Because flying is cool
While this year’s SUN ‘n FUN has been postponed due to the coronavirus, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on at the fly-in’s campus.
In fact, the Lakeland Aero Club, the largest high school flying club on the planet, recently expanded, creating additional room for a full-motion flight simulator and more.
[Read more…]The Lakeland Aero Club at Lakeland Linder International Airport (KLAL) in Florida needed to move its Redbird FMX Full-motion Flight Simulator 60 feet.
The club, part of the Aerospace Center for Excellence on the SUN ‘n FUN campus, had initially put the flight simulator in an office area in its hangar. It sat between the outside doors and the refrigerator — an area with a lot of foot traffic.
In use, the 1.25-ton mechanical beast moves with a 50° pitch, 60° yaw, and a 40° roll. It posed a potential hazard to people walking around it.
The club wanted to move the simulator into a dedicated space that fit the clearance requirements for full-motion use. What had been a carport became the new Redbird Flight Simulator room. In addition to having the simulator in a space all its own, the new room can also go pitch black.
Back in 2017, students Sean Stoltz and Katie Esker trained in Austin, Texas, to become certified Redbird technicians. Esker graduated in 2019. Sean Stoltz graduates this year. To move the simulator and to maintain it in the future, new students needed training and certification.
[Read more…]Seaplane pilots around the world recognize Jon Brown, even if only by name.
For the last 45 years, he has taught at Jack Brown’s Seaplane Base, in Winter Haven, Florida. Jon has given more than 18,000 check rides and logged over 28,000 flight hours, about 19,000 of them in Piper J-3 Cubs.
[Read more…]Bad weather did not dampen the enthusiasm at the second annual Young Aviators Fly-In at Triple Tree Aerodrome in Woodruff, S.C., June 21-23, 2019.
The three-day event included career seminars, Young Eagle flights, cookouts, nightly movies, free camping, fantastic raffle items, and RC demonstrations.
“Despite the weather, the turnout for the second annual Young Aviators did not disappoint,” said Cayla McLeod, co-chair of the Young Aviators Council.
[Read more…]Ed Young will experience his first SUN ‘n FUN this year.
The new executive director of the Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE), he’s been on the job since November 2018, managing a $2 million budget and $430,000 in scholarships for year-round youth education in aviation.
ACE delivers aviation education to more than 30,000 students each year and is about to produce its 85th licensed teenage private pilot. Funding for ACE and the Aerospace Discovery Museum and Education Center comes largely from the annual SUN ‘n FUN Fly-In and Expo.
“So, the way we’re thinking about SUN ‘n FUN now is that SUN ‘n FUN is the fundraiser, and ACE is the mission,” Ed said. “All the things we do during SUN ‘n FUN help to contribute to the positive message of engaging, educating, and accelerating the next generation of aerospace professionals.” [Read more…]
More than 400 civic, academic, and business leaders gathered at the sixth annual Mayor’s Breakfast, held about a month before the kick-off of SUN ‘n FUN.
The March 6, 2019, meeting was held in the refurbished Hangar A, now called the Starlight Hangar. This air-conditioned building can be used to house events year-round, according to SUN ‘n FUN officials.
One of the highlights of the breakfast was the presentation of the 2018 year-round economic impact of SUN ‘n FUN. The study, prepared by the non-profit Economic Impact Research and Management Institute at Florida Southern College, shows that SUN ‘n FUN generates more than $249 million of total economic activity and 2,400 full-time jobs.
Kicking off its 45th year April 2, 2019, SUN ’n FUN is so much more than a week-long fly-in. [Read more…]
My husband, Maury L. Fisher, and I were on an IFR flight from Bartow, Florida, to Asheville, North Carolina, for Labor Day weekend in a Cessna 210 when we had an engine problem.
“When we first took off from Bartow, I noticed on the engine analyzer, which is an EDM 700, that we were having some abnormal temperature readings,” Maury said. “I assumed that it was a loose probe connector on the engine analyzer. And after about 60 seconds everything totally normalized.”
We had just had a new oil temperature probe installed on the EDM 700.
While we were climbing from 10,000′ to 12,000′ over the Okefenokee Swamp, the engine shook hard and sputtered. Maury managed to aviate, navigate, and communicate for over 28 miles on three cylinders to the nearest airport, Lake City Gateway Airport. Emergency crews greeted us. (A full account of the unexpected landing is online at GeneralAviationNews.com and was published in the Jan. 10, 2019, print issue). [Read more…]
If you fly long enough, you will experience a problem in flight.
Maybe you’ll hit a bird. Maybe your wings will ice up. Maybe you’ll get distracted in your pre-landing check and forget to lower the gear. Fuel lines get vapor lock. Gunk clogs the fuel injector. A bug or moisture fills the static port. Stuff happens.
Each kind of problem makes itself known if you know how to watch for the clues — and take them seriously. [Read more…]
The new executive director at Triple Tree Aerodrome has a mission: Make the dreams of the aerodrome’s founder come true.
Triple Tree Aerodrome, in Woodruff, South Carolina, was founded by Pat Hartness, whose fierce passion for aviation and hospitality is well-known in the general aviation community.
Fear not, Pat is fine. He’ll continue in his leadership at Triple Tree by serving on the board of directors.
“Pat will always remain in the day-to-day operations,” said Robb Williams, the former executive director of the Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE) on the SUN ’n FUN campus at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in Florida. “Pat is our founder and our visionary. He is the one to plot the course and I’m the one to make sure that course is followed up on.” [Read more…]
Robert DeLaurentis completed a circumnavigation of the earth in 2015 in a single-engine aircraft, documenting it in a book, “Zen Pilot: Flight of Passion and the Journey Within.”
How will the 52-year-old pilot top that adventure?
With about 1,900 hours flying time, he will begin a second circumnavigation of the earth — a 90-day pole-to-pole journey — on Dec. 15, 2018.
This time he’ll fly a super tricked out 1983 Gulfstream Turbo Commander 900 (N29GA) he calls “Citizen of the World.” (See previous story about how he prepared his plane for the journey, as well as what went into the flight planning).
How very Zen it will be to travel to the poles, where all time zones converge, in fact, where time is irrelevant. But he’s not going so he can experience timelessness. He has a mission. [Read more…]
