Anybody doing Sun N Fun this year?  Walked around today and there is quite a collection of aircraft already.  The Blue Angles are due in Thursday and I saw the French Air Force team demo today.

Keep an eye out and you'll see me, I'll be one of the sixty guys in an orange shirt with a big ATC on it


I'll post some pics when I get the chance!

I was there yesterday. The controllers always impress me at SnF and every year it takes me about an hour to cool off after dealing with some of the volunteers marshaling you around. I can only assume that a lot of those guys are there for free tickets and don't want to be assigned to ground duty.

I'll probably be back again this weekend to camp out. I'm seriously considering building a Sonex jet if my contract gets renewed this year.

The French demo team departed right behind me yesterday evening.

In for pics!

My father in law may be going. He lives in an airpark north of Tampa and he and the neighborhood folks usually fly in.

I'm going over Saturday, never been before so I'm pretty excited.  Question for those who have attended in the past:  are there many planes for sale there (besides the new ones on display)?  I'm in the market for a Saratoga and was wondering if many of the people flying in have for sale signs hung on their planes.

It's fairly common to see planes for sale there.

If anyone can get some good pics of the Skyreach Bushcat I'd appreciate it.

Someone real close to me works right beside the airport. We can watch the airshows from there.



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I went today, and made a thread about it before I saw yours. I'm always a day late

I had fun, I'd do it again, especially if I could bring my dad.

Very tempted now. My father in law is camping there under the wing of his 172 Friday-Sunday and invited me.

If I was going to do just Saturday or Sunday, which day would you choose?

If your able to make it, the night airshow on Saturday is definitely worth it.

A couple tips from someone who has flown in to sun n fun several times and driven a couple times as well. If you're driving, don't take the standard I-4 routing. Perhaps someone can clarify which road it is, but there's a road that comes from the south where traffic will be way better. I remember thinking it wasn't worth the hassle to fly in until I sat in traffic for two hours to get to the parking area. A friend who was meeting me from Deland said he had nearly no traffic until he got to the lot.

If you're flying, make sure you don't forget tie-downs. They'll sell you some cheap cork screw tie downs and some useless stiff nylon rope for $30 if you forget them. No matter how deep I've put those stakes in the sandy soil, when it's time to go, I can just pull them out with my hand. Inspect for fire ants where you put your hands on the ground. I got nabbed on Tuesday when I was doing my tail.

When I fly in, even though I'm to the north, I get flight following and fly south of Lake Parker and approach the power plant from the south. The reason for this is that most of the people flying in come from somewhere other than south Florida and reason dictates there's less traffic arriving from the south, and that those pilots arriving from the south are likely not as fatigued as it's no more than an hour trip.

Here's a video I made of last year's arrival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58Lmws52h14. It wasn't that bad that day; I've arrived in years past where I've had to fly around Lake Parker and it's like getting off a busy interstate cloverleaf intersection during rush hour.

Worked lake parker arrival today,  Tower shut us down several times and I counted over 50 aircraft circling the lake at one time.  it was definatly sporty.

I'll post up pics next week, been keeping very busy here!

I was over there midday yesterday, saw the 310 with the gear collapse. I bet things got interesting real quick for you all at ATC!

Were you working the arrival before the air show closure where they changed it from 1:30 to 1:15? I was the Mooney that tower instructed to go directly to the field, then to the C130, then to land, then add power and land further down. I'll post a video of it when I get a chance.

I was actually working that guy!

Just got home a little bit ago, I'll upload the pictures later today.

I was working by Lake Parker, I remember a few aircraft getting close to airshow time and we were telling to keep their speed up as best they could and shortcut the I4 procedure.  Where you one of them?

Looking forward to seeing you all's pics and video.  I'm going to fly over next year, the approach and ATC handling looks like a lot of fun.

The Loadmaster on the C-17 is the son of a C-141 Loadmaster that I used to fly with (who had no kids at the time).

Wow...do I feel old.  

Yes. There was me, in a Mooney, a Bonanza and a Decathlon, IIRC. We were the last three and landed all at once. I was inbound from the west, still north of I-4 and you guys told me to just turn straight towards midfield.

Bumping.

Missed it this year but will be checking it out for sure next year. I literally just started my training at an academy right at Linder so a lot of those guys have told me about the event. I also live not even 5 minutes away by car.

Hoping next year to catch some of you cats there. Any advice for a newbie, I'm all ears, especially when it comes to communicating with ATC. I'll take any advice I can do as to not piss off whoever is helping my ass out.

I am hoping to go back next year too....maybe we can have an arf.com meet up.

Sounds like a plan!!

we went for the saturday show. we plan to go back next yet but we will be better prepared, it was very hot this year. next year ill have sun screen, umbrella and a wagon to carry our chairs and stuff.

I'm native to the area, grew up ten miles from there, and still have Family in Lakeland (and surrounding community)
Too bad we've so much going on right now, I'd spring for a ride down & back.