Now that SUN ’n FUN 2018 is over, that doesn’t mean that work stops on the grounds of the fly-in at Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport (KLAL) in Florida. “We are just starting a capital campaign to add a $4 million expansion to the front of the Aerospace Discovery at the Florida Air Museum,” reports SUN ’n […]
Aerospace Center for Excellence
Building Chris’s Bliss
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 […]
Transition to the Sky
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 […]
Summer camp with altitude
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 […]
Grant brings planetarium to SUN ‘n FUN campus
LAKELAND, Florida — The Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE) on the campus of SUN ‘n FUN on the Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport will align the stars for students by bringing the only public planetarium to residents in Polk County thanks to the GiveWell Community Foundation’s Impact Polk Annual Grant Program. The planetarium will reside on the […]
Reaching the next generation
Keith Smith recruits students for the Central Florida Aerospace Academy on the SUN ‘n FUN campus at Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport in Florida with an unusual opening question: “I ask what are you going to be doing when you’re 26 years old?” According to Smith, the chief administrator at CFAA, that question provokes a lot of […]
High school kids build Redbird sim
The Lakeland Aero Club on the campus of SUN ‘n FUN at Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport (KLAL) has added a Redbird FMX full motion flight simulator to its fleet. This installation will be different from the norm as club members will perform the installation themselves. Two of the club’s student leaders, Katie Esker, a sophomore, and […]
SUN ’n FUN benefactor flies west
James C. Ray, 94, of Naples Florida, died peacefully on April 1, 2017, following a short illness. An entrepreneur, Ray donated millions of dollars to SUN ’n FUN, first to help build the Central Florida Aerospace Academy, then the hangar for the Lakeland Aero Club, and numerous other projects around the fly-in campus. “It was […]