Sun ‘n Fun 2007
Flew the Cirrus N470CD IFR to Florida to enjoy one of two major aviation events this year – Sun ‘n Fun, at Lakeland Florida, along with my partner Jim, and buddy Captain Ron H. Very enjoyable 6 hour flight, fine weather, and a bladder and fuel stop in Lumberton North Carolina. We also took advantage of a truck ride to the local foodery for a quick breakfast. Then off south again, out over the Atlantic for a while before coming ashore for the Florida portion of the trip.
We put down in Plant City, not too far from the Sun ‘n Fun show site, but far enough to avoid the mess of aircraft trying to land at the show site before the noon show time start! We rented a car and drove into the show. Three days of sun and fun, aviation, aircraft, pilots, aerobatics followed, with each day ending up the same – at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville in the show grounds, enjoying a newly-found beverage (beer) – LandShark – tasty, watching the sun go down. Nice.
I purposefully left all my cameras at home for this trip. It felt great and un-pressured.
We headed back north on Saturday, with good weather depicted for the full 6 hour trip. Jim was at the helm as we put down in Curtis L Brown Jr Field Airport Elizabethtown North Carolina. In the pattern we were asked if we wanted “…a hot-dog or hamburger, or both” for lunch. After three hours flying we opted for ‘both’. The Elizabethtown airport team provides free lunch to visiting aviators during the Sun ‘n Fun week. Great food, nice people, cheap(er) fuel…..we’ll be back!
This was my longest cross-county trip in the Cirrus. It performed flawlessly, and was very comfortable (we took turns napping!). We ‘filed’ IFR despite good conditions and ATC services were very helpful (as usual) and we got the altitudes and routing we requested, without exception.
Jim and I spent Sunday washing the Cirrus removing Florida dust, bugs and trip flotsam from the aircraft.
Great trip, good event, good flying experience, great company!