April 4, 2025 - Sun 'N Fun 2025
General
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Bruce and I got up early, picked up Jeff, and drove west towards Lakeland. We stopped in Bartow for a big breakfast, needing a good base since we would be walking all day. Then it was on to the show: Sun 'N Fun here we come!
The big parking area was south of the airport.
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Bruce and Jeff excited to be here. Perfect day for it.
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| But first a little unpleasantness. We had to fork over $45 each. That's with EAA discount. Parking was another $20. Gotta pay to play. (A nice guy driving a golf cart gave us a ride to the entrance though) |
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We were heading to the warbirds section to drop off our folding chairs on the flightline, and passed this Husky on floats. Nice!
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| Upscale! |
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| Bruce in front of an F-35. |
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Always my favorite plane at Sun 'N Fun: the Sunshine Clipper, a one-of-a-kind, amateur-built amphibian, featuring an unusual hull.
Starting with a 1948 Orlando Clipper 14-foot boat, Henry Palmer rebuilt the structure and bottom. Wings were fabricated using Piper components. Palmer used a Continental C-85 engine. The Sunshine Clipper was completed in November 1987 after two years, two months of work -- pretty quick! The airplane has flown over 100 hours. It has a creuise speed of 58 mph and can land on land or water.
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| An early model P-51 Mustang -- before they got the bubble canopies. |
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Big, beautiful TBM Avenger.
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| Well, I didn't think anyone was still flying these AV-8B Harriers. I guess the Marines still are, although the Harriers will be replaced by F-35B Lightning II (VSTOL version), |
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| Lots of Air Force hardware here at SNF. |
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| Big, bad C-17. |
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This T-33 -- the first operational jet trainer -- was built in Canada by Canadair. It sports a familiar color & slogan; now where have I seen it before? It will come to me eventually.
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| Some seriouis military airpower on the SNF flightline: two F-18Gs, three F-35s, six Blue Angel Super Hornets. |
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Funky little helicopter.
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| Grumman G-44 Widgeon amphibian. Wouldn't it be awesome to own and fly one of these? |
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| Riding the tram by homebuilt parking in attempt to save some energy. |
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| This little ultralight -- an Aviad Truelight -- is about as small as it gets. It can be yours, ready to fly, for only $36K. |
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Yay SNF!
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Pac-Man
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| The Easy Riser was developed by Larry Mauro from the earlier Kiceniuk Icarus II biplane hang glider. An engine was installed by John Moody in 1975 so the glider could be launched from flat terrain.[1][5] making it the first modern ultralight aircraft. Easy Risers were produced in large numbers until the ultralight market downturn of the early 1980s when the type was taken out of production. Later, the unpowered glider version was put back into limited production. |
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| The Ultralight/LSA grass runway. |
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| Good to see the Coconut Flyers party tent still going strong. |
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Get your Coconut Flyers merch here!
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| Amazingingly, free beer! I did not partake, however. It would be hard enough to stay awake during the airshow in the 90+ degree heat after walking around all day. |
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The Coconut Flyers always have three or four beautiful Stearmans around their setup.
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| Elvis's private jet has been turned into a trailer. |
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| Remarkable. |
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Inside the vendor booths, I watched this guy actually painting aviation art. Which is not a talent that I possess.
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I've never seen this painting of the Unlimited race in Reno before. Nice!
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I've seen the Dominican Republic booth at AirVenture before but the guy rolling cigars in the booth is something new.
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| Rodman Drill Bits still going strong. I bought a set on a SNF impulse buy probably 18 years ago. Still have them. Even use them occasionally. |
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| A neat heritage flight passes by: F4U Corsair, F8F Bearcat, F-18 SuperHornet and F-35. |
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| Funky paint job on the "Mooney Anomaly". 40 different colors on this 1967 Mooney M20F. |
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Bruce checks out a Champ that is for sale.
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| Polished Cessna 172 taildragger. Unusual. |
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Panchito -- a B-25 based in Georgetown, Delaware -- was in the house.
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| The very cool F8F Bearcat. |
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| The F-35 made a strong showing at SNF; I counted four on hand. |
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