You could fly commercial to visit Sun ‘n Fun and stay in a hotel and drive to the venue, but you would be missing out on some elements of the experience. For my first visit to the show I chose to fly out from the West Coast which was an adventure in itself. I must confess to becoming an iThingy cripple. Without two GPS moving maps and ADS-B weather and traffic I feel deprived.
A far cry from learning to navigate in the Army with just a wet compass, clock and a WAC. After several diversions and more actual IFR than I have done in a while I finally made it. The good thing about battling through some weather was that the traffic at Lake Parker and the entry procedure was very light which made it less stressful.
Once landed, a motorbike escort to homebuilt parking was a nice treat. The facilities at HBP are very nice—hot and cold running water, showers and a large communal tent with lights and power to charge your favorite iThingy. Bring your own tent and camp chair for all the comforts of home. Make sure it’s a good tent though—Florida thunderstorms are a thing of beauty and power. Watching the storm that rolled through last night build and being internally illuminated by lightning was great. A good idea to make sure both tent and plane were well tied down. At times the gap from lightning to thunder was under a second and the rain torrential.
Opening the tent in the morning revealed a damp field but the rain soon stopped and another fine day at Sun ‘n Fun began.
