I got to Lakeland Linder regional late today and didn't think I'd get to see much. Boy was I wrong. I caught the end of the airshow and then was amazed at the mass exodus of planes! They had them going one right after next for at least an hour.
I was able to get to much of the homebuilt area and some of the vendors, but a lot of people has already closed up their displays. I walked around through much of the vintage aircraft area and the flight line area. I did hang around for some steel drum music at the Sunset Grill and waited for the 8:00 pm program to start in the AOPA pavillion. This program was about two former enemies from the Vietnam War. On April 16, 1972 Dan Cherry and Hguyen Hong My met in the skies over Hanoi and after an intense 5 minute dogfight Cherry in his F4D Phantom managed to shoot down My in his MiG 21. Just a few months earlier My got his first kill of an American fighter. Many years passed and Cherry found himself wondering about the Vietnamese pilot. After many fruitless searches, Cherry contacted a TV show in Vietnam that brought long lost people back together and they found the pilot and reunited the two on live television. Cherry was able to spend some time with his new friend in Vietnam and when he left My asked him to try to find out what happened to the US pilot of the plane he had shot down in January of 1972. This week was My's first time to the US and together they will be telling there story throughout the week at Sun-n-Fun. It was announced at the program tonight that Cherry has located the pilots of the US fighter and they will be reunited with My in Washington next week. It was a facinating story to listen to, rich with history and human kindness that the two have been able to share since there meeting.
I located a wireless hot spot so I should be able to make a few short updates during the day tomorrow, but I'll upload more pictures in the evening.
Check out the Sun-n-Fun website here: http://www.sun-n-fun.org
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