Seaplane-A-Palooza, held every year the weekend before the SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo, began on Friday, April 9, 2021, with much promise for the weekend — but Mother Nature intervened and blew it away on Saturday and Sunday with heavy winds and rain.
Seaplane-A-Palooza is held in Tavares, Florida, which bills itself as America’s Seaplane City. In past years, the weekend splash-in attracted amphibians and float planes from around the country to the seaplane base (FA1) on the shore of Lake Dora. Usually, the two large ramps and the grassy beaches of the seaplane base are filled with aircraft, but the weather gods had other ideas this year.
Starting on Saturday, April 10, the wind picked up into the high 20s with higher gusts. By the late afternoon there were gusts reported from the nearby Leesburg International Airport (KLEE) as high as 53 miles per hour from a strong weather front from the west with rain and embedded thunderstorms.
Due to the strong winds building during Saturday, all the splash-in’s competitive seaplane contests, as well as plane rides, had to be canceled. As the wind increased during the day and the weather forecast for the rest of the weekend worsened, many pilots decided to fly away, looking for hangar space and tie-downs. According to organizers, 18 planes had arrived on Friday and early Saturday. By late afternoon on Saturday there were only eight planes on the two large ramps and none on the docks or on the shore.
The theme of this year’s event was “Planes, Tunes and BBQ,” so there were several popular local bands appearing in a new large bandstand at Wooten Park each day and evening. There were numerous barbeque food trucks and vendors tents filling the park.
But when the squall line hit at about 5:30 p.m. with strong winds and rain, things pretty much came to an end in the park.
The vendors and food trucks packed up, and the evening program consisting of an airshow by the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team and fireworks was canceled.
The only good news to come out of this year’s event was the presentation of a $10,000 flight training scholarship to Chloe Kadletz from Tavares. The scholarship, which will fund her private pilot certificate with a seaplane rating, was given by Jones Brothers Air and Seaplane Adventures. Jones Brothers is based at the Tavares seaplane base and offers a variety of seaplane rides throughout the year, as well as flight training for a seaplane rating.
The scholarship is funded by money raised through the Jones Brothers Seaplane Bingo program during Seaplane-A-Palooza with additional funding provided by the Seaplane Pilots Association.
Although the Seaplane Bingo game was canceled on Sunday because of continued bad weather, Bridget Fitzpatrick, marketing coordinator for Jones Brothers, stated that it has been rescheduled to May 2, 2021, at 2 p.m.
Also canceled because of severe thunderstorms and rain on Sunday were the pilot’s pancake breakfast, put on by Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 534, and the popular watermelon bombing event.
It is always difficult to plan large outdoor events such as this as they are so weather dependent and pilots have to look at the weather closely far in advance of their flights. A lot of people spent time, money, and effort to make Seaplane-A-Palooza a success. You just have to blame this year’s bad luck on the weather.
So sad that the Seaplane-A-Palooza didn’t get the weather it deserved. As an avid listener to the Water Flying Podcast, I had great expectations for the event. Congratulations to Chloe, and thanks for everyone’s hard work on behalf of the aviation community.