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Sun 'n Fun 2017 Trip Write-up
Sorry for the delayed posting of this trip writeup - sorting through 998 pictures (4.48GB) and an intense work travel schedule has left little time the the important things in life!!
The last 3 days have been all work and no play for me finishing up the annual conditional inspection and installing the "red cube" fuel flow sensor. The rush was all worth it for a trip to Lakeland, FL for 2017 Sun 'n Fun! Last year when we departed for SNF, the temps were much lower - 28 degrees OAT if I recall correctly. This year was much milder. My friend Peter and I originally planned to depart for SNF on Tuesday, however, the weather was not cooperating with that plan. That didn't phase us too much - a full week off of work (not that either of us work all that hard!), and since we were arriving on Monday and there is no airshow, we didn't have to leave at Dark-o-thirty to make it to KLAL before the field shut down. Neither of us are morning people, so this plan was working perfectly. The RV loaded and ready to go. The German and American will have good arguments over the next week over who is better (note, upon arrival there was a nice puddle of transmission fluid on the American side of the hangar!!). Getting down to FL today wouldn't be a walk in the park. Headwinds were strong and there was a pretty large front working its way slowly across the entire easy coast. The skull-and-crossbones on the cap of the Gatorade pee-bottle int he baggage area really completes this selfie. Peter recently received his CFI. He is big on Flight Following, and he forced me to use it all the way down. We didn't have an exact destination for our first fuel stop on the way south as we didn't know where the weather would direct us. This was our initial route we relayed to ATC which would keep us clear of the muck. We knew we wanted to land north of Charleston, SC because the fuel was cheaper up there. Add the overlay of the flight conditions and FIS-B radar imagery and you can get an idea of what we were dealing with. In southern Virginia we lost the clear skies and picked up an overcast layer. Peter is on his way to shortly get his CFII which will be most valuable to me to finally get my instrument ticket. We played around with VOR tracking via the GRT EFIS's while enroute. The overcast layer became broken so we decided to hop above the cloud layer. |
Day 1 (continued)
Our first stop was KCPC - Columbus County Airport about 15 miles north of the NC/SC state line. Reasonable gas prices at $3.80/G.
KCPC also had a nice spread of food for the Sun 'n Fun travelers. Drinks, Fruit, Subway Subs and Sweets. We stayed here for about 20 minutes looking for routes through the weather down south. We met a nice couple in the MU2 on their way from New England to the Caribbean. This was our decided route to make it to KLAL. Out of KCPC we went up above the clouds again. The winds were about the same no matter the altitude. 15 kts on the nost at 6,500'. Well that didn't last long. We encountered a line of storms with no clear passage at 6,500' so we needed to turn around to find a hole and descend to 3,000'. ADS-B paints a great picture of what we had to deal with. We were just a few miles behind Van's RV-14 (N914VA). We used it's position and altitude to let us know where the good holes were to get through this storm front. My co-pilot comes well prepared with electronic gizmos. Peter was originally hesitant to try to find a hole through the storms around us, as this was his first time flying through weather in an RV. We settled on what our personal minimums were in terms of altitude and storm clearance and proceeded. We made it through the thick stuff, now we needed to deal with a few scattered thunderstorms working themselves through northern FL. |
Day 1 (continued)
ATC was great with giving us vectors to avoid the storms. I can't say enough good about how great all of the controllers were to us on the way down. On top of the extra layer of safety flight following offers, it also seemed to make the time go by faster with keeping up with their handoffs and listening to the other chatter. The enchanting accent of the young lady on Charleston Approach didn't hurt either!
This was the last cell we needed to work around before Lakeland. How can you tell you're near Ocala, FL - horse rings galore! The approach into Lakelake was interesting to say the least. The NOTAM clearly stated the SNF arrival procedures started today. However, our controller told us to fly direct KLAL. I questioned her and asked if we shouldn't fly to Lake Parker per the NOTAM. She advised that the NOTAM was not in affect today. We tuned into the ATIS information per the NOTAM and it directed us to tune into the KLAL ATIS. However, no mention of alternate procedures was mentioned on either frequency. We contacted the tower, as I not treated KLAL as a class D airport. They told us to start our arrival at the golf course, which while was on the NOTAM, wasn't easily found if you weren't flying the normal approach. I don't know why KLAL decided to not use the NOTAM arrival procedure today - it lead to a lot of pilot confusion, and a lot of people with their head down in their cockpit trying to figure out what's going on instead of looking outside. All of us in Homebuilt Camping (HBC) thought it was lucky there wasn't an accident due to the confusion. Anyways, we made it to the HBC and were greeted by Mary Jane and her amazing team. Peter and I had media passes to SNF and we needed to get from the furthest east portion of the field to media center on the west side before 5pm to get our passes. Mary Jane without hesitation told us to feel free to use her golf carts, and if anyone asked how we got them, to tell them we stole them! You can't help but love that girl! Once we got our camp setup, we settled in to a few adult beverages with our fellow HBC friends and enjoyed a nice sunset. |
Day 2
We woke up on Tuesday to a beautiful morning sunrise.
Not too many airplanes in HBC - 15 airplanes. The SNF media hospitality was second to none. Great breakfast in the morning during the 8:15am press briefing. This is Mary Jane's palace for the week. It should be twice as big for all the work her and her team put in! Mary Jane was quite accommodating to Peter and myself when it came to using her golf carts throughout the week. I'm certain it's because she was fearful of the possibility of bad press ;-) The HBC tent was nicely upgraded this year. Last year it wasn't as big. Some RV builders from Switzerland stopped by and chatted about their project. Steve (RV-9A) and Gus from Albany were our neighbors this year. We met them last year at SNF and really clicked. Gus was a real charmer. When we were hungry and waiting for dinner, Gus was the only person Mary Jane offered a roast beef sandwich to! This line of storms (Radar from 9:22am) was going to keep a good number of people from flying into SNF. Stopped by Van's to congratulate Mitch Lock on his new position at Van's....I also thanked him for leading the way through the storms yesterday. |
Day 2 (continued)
Chatted with Lucas at TruTrak about an Arinc issue I am having between their Vizion 385 AP and my GRT EFIS. They are always great guys to work with and very willing to help out.
Peter was complaining about how uncomfortable my seats were. I took a load off in the best RV seats money can buy! Chatted with Mike at Dynon about their new ADS-B receiver. I wanted to know if it was a standard GDL-90 protocol output, but he indicated it was proprietary. US Customs and Border Patrol always has some kickass boats at SNF. The uAvionix booth was quite busy on the first day. They've got a lot of great ADS-B receivers, transmitters and transceivers. This was their new release - the echo ESX (I believe it was $1600). It is a ADS-B out device with extended squitter (ES) support. It can be controller by a number of different EFIS's. It does require a separate 2020 compliant GPS - they have their own, but the GRT 2020 GPS also works with their product. The only let down for me was this wasn't an ADS-B IN device. The Echo UAT from uAvoniX is an ADS-B transceiver (non-ES) which is compatible with bunch of EFIS manufacturers. It features both ADS-B in and out, and the IN traffic and weather (GDL90) can be transmitted either over a serial connection and Wifi. They had a great demo setup displaying live traffic coming into SNF. It's great that a small innovative company has entered into the ADS-B space for experimentals. I can easily see myself switching to their product and gaining some panel space as I will not longer require a GTX-327. Great group of people working at uAvionx. Glad to see someone finally stepped up to make an affordable In/Out solution for us experimentals now that NavWorx's future is somewhat unknown. Chatted with PS Engineering and bragged to them about how much I love the new PDA360EX audio panel I just installed. They let me in on a fun secret - the PDA stands for "Paul Dye's Audiopanel". Apparently Paul worked closely with PS Engineering on the user interface and other aspects of the panel. I guess I owe you a thanks also, Paul...Awesome product and great UI! Next up was Garmin to check out their new touch G3X. It took a couple of pictures for Peter to really have his modeling side shine! These are really nice screens...my only complaint is the bezel is quite thick around the perimeter. However, it's a great upgrade option for all of those legacy G3X's out there. |
Day 2 (continued)
The 7" G3X Touch is probably one of the nicest EFIS's out there. it has excellent use of the screen real-estate.
Garmin is quite innovative in many ways. IO was impressed with how you can mount their GDU 25 ADAHRS right behind the screen. I caught up with GRT's Greg Toman and checked out their new products - spefically their Safe-Fly 2020 GPS. I also chatted to him about the uAvionx ADS-B transceivers and if they worked with the older GRT EFIS. He said they have software in the works to be able to control the uAvionix devices from the older Sport EFIS. Wow, what other EFIS could I have purchased in 2008 that still gets updates to support new products. Can't say enough good about this great company. Their Fly-Safe 2020 GPS receiver and Serial Combiner is amazingly small and lightweight. I also saw a product from GRT I wasn't aware of - this is a Quad Serial port expander to add serial ports to their EFIS's. Super thin and well designed. I picked up a sweet Flight Outfitters flight bag (the "Thrust") from Duane at Spencer Aircraft. Duane's always great to see and deal with. He get's an A for customer service - he threw in 2 free t-shirts! Spencer seems to expanded their product offerings every year. They're one of my top go-to site's when I'm finding myself with too much money in my airplane fund. This is where the media pass to SNF really shined - members of the SNF media can call up the press office and have a golf cart sent to take you to anywhere ont he ground. This really helped out Peter and I cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time to get to all the vendors and events. Cruising in style around SNF. There's no better way to get around! Back at HBC we found 4 new arrivals before the airshow started. |
Day 2 (continued)
This was definitely the most impressive homebuilt in HBC - the Rutan Defiant. Four seats with two engines in a push/pull configuration. The builder, John Loofbourrow, has over flight 1200 hours on this 175kts cruiser! Somewhere around 20 Defiant's have been completed since the plans were released in 1984.
The details of the defiant. Taking a load off in HBC with my new buddy "Slugger". The French National Team, Patrouille de France, really stole the show. Neither Peter or I are much for airshows, but the this performance wow'd us. It was their first US appearance in more than 30 years. It's too bad they only did one show and then took off afterwards. You can tell from Peter's expression he is enamored with their performance. |
Day 2 (continued)
After the french team was finished, Mary Jane and Stephanie started to get HBC party started! After many beers and margarita's, we heard the sound of some music coming from the east. We headed down to the Tailwheels, Inc party. Great live music, food, beer and conversation was to be had! |
Day 3
Today started with another amazing sunrise. We also picked up a new guest at our campsite. Peters friend, James, drove in last night from the Miami area to join us for a day of Sun and Fun! You can see him hydrating in Peter's tent.
A couple of hot air balloons launched in the morning. The wind was blowing pretty good - they booked it North and were out of sight in no time. One BIG upgrade was the shower facilities at SNF. These new units were very nice. Air conditioned trailers, each with 2 sinks and 4 shower stalls. A few of us HBC'ers got talking about how cold the water was, even when the faucet was on HOT. Then some engineers figured out there was probably an instant hot water heater and a single shower on by itself didn't demand enough hot water to activate the heater, as it has a minimum flow requirement. The solution - run the hot water in the sink or turn on another shower! Problem solved. Dan Horton showed up yesterday and he needed a ride to the press office for the morning briefing. Peter and I gladly assisted with one of Mary Jane's golf carts. In addition to the SNF media center letting all of us know the day's activities, they also raffle off rides with different airshow performers. Dan Horton won today's raffle for a ride in the Phillips 66 Aerostars Soviet Yak 52TW. Dan was initially excited, but then realized he had other commitments to KitPlanes, and he'd already been for a ride in the Yak. He instead offered me his place in the Yak which I gladly accepted! Thanks Dan!!! Peter is trying to get James excited in aviation, so he had him sit in a number of airplanes around SNF. While Peter and James played, I headed out to the Aerostars for the pre-flight briefing. Paul "Rocket" Hornick (#2 Aerostar) gave us a great briefing on the history of the Yak, their team and also what we should expect in the flight. My ride - #3 with Gerry Molidor (UAL 777 Captain) as my pilot. All strapped in and ready for the ride. I can't tell you the last time it was since I was just a passenger in a GA airplane. It felt great to have no responsibilities and to just enjoy the ride. |
Day 3 (continued)
While we waiting to taxi out, my photographer caught this RV-8 Fastback arriving. Very STOKED! The ride was simply amazing. Formation takeoff, some loops, barrel roll and an aileron roll. The Aerostars were very professional and well coordinated. An A-10 Warthog arrived just before we did. The Yak I was in is just under the left wing of the A-10. Our pilots and my fellow media representatives who got rides in the other 2 Yak's. What a morning! This was an amazing experience with these top rated pilots. |
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