Anyone attending Sun 'n Fun?

[scottfromiowa]

BEAUTIFUL!

[leesh]

I was there and just got back to Massachusetts yesterday evening. Fortunately my plane survived. The only "possible damage" I had from the event is that when stopping at KSFQ on the way back, I noticed that the little piece of sheet metal covering the retracting foot step on my '67 Mooney had torn loose from the screw at the front and was bent back. However, it could just be a coincidence that it broke off at that time, but it might have been weakened from the storm. I'm going to post a question on the vintage forum for suggestions on fixing that.

Our tent was destroyed, and we grabbed what we could and slept in a hotel the night after the storm. I feel fortunate to have made it through unscathed.

[Jeff_S]

I was down there yesterday (Sunday) just for the day. It was a beautiful day to fly from Atlanta, but I found the overall level of attendance to be quite low. There were many fewer airplanes parked in the Warbirds section, it seemed like a lot of the exhibition tents were gone, and the crowd seemed small. But in fairness, I've never been there on a Sunday before so that may be normal.

One thing I noticed is that the Hangar Marts are getting pretty repetitive and boring. Mostly just the same folks you see every year, with the same stuff. And the booth staff seemed downright surly to me. Again, maybe because it was Sunday, but the folks at Garmin, Lightspeed and Cobham made me feel like I was an intruder in their space.

That F-22 Raptor demonstration sure is cool, though. That thing leapt into the air in 1000' or less (best guess) and showed some awesome maneuverability. My favorite part, though, was when it teemed up with a P-51 and did aerial demonstrations side by side. Two gorgeous machines, showing the timelessness of great design.

[Mooney_Allegro]

I'm happy that everyone survived the thunderstorms and tornados, but it's so sad to see so many destroyed planes and damage.  I would have been there Friday, but had a last minute schedule change and couldn't come down.  This is the 1st year in 5 years I missed it.  Jeff, I'm glad you made it down from ATL! 

[cwright27]

Quote: Hank

Many "Claw" tiedowns pulled loose from the saturated sand; this is what many of the display aircraft used. I now own a set of the fine EAA screw-ins myself, and my dog-style screws are reverting to pet use only. 

I used a Claw tiedown and it worked very well. The couple of planes I noticed with Claws that were damaged were in the center of the devestation where nothing would have kept them secure. In one case, the claw was twisted and snapped in half, indicating that it didn't fail due to a lack of being able to hold the ground. If the claw hadn't snapped, the tie down rings on the plane probably would have. I don't think anything would have held it down.

I did however, see a number of the screw in tie-downs that just pulled out of the ground easily. A flight instructor from my airport was there with his Skyhawk, and the tie-downs pulled out of the ground, but the plane was still in place and undamaged, indicating that at some point the plane was lifted up and set back down where it was.

There definitely was a correlation between light high-wing planes and damage. The Zeniths and AirCams were just totally wiped out, along with a Helio Courier that had survived many years of bush flying. It made me really appreciate the strong low wing structure of my Mooney.

[leesh]

This last posting was mine, not Chris'. The web admins really need to fix this problem where posters pick up another user's logon.

Quote: cwright27

[Hank]

See the attached photo for a quick shot of the air camping lot at the approach end of Rwy 9. Several high wings blew around, and the Bo that is turned sideways had two tail tiedowns, one Claw and one screw-type. Both tail tiedowns and the left wing came out, turning the plane just over 90º to the right. Not sure what the high-wing planes that did 180º turns were using. Many display aircraft at center field had Claws on Wednesday, as a storm was predicted for the afternoon that never really materialized. But then again, nothing is tornado-proof . . .

[Earl]

Quote: Jeff_S

I was down there yesterday (Sunday) just for the day. It was a beautiful day to fly from Atlanta, but I found the overall level of attendance to be quite low. There were many fewer airplanes parked in the Warbirds section, it seemed like a lot of the exhibition tents were gone, and the crowd seemed small. But in fairness, I've never been there on a Sunday before so that may be normal.

One thing I noticed is that the Hangar Marts are getting pretty repetitive and boring. Mostly just the same folks you see every year, with the same stuff. And the booth staff seemed downright surly to me. Again, maybe because it was Sunday, but the folks at Garmin, Lightspeed and Cobham made me feel like I was an intruder in their space.

That F-22 Raptor demonstration sure is cool, though. That thing leapt into the air in 1000' or less (best guess) and showed some awesome maneuverability. My favorite part, though, was when it teemed up with a P-51 and did aerial demonstrations side by side. Two gorgeous machines, showing the timelessness of great design.

[Jeff_S]

I flew into LAL...it was a piece of cake. There's wasn't as much traffic as when I flew down there last year on a Saturday, and all the normal GAP (General Aviation Parking) was flooded out so they were putting us in weird places. But it turned out to be quite cool to watch the air show, because we were parked out beyond the VOR but quite close to the runway. So we could sit out near the planes and be right under the flight path of the Raptor and Blue Angel demos. (In fact, there was a line straight east of the VOR that we weren't supposed to cross, and a moto-cop did his best to keep us back but a few people cheated.)

Traffic getting in wasn't too bad, but since it was the last day traffic out was plenty full. Although I have to say I truly enjoyed climbing out right next to a Bonanza and keeping up with him easily even in my little ol' J!

[Mac201]

We flew down Friday morning and left Sunday morning.  I felt like the displays and the show were busy on Saturday, but there seem to be many less planes in GA parking. I was surpised at how the outdoor vendors had put everything back together by Friday. After hearing of the muddy prop strikes, I am glad we paid the extra to park at the FBO on the north side.  It was an absolutely beautiful flight on the way home.  We could see Atlanta and the north georgia mountains from Macon.  Spring Break for pilots was great, but I missed the wet t-shirt contest!