Sun-N-Fun Report
Lakeland, FL
April, 2003

This year's flight to S&F was in a way different than the previous years. The event started in the middle of the week rather than it's usual start on Sunday. The Chapter fly-out group was torn in all different directions on when to fly down. Bob Metcalfe took Tom Garner down with him in his RV-6. They were the first ones to leave early in the week. Their plan was to stay in a local Motel rather than camping on the field. As a matter of fact, I never even met them at S&F this year. I only noticed Bob's RV for a day or two on the flight line.

John Ely and Joe Rose flew down in John's RV-6 early Wednesday and made it in one day with no problem. I couldn't leave Wednesday in the morning and had to wait until about lunchtime, but more about that in a second. Bob Jacobs and Don Ervin flew the Glasair leaving Thursday morning and arriving the same day early afternoon before the air-show started.

I had installed new wheel pants and gap seals on the Pacer. The FAA inspector was scheduled to come early on Wednesday before I left to sign the modifications off, but at about 10:00 AM I received a call from the maintenance shop that the inspector had cancelled. I left the office as soon as possible to take all the modifications off the airplane so it was legal to fly. At about 12:30 PM the Pacer was finally ready and loaded to start the journey. I knew I would not make it all the way to S&F before the airfield would shut down in the aircraft camping area. While I was in the air I was monitoring my ETA to St. Simon (SSI) for my fuel stop. The wind was not helping me at all for the first part of the trip. All the way through the Carolinas I was fighting a 10 to 15 knots head wind. By the time I made it to the southern part of South Carolina I finally noticed a pick up in my ground speed. It was almost six PM by the time I landed at SSI making this my longest flight ever being airborne at over five and a half hours on the clock. At that point I decided not to press on anymore and rather get a hotel room and a meal. The airport had a courtesy car for me and a list of all the hotels close to the airport. Soon I was checked into my room and on the way to the close by Outback Steakhouse for a nice juicy steak.

The next morning awaited me with a perfect day to go flying early in the morning. I managed to be at the airport right around seven AM to return the car and to start the final leg of the trip. I always enjoy the flight down the coastline. The visibility was excellent and there was no turbulence all the way down to Lakeland. Coming close to lake Parker I turned the transponder off and starting to monitor the arrival frequency (after checking ATIS of course). It sounded that there were a few airplanes going around the lake and I thought that this might be the first year I would end up in the holding pattern. To my luck, just when I came up on the lake, the controller advised a Piper Cub to go ahead to the airport. I think the slow Cub was disturbing his holding pattern. He must have thought that (since I fly a similar tail-dragger) I was with the guy and instructed me to follow "the other Cub" nose to tail. Hey, no complaints from me. The Pacer is not a fast airplane, but I had to deploy one notch of flaps to stay behind the Cub (he was probably on his cruise power).

Arriving later than usual this year put me into a camping spot further away than usual, but I was at least within two hundred yards of John and Joe who camped in the homebuilt camping area east of the antique/classics. After I set up my camp I started to tour the flight line to explore the new things since last year. After lunch I walked out to the homebuilt area and noticed that Bob and Don had just arrived (what timing). I helped them move their stuff to the Pacer and settle in. Don looked like he had enjoyed flying the much faster Glasair to S&F rather than flying with me in the Pacer as he had done for the last two years.

The time really flies down at S&F, especially when I can only stay a few days. Of course every manufacturer and vendor in the aviation industry is present at S&F. I did not have anything on my wish list this year, but John and Joe (both are building RVs right now) made up for it to make sure I had lots of stuff to fly back to Winchester (Front Royal). Maybe next year I will go for a new GPS since mine is a 1995 version and I notice every once in a while that the unit will loose the signal for a couple of minutes. But on the other hand, how lost can you get in an airplane doing 110 knots if you loose the signal for a couple of minutes?

One thing I enjoyed this year was trying to fly the Wright Flyer simulator. I tried three times and was able to stay in the air for as long as 30 to 40 seconds until a barn that would not move out of my way stopped me. If this was the way that airplane really flew, then my respect go out to these early pilots to stay alive. On the other hand, one of the simulator operators told me that a twelve-year-old boy flew the simulator with no problem. He made successful take offs and landings and had fun flying around. Sometimes it does not help when you know too much about flying airplanes, the mind has a prejudgment what should happened rather than excepting what is really happening.

We had originally planed to fly back on Sunday, but monitoring the weather at the FSS did not look too promising that we would be able to make it back. Even worse, the whole following week would be rain along the entire East coast. Friday afternoon after another weather check we decided to fly back Saturday instead of Sunday to beat the weather. A last check Friday night before the FSS closed showed even for Saturday a front moving through with rain all the way across the Carolinas. We decided to fly home a day earlier than we had planed, missing the night air show.

We broke camp very early Saturday to try to make it out before seven AM when the balloon races started. John and Joe got out first and I made it just when the balloonists started to set up their flying giants. The weather was supposed to be OK at least up to the North Carolina border.

I stayed in touch with John on the air-to-air frequency to get reports about the weather conditions ahead and the best altitude to capture a nice tail wind. I also received an update through the weather frequency 122.00 MHz, but the controller just confirmed again that we are facing a front ahead of us. I did not hear from Bob and Don until I was passing by St. Simon (SSI). They got stuck at the field and had to wait until the balloons had taken off and moved out of the way. John and Joe were already close to the South Carolina border and listening to other pilots ahead of us did not sound to good. Flying through South Carolina we could see the front stretching right across in front of us. We started to have clouds right in front of us forcing us to lower and lower altitudes. We had planned to try to make it up to Florence, South Carolina, but actually made it all the way to Rockingham, North Carolina. Bob and Don arrived just a couple of minutes after me and had to battle the increasing wind pushing ahead of the front moving in. We had just enough time to refuel and park the airplanes before the rain started.

The airport Manager gave us his courtesy car and a list of Hotels and Restaurants. The first thing on our agenda was to drive through town (that didn't take long) and find a good lunch (this we did successfully). We decided to hold off checking into a Hotel until afternoon to wait and see what the weather would do for us. While sitting at lunch the rain was coming down pretty hard, but we are all optimistic pilots. We went back to the airport after lunch and looked at the weather on the FBO's PC. The front moved along at a good speed with good weather behind it. I called the FSS and received a good outlook for early afternoon to make it back to Winchester. So we settled in playing cards, reading and/or taking a nap to let the front pass through.

By two PM, just like the FSS had told us, the rain stopped and we could see clear sky to the North of us. We quickly reloaded the airplanes, performed our preflight checks and took off one after another. John got airborne first again and scouted ahead with me being next and Bob and Don in the Glasair trailing behind (not for long and they passed me). Climbing to altitude I caught just one light rain shower, but I was out of it quickly. After that it was almost perfect flying conditions with no clouds, not much turbulence and a tailwind. What more could we have asked for. It stayed that we all the way to about one hundred miles south of Winchester when we encountered scattered clouds and some mild to moderate turbulence. Of course since I was trailing the pack, I knew what was coming. The RV-6 and the Glasair were already in Front Royal and Winchester when I was still about forty minutes out.

Since it was still early and a nice day to fly, I decided to land in Front Royal to off-load my cargo and give it to John and Joe. Landing at Front Royal I noticed that the surface winds were much stronger than I had anticipated. After leaving Front Royal for the short trip to Winchester I dialed in the AWOS and was surprised to hear that the wind was gusting in the upper twenty knots. Fortunately, the direction was only about thirty degrees off the runway heading, but I was amazed how fast the wind can pick up. I had checked the Winchester AWOS before I landed at Front Royal and it was only reported in the upper teens.

Nevertheless, it was a nice trip to S&F again. It is always such a nice break after the winter to get down into the Florida sun. I watched the weather channel for the next week and was so glad that we made it back on Saturday. I am convinced it would have taken us a whole week before we would have made it back from S&F. Hope to see some of you down there next year again.

Juergen arrives

RV Lineup

Juergen