Sun 'N Fun 2007 - Thursday Morning Air Ops
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I got up relatively early Thursday morning and walked through the main
entrance around 8:30AM. I had planned to go to a forum at 9AM but
instead decided to watch airplanes arrive and depart over by the Homebuilt
section, which is as close as you can get to the runways. This
turned out to be one of my better decisions. This shot is looking
back at Sun 'N Fun as it comes alive. The air was nice and cool, the
lighting was great for pictures, and
there weren't many people about. |
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I'd say at least 50% of the planes in the Homebuilt section were RVs.
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I took up position here, right next to a gap in the fence where Homebuilts
would come through to park. It was a great spot. I could see planes
taking off on the main runway, and landing on the far taxiway. Then
they would all taxi right by me here. The sun was behind
me so I had great lighting for the digital camera. |
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I was surprised at how many planes fly in for the day. Lots of
RVs.. I guess it's their speed that allows them to go to and from
a fly-in hundreds of miles away.
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| A Cirrus taxiis by. Very nice
ride. |
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| The old and the new; an RV flying
wing on an SNJ. |
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A Classic Hatz. I googled the N-number and was surprised to find
this biplane is only a year old. An open-cockpit biplane -- what's
not to like. |
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The RV section is starting to fill up.
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This twin reminds me of Bob Hoover' s Rockwell Shrike Commander that he flew his
famous routine in. I saw Hoover when I was a kid and can still
picture it after all this time. This particular plane is a nice one
to be flying into SNF in. |
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I glance off to my right and see this amazing sight. A DC-3 flying
down the runway with four
Nanchang CJ-6s on each wingtip! |
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| What can you say? |
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Always enjoy seeing a member of the Citabria family taxi by. |
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It's got to be a rush to taxi an RV that you built into the Homebuilt
section at Sun 'N Fun with everyone watching.
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The AeroShell formation team with an albino standing in. |
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Those floats are almost as big as the fuselage.
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| The DC-3/Yak formation made two low
passes, then landed and taxiied by. |
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| Followed by all the Nanchang CJ-6s. |
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The CJ-6s always have great paint jobs, it seems like. Really
colorful. |
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Nice two-tone grey.
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Some big T-28s with their distinctive radial engines -- what a great
sound. Hard to believe the Navy used these beasts for primary
trainers. I can't imagine learning to fly in something as big and
complex as this. |
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The sun really lit up this RV-7.
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| Beautiful Stearman. |
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| Wait, here's an even prettier one.
The finish on this faborick-covered airplane was absolutely perfect.
It looked like plastic. |
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I liked the Miami-Vice paint job on this RV. |
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I know this RV. It's the Z-man's RV-8 out of Westminister,
Maryland.
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All the planes were taxiing towards me on this taxiiway, when this Husky
starts coming down the other way. I could hear the ground directors
yelling in their walki-talkis. "What's that guy doing?!" |
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The Queen of the Air; everybody always looks up when a Mustang flies by.
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| I wouldn't mind having one of
these; nice-looking motorglider. |
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| A sleek-looking Lancair.
The above planes were only of the planes that flew/taxiied by. I
couldn't believe the amount of flight activity that went on between 8:30 and
10AM. Planes landing one after the other. At the same time
planes taking off one after the other. Then there were gyrocopters and
planes giving rides flying overhead. It was great! |
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