General Aviation News

Couple builds replica Sopwith Schneider

by Leave a Comment

Their love of aviation and history have led Retired USAF Colonels Blake and Sandy Thomas to build replicas of World War I aircraft. Last year at SUN ’n FUN, they brought the replica they built of a 1917 Nieuport-28. This year, they brought a replica 1915 Sopwith Schneider they built in 2012.

It took them 688 hours to build it from the kit designed by Robert Baslee of Airdrome Aeroplanes. Baslee’s company built the planes used in the movies “Fly Boys,” “Amelia,” and “Game of Aces.”

If you haven’t heard of the Sopwith Schneider before, it’s understandable. The U.S. had only one of them in use during World War I and it was on floats.

Blake and Sandy dove deep into research on this early warbird. [Read more…]

Formation flying with the Phillips 66 Aerostars: Pardon the shouting

by Leave a Comment

The most exciting perk of working as an aviation reporter is that, occasionally, I get invited to ride with airshow performers. Four of us from the media pool at SUN ‘n FUN 2018 enjoyed that thrill on Thursday, April 12, 2018.

Kimberly Moore of The Lakeland Ledger newspaper, Phil Lightstone, a freelance writer for the Canadian Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association publication, John Munn of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and I were selected to fly with the Phillips 66 Aerostars.

Last year, they flew the Romanian-built Yak-52TW. Now, in their 16th year of working together, the team fly the Extra 300L. Like kids headed to Disney, we crowded into a car and took off for the giant NOAA hangar on the Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport grounds.

As a general aviation pilot, I once flew with pals in four aircraft from Bartow, Florida, to the Triple Tree Fly-in near Greenville, South Carolina, but flying together in a loose group isn’t at all like flying in formation. Not. At. All. [Read more…]

Building Chris’s Bliss

by 1 Comment

Members of The Lakeland Aero Club are building an experimental Sonex Motorglider to fulfill a father’s promise.

When Leslie Johnson made plans to build a Sonex Motorglider with his son, no one knew his son Chris had cancer.

“The garage was set up with tools, supplies, workbenches, you name it,” said Lakeland Aero Club Director Mike Zidziunas. “His son went into the hospital and by the time he passed away, they’d never drilled the first rivet.”

Leslie Johnson was shattered. As a volunteer at SUN ‘n FUN, he approached the Lakeland Aero Club. [Read more…]

Sun sets on Knight’s days as chairman of SUN ‘n FUN

by Leave a Comment

When SUN ’n FUN closed on Sunday, April 16, 2018, Chairman of the Board Bob Knight stepped down as the point man of the organization after serving for six and a half years. While this was his last fly-in as chairman, he will remain on the SUN ’n FUN board.

A tall, genial Southern gentleman, pilot, businessman, family man, Navy veteran, and community leader, Knight has a reputation for getting things done. [Read more…]

Transition to the Sky

by Leave a Comment

One of the many educational events hosted by SUN ‘n FUN during the year is a new program called Transition to the Sky.

Designed to introduce flying to travelers with special needs, Transition to the Sky allows people to experience the process and the procedures of commercial air travel. The step-by-step practice and explanation of how to perform these routine tasks in a realistic environment builds confidence and teaches understanding, according to program officials. [Read more…]

Build and fly at Central High

by 2 Comments

Like many high schools, Westosha Central High School in Paddock Lock, Wisconsin, struggled to make science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) studies relevant and exciting.

“Unfortunately, a lot of programs misuse the term STEM,” said James Senft, a pilot for the last 30 years who taught high school physics and is now a college administrator. “Kids are losing that connection to applied STEM knowledge because many schools have eliminated hands-on courses like shop and auto mechanics.”

At the same time, people in the aviation community are complaining about the shortage of pilots and mechanics, so Senft — who has also built and restored airplanes — decided to do something about it. [Read more…]

David Morrell: Author, adventurer, aviator

by 3 Comments

At 74, Canadian David Morrell has a shelf of literary awards to go along with his 30-plus novels.

Creator of the American icon Rambo, Morrell is well-known in publishing as a man who prefers intense first-hand research over library-based research.

“In 2006, I started to write a novel, ‘The Shimmer,’ about the mysterious Marfa lights of west Texas,” Morrell said. “The lights have been observed there ever since settlers arrived in the 1880s. They rise in the distance, grow and shrink, merge and separate, change colors, and generally create quite a show. In World War II, there was a military airbase near where the lights appear. As an exercise, student pilots were told to pursue them and drop paper sacks filled with flour where the pilots thought the lights originated. But the mystery remained unsolved.”

“These events so fascinated me that I was eager to use them in The Shimmer. Wanting to make the flight details accurate, I took flying lessons from Sierra Aviation, a flight school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My first thought was to take just a few lessons so that I could have the general idea, but I became so hooked that I finally earned my license.” [Read more…]

Girls look to the sky

by Leave a Comment

All over the world in late September, thousands of girls were introduced to aviation.

For the third annual Girls in Aviation Day, 74 events were held for an estimated 9,700 girls in the United States, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Switzerland, and Zambia.

The day’s mission: Help girls between the ages of 8 and 17 all across the world realize there are opportunities — and a place — for them in aviation. [Read more…]

Summer camp with altitude

by 1 Comment

Summer Camp on the SUN ‘n FUN campus is not your father’s summer camp.

Here in sunny Florida on the southside of Lakeland Linder Regional Airport (KLAL), during the seventh year of the camp, 96 students enjoyed learning about aviation from experts.

One year, Patty Wagstaff dropped in to talk about unusual attitude recovery.

“We want the campers to experience and understand the many facets of aviation,” said Richele Floyd, the new education director. [Read more…]

Couple build World War I fighter

by 1 Comment

Retired USAF Colonels Blake and Sandy Thomas met at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. On their first date Blake took Sandy on a ride in a 1944 BT-13, a two-seat military trainer with a radial engine.

“It was love at first flight,” Sandy said.

In December 2017, they will celebrate their 23rd anniversary. Their shared love of aviation led to flying offspring. Their first-born homebuilt was an RV-7, their third, a Sopwith Schneider. This is the story of their middle offspring, a replica World War I fighter, the 1917 Nieuport-28. [Read more…]

Thank you to our online partners