Sun n Fun 2022 - Who went / Is there??

AndyTowPilot

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Andy
This was my first time back since 2003. What a blast! I flew down from Ohio with a friend/student/aircraft owner and we had a great time. I think this will be a yearly event going forward!!
 
I just got back. Pretty much the same as always. The weather yesterday and today was perfect. Looks like there was a good crowd. I don’t think I’d seen a B1B bomber close up and personal before, but there one was sitting on the ramp for all to see. Pretty cool.
Only negative was bad, really bad headwinds going there Friday morning and then flying home tonight.
 
Nice to see the flight line full of spectators. I won’t be back for a few years though. Same vendors, same food, same tricks. I’ve had my fill for a while.

I did notice an uptick in international patrons. More than a few from S. America and being nosey, I overheard them talking real deals with manufacturers.

Ran into the plane repo guy, Stevo, Jimmy, and The lady baron pilot. What I thought was telling was the lady pilot was giving photo ops and she told the iPhone holder more than once to “ get the avidyne logo in the photo and she would shuffle them around so it would get in frame. Yea, she’s not on the payroll…:rolleyes:
 
The only time I've been to S&F was in 2005. We were in the area on vacation and I drove down from Orlando for the day, It was great fun, but my wife was happy to stay at the hotel and enjoy the day there.
 
The b1 was awesome, never imagined that I would be able to get that close to one, climb up into the cockpit, and take pictures.
 
Glad to hear many made it. Been so long since I attended an expo like this. Will definitely be at Oshkosh this year!!
 
I’m curious what the vendors said about lag time? Particularly Garmin, since it appears their lag time is a year or more.
 
I’m local and volunteered a few days out of the week, so was there Tuesday (and the Sat & Sun prior but that doesn’t really count I suppose), Friday, and Saturday. The foot traffic appeared strong, but I thought Aircraft parking and camping areas seemed light compared to previous years, but that might have been weather related. Vendor turnout seemed on par, maybe even slightly better than the previous few years. Good to see the Thunderbirds perform especially after just having seen the Blue Angels a couple of weeks ago down the road at MacDill AFB Airfest. All in all, I think it was a success.
 
I’ve been there all week. Camped a couple nights and drove in the rest. Got a few killer deals on avionics that were actually in stock. Wanted to get a new battery, but was told 4 month back order. Genesys warned me if I wanted to upgrade to a stec 3100 it’s a nine month wait. I didn’t talk to garmin, but my avionics shop has told me it’s a similar wait for gfc-500.
 
I went yesterday. I went 3 consecutive years back in 00-02. While I enjoyed the event and had plenty to see and do, it seemed smaller and a bit less busy than I remember. I once heard a rumor that it was best to go during the week. Any truth to this?

I’ve been recently going to Osh, so no doubt that would make SnF seem smaller.
 
Although I’m a native Floridian I’ve never been to Sun n Fun. I went Wednesday and I really enjoyed the experience. I met some former airline pilot coworkers. One of my friends flew his 180 down from the Atlanta area. I’m definitely planning on attending again, where else can you talk aviation constantly with other people who want to talk aviation constantly!
 
This was my first time back since 2003. What a blast! I flew down from Ohio with a friend/student/aircraft owner and we had a great time. I think this will be a yearly event going forward!!
Unfortunately my wife and I did not go this year because my Mom has been in the hospital. We had planned to go and my wife likes it even though she does not fly with me all that much. We have only been there twice before with 2019 being the last time.
What's not to like? We love it there.

Does anyone know what aeroshell 15/50 was going for a case this year? TIA
 
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I’m curious what the vendors said about lag time? Particularly Garmin, since it appears their lag time is a year or more.
My avionics shop said there is 6 month wait for Garmin stuff. My buddy and I were just there a week of so and he put down a deposit to get a new panel ordered for his plane.

My GTX345 transponder quit working and they were able to get me a replacement in 24 hours though.
 
Ran into the plane repo guy, Stevo, Jimmy, and The lady baron pilot. What I thought was telling was the lady pilot was giving photo ops and she told the iPhone holder more than once to “ get the avidyne logo in the photo and she would shuffle them around so it would get in frame. Yea, she’s not on the payroll…:rolleyes:
I gotta wonder; why on earth would anyone give a sh#t about getting their picture taken next to a woman that flies a Baron? Who cares? Maybe it’s just me, but I find most videos of people flying around in 172s, Barons, 310s or TBMs to be utterly boring. Maybe I’ve become the grumpy old dude (at 53) yelling “get off my lawn”, but I just don’t understand the seeming hero worship of these YouTube “celebrities”.

Harrumph! Where’s my Metamucil and Tylenol?
 
I gotta wonder; why on earth would anyone give a sh#t about getting their picture taken next to a woman that flies a Baron? Who cares? Maybe it’s just me, but I find most videos of people flying around in 172s, Barons, 310s or TBMs to be utterly boring. Maybe I’ve become the grumpy old dude (at 53) yelling “get off my lawn”, but I just don’t understand the seeming hero worship of these YouTube “celebrities”.

Harrumph! Where’s my Metamucil and Tylenol?
You are not alone
 
I gotta wonder; why on earth would anyone give a sh#t about getting their picture taken next to a woman that flies a Baron? Who cares? Maybe it’s just me, but I find most videos of people flying around in 172s, Barons, 310s or TBMs to be utterly boring. Maybe I’ve become the grumpy old dude (at 53) yelling “get off my lawn”, but I just don’t understand the seeming hero worship of these YouTube “celebrities”.

Harrumph! Where’s my Metamucil and Tylenol?

Bryan is the only youtube aviation person I care to watch. I’m fascinated how all of these youtube “experts” proclaim to know all, yet most have never even worked a real job flying.

The self-proclaimed bush pilot “AngleofAttack” is one of the worst, but he has all the other youtube heros like “MrAviation” on his channel too.
 
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I gotta wonder; why on earth would anyone give a sh#t about getting their picture taken next to a woman that flies a Baron? Who cares? Maybe it’s just me, but I find most videos of people flying around in 172s, Barons, 310s or TBMs to be utterly boring. Maybe I’ve become the grumpy old dude (at 53) yelling “get off my lawn”, but I just don’t understand the seeming hero worship of these YouTube “celebrities”.

Harrumph! Where’s my Metamucil and Tylenol?
I would respectfully disagree.

Advil for me. Meloxicam when it's real bad.
 
I gotta wonder; why on earth would anyone give a sh#t about getting their picture taken next to a woman that flies a Baron? Who cares? Maybe it’s just me, but I find most videos of people flying around in 172s, Barons, 310s or TBMs to be utterly boring. Maybe I’ve become the grumpy old dude (at 53) yelling “get off my lawn”, but I just don’t understand the seeming hero worship of these YouTube “celebrities”.


Harrumph! Where’s my Metamucil and Tylenol?

I agree ! Now get outta your mama's basement and get a job! :)
 
There was one episode where they had to repo a helicopter, but the pilot (supposedly) was only licensed to fly airplanes, yet he managed to fly the helicopter anyway. In another episode, they were flying at night and the avionics quit, so they used a road GPS (not a handheld flight GPS) to navigate. They should realize that even viewers with no experience in aviation would know that it’s fake. So I couldn’t care less about that show. I wonder if they even really repossess aircraft or if it’s all scripted.

But anyways, back on topic. Sun n’ Fun was a blast!
 
I was there from Thursday mid day till Saturday early afternoon....drove my RV down in Thursday, arriving just in time for the squall. I was still standing at the registration window when it hit and for a moment I thought the trailer they were using as a check-in office was going to get blown away. It was nasty for a bit, and that afternoon was weird walking around the show....

The only time I've been to S&F was in 2005. We were in the area on vacation and I drove down from Orlando for the day, It was great fun, but my wife was happy to stay at the hotel and enjoy the day there.

driving in for the day is better than not coming at all, but I suggest seriously to camp on site....do a couple nights even if you're not much into camping. I've done it both ways many times....It's a very different experience to me anyway. A lot is missed if you leave at the end of the Thunderbird's show.

I’m curious what the vendors said about lag time? Particularly Garmin, since it appears their lag time is a year or more.
The only comments I heard about it was a headset guy...Clarity Aloft I think it was...was telling another customer that their optional bluetooth module has some sort of lead time...that they would sell the headset without and it can be sent and added later by removing a couple screws.
and the Van's Aircraft person told me that their lead times are long now and that their orders went up quite a bit because of covid ...

I went yesterday. I went 3 consecutive years back in 00-02. While I enjoyed the event and had plenty to see and do, it seemed smaller and a bit less busy than I remember. I once heard a rumor that it was best to go during the week. Any truth to this?

I’ve been recently going to Osh, so no doubt that would make SnF seem smaller.

It's a very different event even day to day, similar to how Air Venture is, with display aircraft coming and going....but yes I agree it's best during the week. I find weekends tend to bring in much bigger crowds with many more "general population" folks that aren't pilots or really even into aviaton.... the "red neck airshow" crowd...
weekends aren't all bad though. I used to say my preference is week days ONLY...but now I'm not so sure because with the crowds also come more vendors and more displays.

My trip this year a good example.... partially weather related but also just different days...
Thursday afternoon walking around after the rain cleared was weird. some of the exhibitors in the hangars were still there but most everyone else was buttoned up and gone. It was more like it is a day or two before opening day. Almost all of the food vendors were closed up and gone. The SW and SE exhibit areas were nearly vacant. There were ZERO classic warbirds on the ramp. Lots of empty booths....no crowds. Friday was beautiful. I was happy to see several P-51's and other classics on the ramp. Not as many as years past, but still some stuff there. The B1B came in as well as lots of others. It was a great day.
Then walking around Friday evening after everyone was gone was wonderful!
Saturday there were even more stuff on the Warbird ramp. The car show folks and the Veteran's area were back. Crowds were much thicker though.

Overall it seems there were many more holes in the aircraft parking and camping areas.... it was a bit thinner than "normal"...but it'll be interesting to hear the final counts.

I wonder why they changed the schedule. Way back a long time ago it used to run Saturday to the following Sunday as I recall...9 days. The second weekend was usually thinning out noticeably in terms of vendors and exhibitors, but it was still an airshow and still crowded.

Oh...and the Youtuber's. Yeah... I got a real kick out of that too. That's a new twist to these fly-ins that I never saw before.
I did make a point to say hi to any I saw and recognized...not because of any sort of hero worship, but because I really do appreciate most of them...I get entertainment and occasionally learn from them. I don't fully understand what motivates them to put themselves out there like they do. It's odd to me that they do it..... but still they are a 'public face' to GA, encouraging folks to become pilots, encouraging pilots to be safe, etc.... And for the sponsors....an effective way to grow brand awareness.... it works!
I actually had short conversations with a few of the youtubers that I said Hi to. Was actually kind of surprised that several of them seriously wanted to stop and talk. "Baron Pilot" and Kim seemed like genuinely good people and encouraging folks into GA, and while I didn't get a chance to have a conversation with them because someone was hitting them up for a photo-op but did say hi to "Aviation 101" Josh and Chelsea..and my read from how they were interacting with others and how they responded was that they are truly good and gracious people who are smart and trying to help. I wish that I had waited to talk with them.... Oh, I spoke with Dan Gryder too.... he's a riot in person too. Despite his controversy and polarizing way, I really do think that he's trying to help GA safety.
 
I gotta wonder; why on earth would anyone give a sh#t about getting their picture taken next to a woman that flies a Baron? Who cares? Maybe it’s just me, but I find most videos of people flying around in 172s, Barons, 310s or TBMs to be utterly boring. Maybe I’ve become the grumpy old dude (at 53) yelling “get off my lawn”, but I just don’t understand the seeming hero worship of these YouTube “celebrities”.

Harrumph! Where’s my Metamucil and Tylenol?

Preach brother!
 
I was just thinking about my trip.... one other thing that struck me about Sun n Fun.
I feel like the focus of the even might be a little 'confused'..... well not really confused I guess. Focused on the dollar rather than the consumer of the event. Logical I suppose, but still....
It struck me how many of the large displays, especially the outdoor ones, that had little or even NO foot traffic. Clearly not appealing to the folks attending the show...Like that big display with the Honda Jet sitting in front of it for example....what was that one even for? That was a lot of empty but high visibility space!

Well, I guess it is a pretty wide audience. Apparently Daher and those others have at least one or two people there in the week to potentially drop a cool $5 million. Then you've got a few folks there I suppose that are looking to drop $1.5 million for a new Barron, etc... and those are the companies that can pay big dollars to buy out those prime real estate display areas..... so they get the good spot even though they were probably lucky if they even had one or two real customers there the entire week.

It sure would be interesting to see a demographic breakdown of attendees for the week...not just based on net liquid worth, but based on purpose/interest.
How many people were there deciding between a new TBM or a new Caravan?
or there ready to buy a new Baron, a new Skylane, a new Pitts Special, a new Carbon Cub or even Pipestrel?
How many are either starting a build or in the middle of building an experimental...or restoring or even just maintaining an old Cessna or Cherokee?
How many folks were there that actually own some sort of 1970's or 80's vintage single engine, and are there just because?....
How many folks were there primarily only just to try on and compare a Bose A20 vs a Lightspeed headset to replace their old Flightcom?
And then there are the young teens or early 20's student pilots just struggling to get enough for their next lesson, only there to dream about their passion
& those old retired military vets that haven't flown since their war in SE Asia ended decades ago just there to see it
or just curious folks with interest but no real intention to ever even take a discovery flight.
 
The self-proclaimed bush pilot “AngleofAttack” is one of the worst, but he has all the other youtube heros like “MrAviation” on his channel too.

yeah buddy. I will say, that nerd 'mraviation' is pulling high quality tail right now with that influencer shtick. Mad respect for maximizing performance on that one lol.

P.S. Problem with hot chicks is.... Jody. Remember bois, Jody never takes a weekend off. Shoutout to my .mil peeps who know what I'm talking about. :D
 
You are not alone


I didn’t talk to any of them, nor did I want to. I’ve talked to Stevo before and he is down to earth. Offer me a beer and a seat at his RV to chat. But I think the lot of them are quasi-famous within their own industry.

At least that dude Blanco Courto wasn’t there or that kid who ratted out PremiereOne Driver. I would have introduced myself.:raspberry:
 
I went today. Brutal 10 minute cross country flight from my home airport at FD77. Parked at "Acro Headquarters", an awesome location right in the middle of things. Arrived at noon, landed parallel to a formation departure of warbirds, and taxied past several bleachers full of people taking photos. Felt like a rock star. I'm doing that EVERY year!

PXL_20220410_174210167 (2).jpg
 
Oh yeah, and the Cardinal ahead of me was "that guy". Clearly had not read the NOTAM and had no idea what to expect. Entered the wrong tower frequency and switched back to Lake Parker approach to inform them that tower radio did not work. Got misoriented turning base to final, lined up on the main runway, blew the approach, and had to go around. Traffic was light so it was a non-event, but would have been a mess at Oshkosh.
 
I went today. Brutal 10 minute cross country flight from my home airport at FD77. Parked at "Acro Headquarters", an awesome location right in the middle of things. Arrived at noon, landed parallel to a formation departure of warbirds, and taxied past several bleachers full of people taking photos. Felt like a rock star. I'm doing that EVERY year!

View attachment 106032

Super cool!!! Hope to do that next time. Tied down at PCM this year. Great folks, really took good care of us!
 
Super cool!!! Hope to do that next time. Tied down at PCM this year. Great folks, really took good care of us!

Kept my plane at PCM for about 6 months until I got into a hangar elsewhere. Great location and great folks, but the fuel price and lack of self-serve got old.
 
Oh yeah, and the Cardinal ahead of me was "that guy". Clearly had not read the NOTAM and had no idea what to expect. Entered the wrong tower frequency and switched back to Lake Parker approach to inform them that tower radio did not work. Got misoriented turning base to final, lined up on the main runway, blew the approach, and had to go around. Traffic was light so it was a non-event, but would have been a mess at Oshkosh.
I saw that one from the ground. He flew right across final in front of a landing T-6, then proceeded to fly over the campground at 500 feet
 
I gotta wonder; why on earth would anyone give a sh#t about getting their picture taken next to a woman that flies a Baron? Who cares? Maybe it’s just me, but I find most videos of people flying around in 172s, Barons, 310s or TBMs to be utterly boring. Maybe I’ve become the grumpy old dude (at 53) yelling “get off my lawn”, but I just don’t understand the seeming hero worship of these YouTube “celebrities”.

Harrumph! Where’s my Metamucil and Tylenol?

I'm with you. Actually, for me it also includes celebrities of all flavors--actors, athletes, politicians, etc, but it's the aviation ones, particularly in the E-AB/RV world that are especially irksome to me. I just don't give a crap about talking to or getting my pic with any of them. Missing that gene I suppose.
 
I did the forum and vendor stuff on Wed and Thu and took care of my shopping, then on Friday I went with SWMBO, @SkyChaser , and @2-Bit Speed and looked airplanes and watched the air show. We met up with @Salty late in the afternoon. The T-birds did a fantastic job, of course, and I really enjoyed seeing the Warthog doing aerobatics. I think @SkyChaser is ready to start aerobatic lessons...

Overall it was a good event, pretty much back to pre-COVID days. We had to park in overflow parking Friday and that could have been a bit better organized, especially the shuttles, but not really a big deal. Other than my son and daughter-in-law getting sunburned it was a very enjoyable event.
 
Half Fast... I wish that I had bumped into you folks just for a quick hello...but I suppose we had no way to recognize each other. Maybe there should be "poa" T-shirts or something, at these events ;)
 
We watched the ceremony, if it was the one at Coconut Flyers. Really neat for them!

I don’t know about the Coconut Flyers part, but from the pictures he sent me, it looks like the ceremony took place next to a Stearman.
 
I saw that one from the ground. He flew right across final in front of a landing T-6, then proceeded to fly over the campground at 500 feet

It was hilarious to listen to him on the radio. I should not laugh, because I have made a fool of myself in the pattern at that exact same airport. But he clearly had not bothered to read the NOTAM and had no idea what was expected of him. To their credit, ATC was patient and calm.

Having now busted my cherry at Oshkosh and SnF, I have to say flying the arrival procedure is my favorite part of the airshow.
 
Went in 2011 and my plane got trashed by the tornado that year. Haven’t been back since…
 
Went last year. The airshow was “paused” multiple times for the Amazon planes that were either taking off or landing. Seems like each pause was about 25 to 30 minutes. A real buzz kill, in my opinion. Did this “airshow pause” ATC procedure happen again this year? Or did Amazon reschedule their flights to avoid airshow times?
 
Went last year. The airshow was “paused” multiple times for the Amazon planes that were either taking off or landing. Seems like each pause was about 25 to 30 minutes. A real buzz kill, in my opinion. Did this “airshow pause” ATC procedure happen again this year? Or did Amazon reschedule their flights to avoid airshow times?

yes but each pause was only a couple of minutes or so— just long enough for the jet to taxi, take the runway, then depart. Pretty much a non-event. Guess they figured out an efficient process—It’s Amazon after all.
 
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