It’s not that we can’t fly during the short, colder days. It’s just not worth the bother in the frozen states. Bundling up for the trek to the hangar, arranging for some engine heat, wondering if the battery is up to the start, chipping leftover snowplow detritus from the rollout path—naw, too much trouble, wait for a better day.

Floridians, meanwhile, fire up in their shirtsleeves and fly right on through winter. It was 50 years ago that folks in some enterprising EAA chapters thought up the idea of inviting their pale, pasty northern friends down to the lake country in Florida for an end-of-winter get-together. Quickly dubbed  Sun’n Fun, the fly-in/airshow took off like, well, spring break with airplanes. This year’s event runs Tuesday, April 9, through Sunday, April 14.

The site at Lakeland Linder International Airport (KLAL) couldn’t be a better choice. Nicely situated between the airspaces of the tourist mecca of Orlando and the Gulf Coast’s Tampa-St. Petersburg area, the venerable World War II facility, then called Drane Field, has adequate space and easy highway access from Interstate Highway 4’s corridor. 

Sport and experimental aircraft devotees flock in to mingle with all classes of flight, from balloons to ultralights, antiques to vintage, aerobatic to warbirds, and rotorcraft to seaplanes—you can find it all at Sun ’n Fun.

As with the midsummer extravaganza, EAA AirVenture, in Wisconsin, vendors soon latched on to the Sun ’n Fun explosion, and it became a showplace for products unveiled after winter gestation, with display hangars and booths galore. It’s a great place to shop for the latest innovations, or perhaps a fly-market find.

Daily (and sometimes nightly) airshows, constant flybys, lots of food choices, an on-field museum of flight, and educational seminars keep attendees entertained.

Getting in requires perusal of the 27-page NOTAM, available on the event website, which outlines the Lake Parker arrival procedure, which has been modified this year with a entry point on I-4 at Kermit Weeks’ Fantasy of Flight Museum complex (or even earlier), where one begins the 100-knot, 1,200-foot msl trek, heading southward to a racetrack turn point and westward to the north shore of the lake. From there, the interstate leads to another turn at two water towers prior to an interchange onto a 90-degree interception path to the downwind leg for either Runway 10L or 28R, depending on surface winds. 

Bear in mind that the 75-foot-wide arrival runway is normally used for a taxiway, and the paralleling main runway is reserved for other activity. As at Oshkosh, colored dots painted on the temporary runway are used as aiming points for separation. There’s also the Paradise City grass runway, well south of normal traffic, and Choppertown for the helicopters.

Walking around the grounds guarantees plenty of exercise, although the semicircular flight-line shape appears deceptively short compared to a straight-line layout. There’s abundant shade under the Spanish-moss-laden live oaks, under which northerners are advised to seek shelter from the unaccustomed sun. I routinely return from Sun ’n Fun with peeling skin, even with ample protection.

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Victory’s Arsenal Theatre

It’s not Sun ’n Fun without historic military warbirds on display. The aircraft played significant roles in multiple conflicts, such as World War II and the Korean War. You’ll see a variety of transports, bombers, trainers, and pursuit aircraft, later known as fighters.

Beginning April 10, Victory’s Arsenal Theatre will present an aircraft each morning in front of the grandstands on the Sun ’n Fun warbird ramp. The pilot or owner of the aircraft will share  its story. The master of ceremonies will be Ron Kaplan, former executive director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

• READ MORE: A Fond Memory: Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo 2023

Take a Warbird Ride

The Commemorative Air Force will once again be offering rides in select warbirds, such as the RC-45J Expediter, T-6 Texan, known as “the pilot maker,” and P-51 Mustang. These once-in-a-lifetime flights are available for a price (it varies) and will certainly be the highlight of any aviation enthusiast’s day.

Catch a Daily Airshow

It wouldn’t be Sun ’n Fun without a daily airshow. Weather permitting, delight to the exploits of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, aerobatic pilots Michael Goulian and Patty Wagstaff, the Titan Aerobatic team, the Howard DGA-6 Mister Mulligan, and the Patriot Parachute Team. Check the daily schedule here for updates, and keep your eyes on the skies.

• READ MORE: Sun ’n Fun 2024: Soar into the Skies with Unforgettable Airshow Spectacles

Hands-On Workshops

If you have ever thought of building your own aircraft or restoring one, check out the hands-on workshops. There will be demonstrations of a variety of skills, including composite construction, electrical installation and noise troubleshooting, fabric covering and metal shaping, woodworking, and welding.

• READ MORE: Trace Adkins, Sara Evans to Kick Off 50th Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo

Bring Your Kids

For children, there is the Junior ACEs program, which is a weeklong open house showcasing the year-round STEM programs available for those between the ages of 7 and 17. Explore different careers in aviation, fly a simulator, or learn about space. This year there are three locations for Junior ACEs: the Skylab Innovation Center, Buehler Restoration and Skills Center, and Junior ACEs tent located in the Future ’n Flight Plaza.

As if that’s not enough, don’t forget to wander through the exhibit hangars. If you can fly it, navigate with it, train with it, or use it to enhance your aviation experience in any way, shape, or form it, you’ll likely find it there. Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on Flying.

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As the sun approached the horizon, the crowds began gathering while the crews and pilots of the STOL Demonstration quickly took the field setting up cones, flags, chalk, and tape measures in a well-orchestrated nexus of skilled individuals volunteering their time to facilitate this impressive show. While technically not a competition, some of the best in the world traveled great distances to demonstrate their aircraft and skill and were not to be outdone.

The STOL Contenders

With the legendary STOL pilot Frank Knapp and his wife Kris—alongside Anitra “STOL Queen” Goddard—at the helm of this year’s event, it went off without a hitch. Moved back two hours from previous years, the new start time put the setting sun directly in the windscreen of pilots on day one. However, this would be the last instance of this set up, as winds shifted in favor of the sun behind the pilots for the following two days. 

Although the event was spread over three days with Steve Henry in his Wild West Highlander winning days one and three, day two proved to be the only day that mattered as winds were most favorable on this day allowing Dan Reynolds to take full advantage of this steady wind in his custom-built, nitrous-oxide-assisted two-stroke fat ultralight he calls the “Valdez Special” Chinook. 

Reynolds was able to stick the most amazing landing—at an approach angle reminiscent of that of a lawn dart—driving his tires into the sand of the beaten grass strip stopping his forward momentum. It was as though he had dropped a tail hook and caught an arresting wire on an aircraft carrier for the landing that left his tail still remaining over the line for the win in the lights class. Jay Stanford flew his nitrous-powered Exp Super Cub extremely well to fill the third spot against these much lighter aircraft.

In the heavies, it was Ross Harwell taking the number 1 spot in his Husky followed by hometown favorite Warren Grobbelaar in his Cessna 180.

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Epic, based at New Smyrna Beach, Florida (KEVB), has been training pilots since 1999. Its list of graduates includes thousands of students from more than 80 countries, the company said. 

The Skyhawk is Epic’s exclusive single-engine airplane, and the school has a total fleet of 43 that it has ordered since 2016. Textron Aviation, the Wichita, Kansas-based unit of Textron Inc (NYSE: TXT), designs and builds the Skyhawk, which has been in production since 1956.

“The Cessna Skyhawk has been one of the world’s top training aircraft for over six decades,” said Chris Crow, vice president of Textron Aviation’s piston sales. “We are thrilled to see these aircraft continue to inspire the next generation of professional pilots through this agreement with Epic Flight Academy.”

The Skyhawk’s stable, forgiving flight characteristics and steady evolution and modernization over the decades have made it a perennial favorite for flight training. The new models have advanced features, including Garmin’s G1000 NXi avionics and a standard angle-of-attack display.

“At Epic, our motto has always been ‘Safety first!’ This is why we train our pilots in the Cessna Skyhawk,” said Danny Perna, Epic’s founder and CEO. “This aircraft proves itself with every flight and prepares our students for a successful career. We can’t wait to take delivery and expand our fleet.”

Since the Skyhawk’s first flight in 1955, Cessna has delivered more than 45,000 of the aircraft around the world, making it the most popular aircraft in the industry.

Previously posted on flyingmag.com.

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Olzacki says EAA Warbirds members are more than ready to get back into the air and onto the air show and demonstration circuit. He said, “It’s clear to see that there’s a pent-up demand and people want to move on with their lives. It’s good news that things are improving on the home front, and that a lot of people getting vaccinations.

There’s no question, we’re well on our way back to the things we’re used to doing at AirVenture. As part of the “getting back” activity, the North American Trainer Association held its annual pre-Sun ‘n Fun training clinic before the fly-in. Some 60 pilots and 30-plus North American-built aircraft participated in approximately 40 missions. Aircraft included T-6s, T-28s and Navions.

One “fun flight” included a C-47 leading a formation flight of 14 T-6s over downtown Lakeland. Flying the weekend before the show was largely scrubbed by weather, but the Monday before the gates opened was sunny, so practice flying resumed for the gaggle flight into Lakeland-Linder International Airport for the launch event of the air show season.

Plane & Pilot’s Sun ‘n Fun 2021 Coverage

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The biggest news behind Piper is probably that its long-time President, the popular Simon Caldecott, has retired, and there’s a new guy in charge, John Colcagno. Well, not really a new guy—he’s been there for 11 years, but new to the role. And according to our inside sources in Vero Beach, he’s really excited for the opportunities the company has in front of it.

But airplane wise, here’s the scoop. There are four at the show—an Archer, a Piper Pilot 100, a Seminole and an M600.

As you might have read, flight training organization ATP inked a deal with Piper recently for 25 trainers for its expanding flight training ops. The first of those 25 planes is none other than the PA-28 there in Lakeland. That Archer will be turned over to ATP after Sun ‘n Fun and it will get to work, which is exactly what it’s meant to do. The order for 25 trainers is part of a larger, 100-airplane deal worth $37 million, says Piper.

The M600 is the company’s current demonstrator, both as an M600, a former Plane & Pilot Plane of the Year winner, and as the HALO demonstrator. HALO is Piper’s excellent implementation of Garmin’s award-winning Autoland utility, which can automatically land the plane on a safe runway and bring it to a stop in the case of pilot incapacitation. The M600 on the line also represents a new styling package for Piper, with a very cool blackout exterior.

Though Piper hadn’t realized it until after the Seminole rolled off the line, the PA-44 is the 1,000^th Seminole. With its first delivery in 1979, the PA-44 has proven a popular twin-engine training platform for more than 40 years.

Finally, the other PA-28 on the line is a Piper Pilot 100i, one of the eight aircraft ordered by Amerian Flyers, represents a rare bird. Piper sales and marketing VP Ron Gunnarson says that the model is backlogged through 2021 and into the following year.  The Pilot 100i features a 180 hp Lycoming IO-360-B4A and Garmin G3X flat-panel avionics.

Plane & Pilot’s Sun ‘n Fun 2021 Coverage

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There were serious stories about the struggle to establish relationships with the first vendors, and lighter ones like when some ladies threw a party to dedicate the new female shower house in the campground. Most turned out in pearls and snacks were served on china. One lady — name withheld — turned up wearing a towel and lathered up the party! In the decades that followed, lasting memories and friendships were forged, and this group has rallied to the Expo’s aid when it was needed most.

In the darkest days of COVID, Sun ‘n Fun was in a bad way, according to “Lites” Leenhouse, who handles the reins of Sun ‘n Fun today. “We were facing major financial struggles, and we faced tribulations just to keep operating,” he said. The founders stepped up. “Then a donor—I’ll never know who it was—gave $10,000 for this, and Barbara Hart put up $15,000 as well.

Named for Sun ‘n  Fun founder and longtime chairman Billy Henderson, the plaza is the first patch of land attendees step into once they clear the main ticket booths. Anchored by a Piedmont airlines 727 and the Lockheed XFV Pogo, it is ringed by home-built aircraft and prototypes that did or could have blazed the way for developing lines of aircraft. Displays include the Stits Playmate, the Cirrus VK-30 and the PiperJet. The plaza, as it sits, is a bit disheveled and could use some tender loving care. Leenhouse outlined a vision for the plaza moving forward. “We’re thrilled to have this as the starting point for the plaza, and in the future you’ll see things shift around. We’ll have a great water garden and airplanes all around.”

It will be a fitting memorial to those who poured so much of themselves into making the event what it is today.

Plane & Pilot’s Sun ‘n Fun 2021 Coverage

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But as much as I am glad to be here, the event is not without its question marks, big ones, too, the biggest of which are these. 

Attendance: Crowds the first few days were really thin, so where were all the attendees? When Sun ‘n Fun head John “Lites” Leenhouts told the media about early on Tuesday just before the official start of the show, he assumed—we all did—that those sales would translate into crowds. They haven’t. So far, there’s not a good explanation for this, though there are a few theories. 

First, the people bought tickets but haven’t shown up, at least not yet. If that is indeed the case, and it appears to be, then how do you explain it? Some ticket buyers may have wanted to come, so they reserved a spot and are waiting to hear reports about how things are going. It sounds like a good explanation. It’s plausible, anyway, though it’s hard to understand how so many thousands would put down a couple of hundred dollars, or more, for the trip and then not arrive. 

If the crowds swell to near-record size, or even normal levels, we’ll have at least known that there was something behind the surge that so far hasn’t been. If not, this one just might remain a mystery. 

But that might not matter, because as we witnessed first-hand and as vendors reported to us, sales are humming, as people put down, to quote one of them, “…some serious coin.” This jibes with Leenhouts’ Thursday morning briefing, when he said that fly-in and camping numbers are through the roof. Which matches our sense that the percentage of people here in Lakeland who are active pilots is the highest it’s ever been. 

The Hangars: Here’s the backstory on this one. We’ve been hearing since the early part of last year that the worst place to be during this pandemic is in an enclosed space with lots of other people right around you. That is the very definition of the exhibit hall experience at Sun ‘n Fun. So it was clear that Sun ‘n Fun would have to do something to limit the number of people inside these enclosed spaces and to increase the distance between exhibitors in order to limit potential exposure. And to keep people safer even under those safeguards, they would also need to enforce some kind of mask requirement. 

None of these things have happened. 

But saying that begs the question: Did Sun ‘n Fun really think they were going to be able to control the crowds in the exhibition hangars or did they just pretend that they would be able to?

In all fairness, once those halls were opened on Tuesday, there was nothing that Sun ‘n Fun could have done short of closing them down to keep the crowds down or the masks on. Even the laissez-faire state of Florida doesn’t recommend such close-quarters inside gatherings. Groups larger than 10 are discouraged. So, did Sun ‘n Fun go against those recommendations in opening the halls, all of which were filled with just under the usual numbers of exhibitors? They sure seemed to be flouting the recommendations, again, not orders but suggestions. Was it safe for them to do that? 

The answer, again, is probably impossible to know for sure, but it’s likely that despite Sun ’n Fun letting the people do what they wanted to do, the risk was low. With just over 20% of eligible Americans vaccinated, the obvious but incorrect extrapolation would be that 80% of the folks in the hall were unvaccinated. My guess is that it was probably the other way around, or better. That is, I wouldn’t be surprised if better than 80% of the folks in the halls this week are vaccinated. If so, the halls were, epidemiologically speaking, pretty safe places to be, even with few masks being worn. 

Maybe our little corner of the world we call flying is, when off doing our thing with other pilots and aviation nuts, a lot closer to herd immunity than anyone might have suspected. 

That’s the assumption I’m making, and  I’m hoping it plays out that way. 

Plane & Pilot’s Sun ‘n Fun 2021 Coverage

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First of all, you’ve gotta go about pinning down exactly what the Coconut Flyers actually are. Are they a private club? No. A tiki bar blasting Jimmy Buffett and slinging drinks after flying hours? Yeah, sort of. But first and foremost, Coconut Flyers is an aircraft restoration facility. “We actually restore antique and classic aircraft—like Cubs and Stearmans, then when we come to visit Sun ‘n Fun, we became ambassadors for the antique and classic aircraft community,” said Tim Kirby, one of the original Coconut Flyers. “I was doing this with ’Lites’ way back, just on a smaller scale,” and in a different location, Kirby said.

The “Lites” Kirby is referring to is none other than John “Lites” Leenhouts, who is today the president of Sun ‘n Fun. When Leenhouts took the reins of the organization that runs Lakeland’s spring fling, he offered Kirby a better location, and the Coconut flyers “ambassadorship” took on a whole new role: They were tasked with giving showgoers a reason to stick around after the airshow in the evening. But hosting a bunch of people to socialize and spread the gospel of old airplanes comes with costs. They started by selling shirts, and then came the beer: Dunedin Brewing offered to donate beer to give away, and those partaking made donations to the flyers.

“Thanks to the kindness of Bernie Little and the Anheuser-Busch distributors as well as local breweries like Dunedin, we’re able to provide this oasis for everyone in the heart of vintage aircraft parking,” said Leenhouts. 

After covering their expenses, the Coconut Flyers started passing the excess donations to the Aerospace Center for Excellence, the non-profit that runs Sun ‘n Fun and so much more. The first year, they donated $2,000, the second year they donated $7,000 to the center, and this year they stand to donate $5,000.

On Wednesday, the group donated $15,000 to Sun ‘n Fun, a figure that was matched by an anonymous donor. Turns out there’s good money in free beer after all.

Kirby says the Coconut Flyers wouldn’t have grown into their present state were it not for the work of his wife, and the Flyers’ den mother, Paige. Some of the volunteers going back to day one, he emphasized, include Grady Liske, Tim Averett and John Rising.

The Coconut Flyers will be hosting a number of evening events throughout the week, with live music several nights featuring Brian Miller on Guitar and John Patti on steel pans. It’s a lot of coconut-themed fun, and the donations do a lot to help the Aerospace Center do its Sun ‘n Fun thing, and so much more.

Plane & Pilot’s Sun ‘n Fun 2021 Coverage

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