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Sun 'n Fun 2017 Trip Write-up

bullojm1

Well Known Member
Sorry for the delayed posting of this trip writeup - sorting through 998 pictures (4.48GB) and an intense work travel schedule has left little time the the important things in life!!

The last 3 days have been all work and no play for me finishing up the annual conditional inspection and installing the "red cube" fuel flow sensor. The rush was all worth it for a trip to Lakeland, FL for 2017 Sun 'n Fun! Last year when we departed for SNF, the temps were much lower - 28 degrees OAT if I recall correctly. This year was much milder. My friend Peter and I originally planned to depart for SNF on Tuesday, however, the weather was not cooperating with that plan. That didn't phase us too much - a full week off of work (not that either of us work all that hard!), and since we were arriving on Monday and there is no airshow, we didn't have to leave at Dark-o-thirty to make it to KLAL before the field shut down. Neither of us are morning people, so this plan was working perfectly.
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The RV loaded and ready to go.
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The German and American will have good arguments over the next week over who is better (note, upon arrival there was a nice puddle of transmission fluid on the American side of the hangar!!).
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Getting down to FL today wouldn't be a walk in the park. Headwinds were strong and there was a pretty large front working its way slowly across the entire easy coast.
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The skull-and-crossbones on the cap of the Gatorade pee-bottle int he baggage area really completes this selfie.
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Peter recently received his CFI. He is big on Flight Following, and he forced me to use it all the way down. We didn't have an exact destination for our first fuel stop on the way south as we didn't know where the weather would direct us. This was our initial route we relayed to ATC which would keep us clear of the muck. We knew we wanted to land north of Charleston, SC because the fuel was cheaper up there.
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Add the overlay of the flight conditions and FIS-B radar imagery and you can get an idea of what we were dealing with.
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In southern Virginia we lost the clear skies and picked up an overcast layer.
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Peter is on his way to shortly get his CFII which will be most valuable to me to finally get my instrument ticket. We played around with VOR tracking via the GRT EFIS's while enroute.
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The overcast layer became broken so we decided to hop above the cloud layer.
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Day 1 (continued)

Our first stop was KCPC - Columbus County Airport about 15 miles north of the NC/SC state line. Reasonable gas prices at $3.80/G.
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KCPC also had a nice spread of food for the Sun 'n Fun travelers. Drinks, Fruit, Subway Subs and Sweets. We stayed here for about 20 minutes looking for routes through the weather down south.
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We met a nice couple in the MU2 on their way from New England to the Caribbean.
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This was our decided route to make it to KLAL.
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Out of KCPC we went up above the clouds again.
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The winds were about the same no matter the altitude. 15 kts on the nost at 6,500'.
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Well that didn't last long. We encountered a line of storms with no clear passage at 6,500' so we needed to turn around to find a hole and descend to 3,000'.
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ADS-B paints a great picture of what we had to deal with. We were just a few miles behind Van's RV-14 (N914VA). We used it's position and altitude to let us know where the good holes were to get through this storm front.
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My co-pilot comes well prepared with electronic gizmos. Peter was originally hesitant to try to find a hole through the storms around us, as this was his first time flying through weather in an RV. We settled on what our personal minimums were in terms of altitude and storm clearance and proceeded.
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We made it through the thick stuff, now we needed to deal with a few scattered thunderstorms working themselves through northern FL.
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Day 1 (continued)

ATC was great with giving us vectors to avoid the storms. I can't say enough good about how great all of the controllers were to us on the way down. On top of the extra layer of safety flight following offers, it also seemed to make the time go by faster with keeping up with their handoffs and listening to the other chatter. The enchanting accent of the young lady on Charleston Approach didn't hurt either!
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This was the last cell we needed to work around before Lakeland.
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How can you tell you're near Ocala, FL - horse rings galore!
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The approach into Lakelake was interesting to say the least. The NOTAM clearly stated the SNF arrival procedures started today. However, our controller told us to fly direct KLAL. I questioned her and asked if we shouldn't fly to Lake Parker per the NOTAM. She advised that the NOTAM was not in affect today. We tuned into the ATIS information per the NOTAM and it directed us to tune into the KLAL ATIS. However, no mention of alternate procedures was mentioned on either frequency. We contacted the tower, as I not treated KLAL as a class D airport. They told us to start our arrival at the golf course, which while was on the NOTAM, wasn't easily found if you weren't flying the normal approach. I don't know why KLAL decided to not use the NOTAM arrival procedure today - it lead to a lot of pilot confusion, and a lot of people with their head down in their cockpit trying to figure out what's going on instead of looking outside. All of us in Homebuilt Camping (HBC) thought it was lucky there wasn't an accident due to the confusion.



Anyways, we made it to the HBC and were greeted by Mary Jane and her amazing team. Peter and I had media passes to SNF and we needed to get from the furthest east portion of the field to media center on the west side before 5pm to get our passes. Mary Jane without hesitation told us to feel free to use her golf carts, and if anyone asked how we got them, to tell them we stole them! You can't help but love that girl!
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Once we got our camp setup, we settled in to a few adult beverages with our fellow HBC friends and enjoyed a nice sunset.
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Day 2

We woke up on Tuesday to a beautiful morning sunrise.
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Not too many airplanes in HBC - 15 airplanes.
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The SNF media hospitality was second to none. Great breakfast in the morning during the 8:15am press briefing.
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This is Mary Jane's palace for the week. It should be twice as big for all the work her and her team put in! Mary Jane was quite accommodating to Peter and myself when it came to using her golf carts throughout the week. I'm certain it's because she was fearful of the possibility of bad press ;-)
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The HBC tent was nicely upgraded this year. Last year it wasn't as big.
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Some RV builders from Switzerland stopped by and chatted about their project.
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Steve (RV-9A) and Gus from Albany were our neighbors this year. We met them last year at SNF and really clicked. Gus was a real charmer. When we were hungry and waiting for dinner, Gus was the only person Mary Jane offered a roast beef sandwich to!
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This line of storms (Radar from 9:22am) was going to keep a good number of people from flying into SNF.
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Stopped by Van's to congratulate Mitch Lock on his new position at Van's....I also thanked him for leading the way through the storms yesterday.
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Day 2 (continued)

Chatted with Lucas at TruTrak about an Arinc issue I am having between their Vizion 385 AP and my GRT EFIS. They are always great guys to work with and very willing to help out.
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Peter was complaining about how uncomfortable my seats were. I took a load off in the best RV seats money can buy!
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Chatted with Mike at Dynon about their new ADS-B receiver. I wanted to know if it was a standard GDL-90 protocol output, but he indicated it was proprietary.
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US Customs and Border Patrol always has some kickass boats at SNF.
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The uAvionix booth was quite busy on the first day. They've got a lot of great ADS-B receivers, transmitters and transceivers.
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This was their new release - the echo ESX (I believe it was $1600). It is a ADS-B out device with extended squitter (ES) support. It can be controller by a number of different EFIS's. It does require a separate 2020 compliant GPS - they have their own, but the GRT 2020 GPS also works with their product. The only let down for me was this wasn't an ADS-B IN device.
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The Echo UAT from uAvoniX is an ADS-B transceiver (non-ES) which is compatible with bunch of EFIS manufacturers. It features both ADS-B in and out, and the IN traffic and weather (GDL90) can be transmitted either over a serial connection and Wifi. They had a great demo setup displaying live traffic coming into SNF. It's great that a small innovative company has entered into the ADS-B space for experimentals. I can easily see myself switching to their product and gaining some panel space as I will not longer require a GTX-327.
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Great group of people working at uAvionx. Glad to see someone finally stepped up to make an affordable In/Out solution for us experimentals now that NavWorx's future is somewhat unknown.
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Chatted with PS Engineering and bragged to them about how much I love the new PDA360EX audio panel I just installed. They let me in on a fun secret - the PDA stands for "Paul Dye's Audiopanel". Apparently Paul worked closely with PS Engineering on the user interface and other aspects of the panel. I guess I owe you a thanks also, Paul...Awesome product and great UI!
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Next up was Garmin to check out their new touch G3X. It took a couple of pictures for Peter to really have his modeling side shine! These are really nice screens...my only complaint is the bezel is quite thick around the perimeter. However, it's a great upgrade option for all of those legacy G3X's out there.
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Day 2 (continued)

The 7" G3X Touch is probably one of the nicest EFIS's out there. it has excellent use of the screen real-estate.
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Garmin is quite innovative in many ways. IO was impressed with how you can mount their GDU 25 ADAHRS right behind the screen.
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I caught up with GRT's Greg Toman and checked out their new products - spefically their Safe-Fly 2020 GPS. I also chatted to him about the uAvionx ADS-B transceivers and if they worked with the older GRT EFIS. He said they have software in the works to be able to control the uAvionix devices from the older Sport EFIS. Wow, what other EFIS could I have purchased in 2008 that still gets updates to support new products. Can't say enough good about this great company.
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Their Fly-Safe 2020 GPS receiver and Serial Combiner is amazingly small and lightweight.
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I also saw a product from GRT I wasn't aware of - this is a Quad Serial port expander to add serial ports to their EFIS's.
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Super thin and well designed.
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I picked up a sweet Flight Outfitters flight bag (the "Thrust") from Duane at Spencer Aircraft. Duane's always great to see and deal with. He get's an A for customer service - he threw in 2 free t-shirts! Spencer seems to expanded their product offerings every year. They're one of my top go-to site's when I'm finding myself with too much money in my airplane fund.
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This is where the media pass to SNF really shined - members of the SNF media can call up the press office and have a golf cart sent to take you to anywhere ont he ground. This really helped out Peter and I cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time to get to all the vendors and events.
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Cruising in style around SNF. There's no better way to get around!
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Back at HBC we found 4 new arrivals before the airshow started.
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Day 2 (continued)

This was definitely the most impressive homebuilt in HBC - the Rutan Defiant. Four seats with two engines in a push/pull configuration. The builder, John Loofbourrow, has over flight 1200 hours on this 175kts cruiser! Somewhere around 20 Defiant's have been completed since the plans were released in 1984.
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The details of the defiant.
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Taking a load off in HBC with my new buddy "Slugger".
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The French National Team, Patrouille de France, really stole the show. Neither Peter or I are much for airshows, but the this performance wow'd us. It was their first US appearance in more than 30 years. It's too bad they only did one show and then took off afterwards.
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You can tell from Peter's expression he is enamored with their performance.
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Day 2 (continued)

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After the french team was finished, Mary Jane and Stephanie started to get HBC party started!
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After many beers and margarita's, we heard the sound of some music coming from the east. We headed down to the Tailwheels, Inc party. Great live music, food, beer and conversation was to be had!
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Day 3

Today started with another amazing sunrise. We also picked up a new guest at our campsite. Peters friend, James, drove in last night from the Miami area to join us for a day of Sun and Fun! You can see him hydrating in Peter's tent.
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A couple of hot air balloons launched in the morning. The wind was blowing pretty good - they booked it North and were out of sight in no time.
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One BIG upgrade was the shower facilities at SNF. These new units were very nice. Air conditioned trailers, each with 2 sinks and 4 shower stalls. A few of us HBC'ers got talking about how cold the water was, even when the faucet was on HOT. Then some engineers figured out there was probably an instant hot water heater and a single shower on by itself didn't demand enough hot water to activate the heater, as it has a minimum flow requirement. The solution - run the hot water in the sink or turn on another shower! Problem solved.
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Dan Horton showed up yesterday and he needed a ride to the press office for the morning briefing. Peter and I gladly assisted with one of Mary Jane's golf carts. In addition to the SNF media center letting all of us know the day's activities, they also raffle off rides with different airshow performers. Dan Horton won today's raffle for a ride in the Phillips 66 Aerostars Soviet Yak 52TW. Dan was initially excited, but then realized he had other commitments to KitPlanes, and he'd already been for a ride in the Yak. He instead offered me his place in the Yak which I gladly accepted! Thanks Dan!!!
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Peter is trying to get James excited in aviation, so he had him sit in a number of airplanes around SNF.
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While Peter and James played, I headed out to the Aerostars for the pre-flight briefing.
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Paul "Rocket" Hornick (#2 Aerostar) gave us a great briefing on the history of the Yak, their team and also what we should expect in the flight.
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My ride - #3 with Gerry Molidor (UAL 777 Captain) as my pilot.
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All strapped in and ready for the ride. I can't tell you the last time it was since I was just a passenger in a GA airplane. It felt great to have no responsibilities and to just enjoy the ride.
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Day 3 (continued)

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While we waiting to taxi out, my photographer caught this RV-8 Fastback arriving.
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Very STOKED!
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The ride was simply amazing. Formation takeoff, some loops, barrel roll and an aileron roll. The Aerostars were very professional and well coordinated.
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An A-10 Warthog arrived just before we did. The Yak I was in is just under the left wing of the A-10.
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Our pilots and my fellow media representatives who got rides in the other 2 Yak's.
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What a morning! This was an amazing experience with these top rated pilots.
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Day 3 (continued)

Next up was drooling over some AirCam's.
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Rotec had their motorcycle fired up for the crowd. I was a little disappointed in the sound coming out of the exhaust - it was entirely too quite and smooth! Maybe I'm just too used to the sweet sound coming out of the Harley exhaust.
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Back to the vendors I caught up with my good friends Chad and Jeff at Vertical Power. They showed off their Primary Power System (PPS) to me, which replaces the master and starter relays and really organizes everything on the front side of the firewall. These guys are simply the best for simplifying the wiring of your project with their patented use of electronic circuit breakers.
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Chad and Jeff introduced me to their new friends in the Heavens Landing booth a few doors down from them.
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OSHKOSH TAKE NOTE - Sun 'n Fun has some amazing food. Above and beyond what Oshkosh has to offer. Peter and I found this stand, outside Hangar 1 to have some of the best food in the entire event. Their Greek Salad with either London Broil or Chicken is to die for.
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The SubSonex Jet is an impressive homebuild. 240 MPH cruise, 480 SM range. I can easily see myself building one of these sweet machines in a few years down the road once my AirCam is complete.
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It was a hot one out today - 96 degrees was the official high temp. I found a nice air conditioned trailer belonging to My Radar. Inside they had some pretty cool Virtual Reality based on pre-recorded rides in an Extra 300. This was my first Virtual Reality experience, and it was very enjoyable!
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Day 3 (continued)

More AirCam's on the flightline for the ultralights.
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My friend Curtis Cumberland flying during the airshow in his recently completed Pitts.
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Two of my favorite airplanes in formation - The

P-51 mustang and F4U corsair.
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After the airshow, we felt like some "off campus" food so we went to Chad's recommended restaurant just east of the field - the WingHouse. Definitely check it out!
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After the WingHouse we headed over to the Brass Tap and sampled a number of fine brews from around the world while catching up.
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Day 4

There was definitely no sleeping in this morning. The crack of thunder woke everyone up well before 6am on Thursday. Here's a screenshot of what WeatherMeister.com said was coming for us.
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The morning sky at sunrise was not what we were used to.
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The rain and wind luckily weren't all that bad. Peter and I decided to stay in our tents to do what we do best - act as ballast to keep things put.
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The morning panorama shot of HBC.
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One last pass of the vendors to grab whatever freebies Peter could fit within the W&B of my RV. We visited our new friend, Andre, at AeroTronics.com.
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The snowbird John (C-FNLV) was a great neighbor to have besides being Canadian ;-). Can't wait to see you at Oshkosh, John! Enjoy the rest of your winter in FL!
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Can you tell Peter and I shop at the same store???
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Saying goodbye to our amazing hosts Mary Jane and Stephanie was the hardest part of leaving SNF. These two took such good care of everyone in HBC. It was bittersweet to hear that Mary Jane was stepping down as chairwoman of Homebuilt Camping. The good news is we are still in good hands with her niece, Stephanie, taking over for her next year! I believe Mary Jane has been the chairwoman of HBC for over 20 years, and she took over the roll from her parents. It's great to see Stephanie keep this great responsibility in the family, and also great to hear that Mary Jane will still very much be a part of HBC in the future.
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The Blue Angels were scheduled to be in the airshow today, and the show started earlier today than the other days so Peter and I needed to dry off from the morning storms and pack up quickly! Luckily for us we had just a quick 20 minute flight. I think we spent more time taxiing at KLAL than we did int he air over to KCLW (Clearwater Airpark). Of course the epic takeoff performance of the RV-7 was in the shadows of the jet who took the runway ahead of us. Why couldn't it be a 172?!?!?!
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Day 4 (continued)

The storms earlier today cleared out the skies nicely. It was a picture perfect trip over to Clearwater.
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Super simply flight path over to Clearwater. We just needed to keep north of Tampa's class B. No reason to talk to ATC to get any short cuts on such a short flight in perfect flying weather.
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Clearwater beach.
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Turning base at KCLW. The winds today were pretty stiff - 15G25 right on down the runway.
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Yuck! I needed a decent amount of throttle to taxi through the wet "grass" at SNF which kicked up some sand all over the left side of the RV. I might finally be forced to clean the girl when I get home!
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We parked here for 3 nights while we started the second half of our vacation. The people at Clearwater Airpark couldn't of been nicer.
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The second half of our vacation is what we needed to justify the first half of our vacation. Apparently Peter's wife and my girlfriend (who are best friends) thought it was awful selfish of us to come to FL and enjoy all that Lakeland has to offer without them. They flew down to Tampa yesterday and met us this morning. Since we somehow knew they'd be a little late, we decided to have a little fun and surprise them with us wearing matching outfits upon their arrival.
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The next 2 days involved a bunch of fun and relaxation. Sunset Beach just north of Saint Pete Beach lived up to it's name - a great place to catch the last glimpse of the sun for the day.
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Day 4 (continued)

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Day hiking at the Weedon Island State Preserve - How many SNF freebies can you spot in this picture??!?!?
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Just absolute torture over here!
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Another sunset with adult beverages.
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The true gem we found was Indian Rocks Beach. Dear Dynon - these lovely models will gladly increase your sales double digits!
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Our humble beach abode was conveniently located walking distance to Mastry's Brewing Company. We all had a blast playing adult Jenga!
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Day 5

It's rare I get to make a 700 mile cross country and have ZERO weather concerns - today was the day however! WeatherMeister.com painted a beautiful picture of our flight up north. Calm surface winds. No clouds. Practically zero winds aloft. While a tailwind would of been appreciated, it's was otherwise a perfect day to fly.
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the GTN650 spelled out our future on climbout from KCLW - 750nm and about 6 hours (mind you, our cruise speed will be slightly better than 127 kts).
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Some fires just north of Clearwater, FL.
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3 kts of tailwind...We'll take it.
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Our route was about as direct as you can get to avoid airspace.
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Near the FL/GA line. While the ground isn't all that hospitable for an emergency landing, it was absolutely breathtaking to look at. Makes me excited to get the AirCam started to explore places like this down low for hours.
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Bookin' at 165 kts GS. Hard to believe you can get from the Florida line to Maryland in 3.5 hours in something you built in your garage. For all of those people still building - KEEP POUNDING THOSE RIVETS! Get that RV in the sky and enjoy every second of it!
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We enjoyed the perfect untouched coastline of GA and SC.
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We added a couple of intermediate waypoints to our route - including a fuel stop at KMNI. It was the cheapest fuel we could find that was on our way.
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The final approach to Santee Cooper Regional Airport, KMNI, was very picturesque flying over the northeast corner of Lake Marion.
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Day 5 (continued)

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Looks like some fun lake houses in the summertime!
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Can you tell we came from the beach?!?!? (Pool Noodle). There wasn't a soul at KMNI. We got gas, ate some room temperature pizza we brought along and jumped right back into the air.
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Back in the air we found a little tailwind of 7 kts at 5,500'
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This was our view the entire trip north. Just spectacular.
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We started to get bounced around at 5,500' when we got into Virginia, so we climbed up to 7,500'. While we lost out 7kts tailwind for a 2 kts headwind, our TAS increased by 7 kts. So more or less a wash for a smoother ride.
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Mountains...it's been a while since we've seen these!
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Potomac Approach was nice enough to give us a shortcut through Dulles' class B airspace. We needed some clarification if our class B clearance also included SFRA clearance, to which our controller replied "Good point N987MB - Clear through class B at 7,500 remain clear of SFRA". Never hurts to ask! We skimmed by the SFRA within a mile or two. The controllers at Potomac approach were super nice to talk to. My feeling is they don't find it a burden for us VFR folk to be on flight following as they actually know our intentions and can get a hold of us if needed.
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We scooted pretty close to Dulled (KIAD) while we passed through the class B. We made it on the ground back home at KDMW after only 4.9 hours in the air. Peter's wife ended up beating him home by only 5 minutes! A true testament the the speed of the RV compared to a direct flight on the airlines!



This has been a great trip and it wouldn't of been so without the amazing generosity of Sun 'n Fun's amazing generosity of the Communications & Media Center at Sun and Fun for them granting us Media Passes to this amazing event and the way they treated all of us from the media. Additionally, and most importantly, Mary Jane and Stephanie of HBC are true rockstars. Their hospitality to all of us in HBC is why I really come to Sun 'n Fun. It's unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Every single volunteer in HBC truly makes us feel like we're at home and never want to leave.
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Great trip Report Mike. Sorry I missed you and the beverage I always borrow from you...See you at Oshkosh!
 
Great trip Report Mike. Sorry I missed you and the beverage I always borrow from you...See you at Oshkosh!

Jim-

I was looking forward to checking out your new bird. Don't worry, I drank for 2 in your absence! Spent a of time drooling over Rick's RV10! What a machine!
 
The storms earlier today cleared out the skies nicely. It was a picture perfect trip over to Clearwater.
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Super simply flight path over to Clearwater. We just needed to keep north of Tampa's class B. No reason to talk to ATC to get any short cuts on such a short flight in perfect flying weather.
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For future reference, the Tampa Approach controllers are SUPER helpful and have always given me clearance on the east-west (Bridge) transition across their airspace.

That puts you pretty much direct to CLW and right over top of KTPA at 2,500 feet for a good view and photo of the airport.




Great trip report and makes me jealous and ready to start building!
 
Thanks again for doing such great trip reports. I hope to do my first flight this time next year and these reports keep me motivated. Also your videos got me hooked on watching flying videos so thanks for that too.
 
Glad you enjoyed your Yak ride Mike. We have lots of 'em at 08A, so sharing the joy seemed like the right thing to do ;)
 
Great trip report Mike.

Sorry I missed you at SNF. You were flying into CLW when I was departing.
CLW is my home base.

Got to see Steve, Gus & John at HBC before they packed up & left Friday morning.

We will all be back up at Oshkosh & looking forward to the 2nd Annual Beer tasting.
 
Thank you

Well, im sat here having my breakfast, cruising VAF with the whole day to work on the fuselage paint job...procrastinating a little at the daunting task..BUT that trip write up has got me motivated to crack on :) I wanna do what you've done!

So off I go to paint on!

Thanks :)
 
Sun /N Fun

Great write-up! Glad to hear you are going to build an AirCam. When you finish and need a pax, I'm available! ... Bill
 
That was me

Mike,
The builder from Switzerland was me!!
The most funny thing is that I'm reading your blog as a "bible" since I started my build and and had not a small idea that it was you when I came to talk with you...!! :p
Thank you for the time you spent to talk with us!

Cheers

Nicolas
 
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