Hello, Sun N Fun!

We got up fairly early the next morning, met in the hotel lobby for breakfast, then hopped in the car for the drive to Lakeland. It was time for Sun N Fun!!   :)

I made it a whole five minutes through the entrance gate before I spent an atrocious amount of money. The EAA tent was one of the first things we found, and after spending a few minutes drooling on the L-4 they had parked out front, I wound up treating myself to a Lifetime Membership. It was a good chunk of money but I've wanted one of those for years, so I'm pretty excited about it!

Dave and I spent most of the morning wandering around the hangars and vendors. We caught up with some buddies at the DOAV trailer (the Virginia peanuts they were handing out were pretty popular), and I found the RV tent and spent some time picking their brains about the RV-10 and the building process. Dave and I split up after a little while; he grabbed some lunch while I went to a really cool forum by a lady from the NTSB about common issues in homebuilding that lead to accidents. I met back up with Dave after the forum, grabbed a hot dog for lunch, then we wandered around a bit more.

Dave especially liked the DC-3. They were letting people walk through it, and he spent a few minutes talking to the pilots about the plane. Dave always talks about how he'd love to get a type rating in a DC-3.   :)

By the time we finished wandering through the bigger airplanes it was almost time for the airshow. We set up our chairs and waited for it to start while a couple Cobra helicopters flew around.

The Golden Knights were up first. They did a pass overhead to drop streamers and check the wind before dropping the first set of jumpers.

They dropped a whole formation of jumpers! It was really cool to watch them freefall together, then split apart before the canopies opened.

A little while later it was time for the Warbird Review. Our seats turned out to be awesome for this part...a whole bunch of the planes taxied right in front of us.

There were a few different formations going back and forth at the same time.

This has somehow turned into one of my favorite planes...the Grumman OV-1 Mohawk. It looks so weird, and it's super maneuverable...it looks so fun to fly!

This Corsair taxied right past us, too. I think one of those would fit in my hangar just fine...just sayin'.

Dave didn't bring sunblock and wanted to try to find somewhere with more shade, so we wound up moving while the Twin Tigers Sukhois performed (and flew through smoke rings).

Gary Ward flew an MX2 next. I think the announcer said he is 70-something years old. He tore that thing up! It was really fun to watch him.

There was a really pretty P-51 that did a bunch of flybys...

...and the Aeroshell Team wrapped up the afternoon airshow.

They are very photogenic.   :)

I like how they end their show...with a bunch of smoky donuts on the runway.

Dave and I wandered back to the car after the airshow and made our way back to Kissimmee. We stopped at Golden Corral for dinner, then went back to the hotel for the night. It was a fun first day!