Well, I had a good time.
I went on Wednesday, and as a builder, I once again Drove-In to the Fly-In. Since I live in Florida, about a 100 miles away from LAL, I've been going to Sun-N-Fun for about 15 years. I've missed 2 or 3 shows along the way due to other obligations, but I generally have a good time.
It's the biggest week-long collection of airplanes, vendors, and airplane people in the Southeast, so I'd hate to miss it just because they over-price the entrance fees, and food & refreshments. I ALWAYS learn something new or see some product I've never seen before, or see some new act that I've never seen before, or make a new friend. Hey, at least the general car parking and porta-pottys are still free.
The excitement for Wednesday a.m. was the "unintentional ditching" of a Cirrus. Taxied right off a taxi-way into in large gully. OUCH! Didn't see it happen, but heard no one was hurt. I did see the Cirrus get airborne again late in the morning . . . with help from a large boom crane and a couple of web-straps. Heard many theories as to
why, no hard facts.
In the Warbird area, there were LOTS of T-6's, and lots of T-28's, one F4U Corsair, a couple of Yak-somethings, and a couple of P-51s. It sure seemed like there was a drop-off in Warbird attendance. However, there was some talk that some attendees may have been waiting for the weekend, and some were a little delayed by a Wx system in the Northeast. (It was only day 2 of the show, when I went.) There was a really nice B-25 Mitchell there, and it was even for sale. Billed as the "finest example of a B-25 currently available on the market", and asking only $695K, Thank you very much.
Worth every penny I'm sure. Still . . . wonder how many B-25's are currently on the market
The BEST "new-to-me" act was the P-51 flight demonstration team.
Crazy Horse &
Crazy Horse 2, flew a FABULOUS, tight-formation routine. I was just NEAT to see (& hear) 2 P-51s w/ same paint scheme make low passes and do some formation acro. Hard to capture in words, but worth the price of admission for me.
In the hombuilt parking area, there were LOTS of RV's of all varieties. Didn't count-em, but had to be at least 75 or more RVs already there on Wednesday a.m. I saw at least 4 RV-10's. There was lots of room for other Non-RV homebuilts to park. I saw a few Glasairs, a few Long-EZ's, Cozys, T-18s, and Mustang II's. But in general, the homebuilt attendance seemed to be lower than in past years. The homebuilt parking area closes during the airshow, so you can't look at RV's while the show is on, but it's been that way for many years.
There was some talk on flight line about the new policy to allow general public access to aircraft. I didn't see any problems myself, but heard one RV-8A fellow complain a bit about foot-prints in the dust on his wing. I wouldn't dream of climbing onto someone's wing or touching their plane without permission, but I suppose it happens.
I gotta mention the two little planes near the front of homebuilt parking. They both look like they would be a lot of fun for a budget builder. The BK1, and the Thatcher CX-4. Both are riveted aluminum, single-place, low-wing, tail-dragger, VW-powered, and could be finished for under $10K, including powerplant!! CX-4 has beautiful, classic lines, and can be flown with canopy off. I sat in the CX-4, 2 years ago. I'm 6'1", and 200+, and fit just fine, even w/ canopy closed. The BK1 has a more streamlined, contempory look, kinda like a Hummel bird, but bigger . . . I believe it had more cockpit room than CX-4 did AND I didn't see any fiberglass on it at all. Both of the designers/builders seem like 1st class gents to me.
In years past (1990s) there have been more RV-4s. That's what I'm most interested in, since that's what I'm building, (no offense to all the wonderful examples of the RV-others). Last 2-3 years, there have been only a dozen or so RV-4s during the mid-week timeframe. I met 3 of the RV-4 owners, and enjoyed talking to them. I felt bad that I kept one gentleman for over half an hour, but he was justifiably proud of his RV-4, and I got some TERRIFIC ideas from him. He had done a remarkable job keeping the weight down, only 920#, with O-360 & constant-speed prop! There were numerous details showing off his fine craftsmanship. I feel like I made a new friend to boot!
The vendor areas were laid-out pretty much the same as always. However, some of the bigger, corporate companies had more elaborate spreads. Cessna had their new LSA prototype there, but it was fenced off. Eclipse had one of their jets there, and there was also a big presence by Mooney, Columbia, Diamond, Adam, and others.
Compared to all the previous years I've been to Sun-N-fun, Van's Exhibit was pretty small, almost missed it. It wasn't in the usual place, and they only had the RV-7 & RV-9A. Not many sample parts on display like in years past, but plenty of hats & t-shirts available. I was kinda hoping to get an up-close look at the RV-12, but it wasn't there. I stepped through Van's tent, picked up a new accessories catalog, and slipped out of the way. Their staff was friendly, but seemed pretty busy with potential customers, and hey, they've already got my money.
It's good to see them busy, hopefully means they'll be around for a long time to come. Those folks are responsible for many happy hours of mine spent tinkering in the garage!
I walked through the 4 big vendor hangars pretty quickly. Lots of the usual stuff. Avery tools seemed pretty busy. Had to wait in line several minutes to buy some extra drill bits, very nice folks at Avery. I met a really nice fellow at B & C Specialty Products. He took several minutes to explain the features of a couple of their products, and even though I didn't buy anything, I learned alot, and they will be near the top of my list for any future alternator or electrical system needs. There seemed to be more real-estate types there this year trying to sell air-park plots, and there was a fairly large display of fancy folding ladders. (I guess that's for all those high-wing pilots out there
)
I didn't go to any forums, it just seemed too far for my feets to walk from the main airshow and exhibit area, and Wednesday's forum schedule didn't really float my boat.
Geez, this is getting
WAY too long. Well, I was on the field for nearly 10 hours, walked a few miles, got some SUN, had some FUN, met up with a few friends that I didn't know before, ate some over-priced greasy food, & managed to get away without too much collateral damage to the wallet. Still looking forward to a trip to the big one someday - OSH.
If you're headed to Sun-N-Fun this weekend, get there early, wear plenty of sun-screen, and have a great time!
All the best,