Sun N Fun '07 Redux

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
Mary and I just returned from 6 glorious days at Sun N Fun in

I am not the big fly-in fan that some of you are. I would love to spend time
with the planes and the vendors but the mass of people just get on my
nerves.

One thing that caught my attention was the number of small, mom&pop
companies making digital display instrumentation. If they've been around for
a while, I hadn't noticed. Must be great for the experimental guys. I
presume that most of them are not certified but I haven't even started
visiting web sites from the literature I bagged.

My favorite vendor was the notepad on a wriststrap. If he has been at other
fly-ins, I missed that too. I'm guessing that the husband dragged the wife
into it. I would love to know what she is really thinking.

The owner's fly-in for the Lake (www.lakeflyers.com) is usually in February
but they (we) moved it to coincide with Sun 'n Fun. I went down last
Thursday. A weekend of enjoying the many, many Florida lakes, workshops,
forums, and conversation focused on my baby followed by a week of Sun 'n
Fun. Even if Sun 'n Fun is dwindling, the combination of activities over the
weekend and week really got me going!

One of the Lake owners coordinates the seaplane base and the spash in. I
enjoyed the splash in thoroughly but was also disappointed. It seemed like a
very sparse showing of seaplanes and the crowd was pretty thin. I'm planning
on spending a few days at OSH just so I can camp at the seaplane base.

Coming back, I took a more easterly route. Actually, it was straight north
but that is easterly of the straightline from LAL to PWK. Managed to come
across the wild fires burning in southern Georgia. A huge area of swamp on
fire creating massive amounts of smoke. Continuing straight north into the
hills south of Knoxville. Wandering around from mountain lake to mountain
lake. Although it was very hazy, I thought it was breathtaking. My first
time in that area. I can't wait to plan a vacation there.

This was my first time flying to Florida where I didn't need to file IFR for
at least a few hours. Amazing weather. Low deck but VFR flying into clear
skys with a 30kt tailwind on the way down. Good VFR and not a killer
headwind on the way back. Again, Amazing.

Thanks for your post Jay. Good summary. Good to meet you and Mary.

-------------------------------
Travis Marlatte
Lake N3094P
PWK