Sun-n-Fun 2009 Thursday

I uploaded some more pictures. The first few are from the runway overrun accident in the morning. I did not hear anything about this accident today, but I did hear that there was an engine out emergency at the beginning of the week and the pilot landed the plane on the highway nearby. I guess anytime you have this many planes in one spot something is bound to go wrong. I went to a forum on building a RV. The speaker has built 4 or 5 RV's from the RV3 up to the E-LSA RV12 he is working on now. The format of the forum was based on how the construction and kit quality has increased over the years. The RV12 kit even has predrilled holes in the skins AND the ribs. I met up with Brian, his dad, and his dad's friend for lunch. Brian's dad is who we are building the Zenith Aircraft Corp CH701 for. The first place we went after lunch was to the Zenith area to take a good look at the 701 and it's construction. I took a lot of pictures to help us with some of the assembly later down the road. We then walked through many of the vendors areas in the hangars and out near the flight line. We ended up going through the production airplane areas and took a good look at what I call my "Lottery Planes" For only $4995.00 a month you to can have a new Cessna 400 Corvalis Turbo. Not sure how many months the terms are for. I ended up at the Diamond display and ended up talking to the sales rep that covers the Ohio area.

At around 6:00 pm I had had enough and I headed back to the parking area. I couldn't be in Florida this close to the Gulf without getting my feet wet, so I headed to Clearwater Beach to see the sunset while standing in the Gulf of Mexico. What a beautiful ending to the day.

Tomorrow I'll be at the show again all day, but Saturday I have a demonstration ride booked in an RV7A in Plant City. I'm going to try to head back to Sun-n-Fun after my flight but it will depend on timing because I'm flying back home out of Tampa around 4:30 pm.

Sun-n-Fun 2009

Day two for me. 1:26 pm. I got here around 9:00 am and the lot was about half full already! I have been talking to vendors, looking at display aircraft, and just got out of a RV builders information forum. There was one accident that I saw when I got here this morning. A LSA plane tried to land on the ultralight field, overran the runway and ended up down in a ravine about 15 feet below the runway level. Pilot was ok, but I'm sure it ruined his week.

I'll update again this evening with more pictures.

Sun-n-Fun 2009 Day 1 (for me)

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

Whirlwind Travels

I'm in Winter Haven Florida after a couple days of whirlwind travels. I flew out from CVG to Fresno with a stop in Denver on Monday. Tuesday afternoon I flew to Tampa with a stop in Phoenix. I finally got to my room later last night. I'm working in Sarasota today and after ai drop my colleages off at the airport this afternoon, I'm headed over to Lakeland. I am planning on attending the evening program, "An Unlikely Reunion - Reconciliation in Vietnam". This will be the second time two former enemy pilots meet face to face since meeting in the skies over Vietnam.

Sun n Fun Mission

I won't be flying this week, at least not in the Diamond. I've got a few days traveling for business then I'm heading to Lakeland Florida for the 35th annual Sun-n-Fun fly in. I'll be reporting on the event beginning Wednesday evening for my local EAA chapter 174 based at Clermont County airport. Check back often late this week or you can follow me at @dalecraven on Twitter where I make frequent updates as long as I can get a wifi signal.

Maneuver review and landing practice

Saturday April 18th
What a beautiful day! Calm winds, sunny, and clear. My two boys where there for the first time to help me with the pre-flight inspection. We took off from Blue Ash and headed to the practice area over Trenton. We practiced a couple power on stalls in a bank and then headed over to Middletown-Hook field. The light wind was almost straight down the runway and I setup in the traffic pattern and made a very nice pattern and landing. We taxxied back to runway 23, took off again, and stayed in the pattern. The second landing was just about as nice and we took right back off with a touch and go. At this point it was time to head back to Blue Ash were I setup in the pattern and Cameron pulled the throttle to idle at the end of the downwind leg and said "engine out". I started a turn to a short final to make sure I made it back to the runway in time. I acually got back with too much altitude as we were halfway down the runway and I was still airborn. We performed a go around and on the next pattern I cut the final too short and again was too high for a landing. Another go around, setup in the pattern and careful control of the altitude, I was in good shape on final and made another good landing.

Next lesson will be April 27 and I am going to be taking a pre-solo written test and will fly with a different instructor for a review.

FAA Medical

One of the requirements for getting your private pilot certificate is passing an FAA class three medical exam. On Wednesday April 15th I went to see Dr. Weisbrot, an Aviation Medical Examiner for my medical. This certificate is also my student pilot certificate and is required prior to a solo flight which will be coming up soon. I filled out the FAA 8500-8 form, answered some medical history questions, got a physical exam and walked out with my certificate. The whole process was much less daunting then I had been preparing for.