General Aviation News

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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…]

SUN ‘n FUN is so much more than a fly-in

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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…]

Unexpected Landing: The search for answers

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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…]

Unexpected landing: Stuff happens

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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…]

From SUN ‘n FUN to Triple Tree

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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…]

Preparing mentally and physically to fly to both poles

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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…]

Pole to Pole circumnavigation: Aircraft and logistics preparation

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At 52, Robert DeLaurentis has already circumnavigated the earth in a single-engine Piper Malibu Mirage (N997MA). He documented his 2015 journey in Zen Pilot: Flight of Passion and the Journey Within.

What is an adventurous soul to do after such an accomplishment but plan the next one?

With about 1,900 hours’ flying time, DeLaurentis will begin a 90-day pole-to-pole journey on Dec. 15, 2018 in a plane he named The Citizen of the World.

Starting in San Diego, California, he will fly a super tricked out 1983 Gulfstream Turbo Commander 900 (N29GA) to the southernmost tip of Chile. This is when the trip pegs the adventure meter: He’s going to fly twice to Antarctica. [Read more…]

Terrific twin T-34s

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In 1987, Reid Garrison bought a shell of a T-34A Beechcraft Mentor that had been languishing in a hangar in Memphis to restore with his sons Brett and Jeff.

It had no canopy, no engine, no instrument panel, and no control surfaces. This did not faze Reid.

He had already restored two T-6s.

And his life has been devoted to his family and aviation. [Read more…]

Couple builds replica Sopwith Schneider

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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

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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…]

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