversation starter with those folks.

So over the past year, I decided that I wanted to fly as co-pilot in the race for the first time, and in the process, I'd get time flying another type aircraft - low wing - and benefitting from another flyer's perspective...

After some discussions and then flying to Sue's place in TX last fall, we agreed to partner for the 2014 ARC. We talked names for awhile, and the co-pilot finally called it: Half-Fast SlowDowners. Everyone knows that Co-Pilot Minnetta is not the fastest person moving in the morning (or pretty much any time of day). Half-Fast or otherwise is another thing. SlowDowner is a nice counterpoint, eh?