Family goes all in for aviation

It’s amazing how a chance encounter can change an entire family’s life.

Take the Sedlak family of Lake City, Florida. All six members of the family love to travel and it was on one of their adventures in their fifth-wheel recreational vehicle at a campground in Ohio where their lives changed.

That’s because they met Gary and Karen Frey of Lakeland, Florida, at the campground. Hundreds of miles away from home, the two Florida families got to talking. The Freys, who are early bird volunteers at SUN ‘n FUN, which is based at the Lakeland Linder International Airport (KLAL), invited the Sedklaks to the 2018 show.

“They came, and they were like sponges,” recalls Gary Frey, who said he and his wife are “self-appointed ambassadors” for SUN ‘n FUN. “They absorbed everything. They couldn’t get enough of it. I thought the kids would spend the day at the play area, but they wanted to walk the flight line. At the end of the day they wanted to stop by Paradise City, where the ultralights are, and stayed a couple more hours.”

“We fell in headfirst and totally immersed ourselves in this,” confirms April Sedlak.

Indeed they have. April, her husband Chris, and 17-year-old son Eric started researching the costs of taking flight lessons immediately after the 2018 show.

April also became the secretary of the EAA Chapter at the Cannon Creek Airpark, joined Women in Aviation (WAI), and started a new WAI chapter in Gainesville, Florida. Chris joined the leadership of the Young Eagles program for EAA Chapter 977 at Cannon Creek Airpark. Their family is the youngest in the chapter. Besides Eric, the couple have three daughters: Emily, 13, Addison, 10, and Olivia 6. 

During their second visit to SUN ‘n FUN in 2019, they toured Polk State College.

“We are looking into apprenticeship programs for Eric,” April said. “He wants to get his A&P.” 

The couple also volunteered at SUN ‘n FUN for the first time that year.

“I helped at the Flight Line Concierge tent in 2019,” April said. “Our friends in Lakeland watched the kids during the day.”

A month later they bought a 1969 Cessna 150 (N60720) to train in. 

The Sedlaks hired flight instructor Dave Holmes, past president of EAA Chapter 797 of Live Oak, Florida. The Sedlaks keep their plane behind his hangar.

Holmes reports that Eric experienced gusting winds during his solo flight.

“The winds were one-nine-zero at five,” he recalls. “We flew a few landings and then I got out and told him to do three more. For the first two landings on runway one-zero the winds were the same. Then the winds suddenly picked up out of two-one-zero at 11 gusting to 15.”

Holmes was listening on his handheld radio when the tower told Eric the winds, and Eric acknowledged it. Holmes said he then got on the radio and told Eric to continue over to land on runway 23, which Eric did.

Eric soloed around Christmas. He’s working on earning his driver’s license and private pilot certificate. 

At Christmas, the Sedlaks bought a Redbird TD2 simulator to use with a Play Station.

“We try not to think of it as a game,” said April. “It helps a lot to use the simulator. We make the room dark so that the simulator lessons feel real. Addison loves the simulator. She lands better than I do. She loves flying.”

As of May 2020, April Sedlak had completed 40 hours of training and soloed. Eric and April are preparing for their checkrides, trying to finish their training before the annual on their plane is due.

The family sets aside money every month for training. April said, “It’s expensive, but it’s within our budget.”

Chris plans to begin flight training later in the year. 

No doubt the girls will follow.

“The girls are very excited for us. It’s like story time when we come home to tell them about our flights,” April said. “Whatever you decide to do that makes you happy and is good for you — go do it.”

And this is how a chance meeting at an RV campsite in the Midwest led the Sedlak family to embrace aviation.

Gary Frey shied away from taking credit for introducing the Sedlak family to aviation.

“When you find something you enjoy, you tell people about it,” he says.

While SUN ‘n FUN 2020 was cancelled due to the restrictions put in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it will return April 13-18, 2021. Until then, you can watch the SUN ‘n FUN Home Edition online at FlySNF.org to see hours of interviews with airshow performers, tours of the many areas of SUN ‘n FUN, and much more.