Day 3 of the annual Sun ‘n Fun Fly-in dawned with ominous dark clouds on the western horizon. Kitplanes got in a couple of quick flights in the new Just Aircraft SuperSTOL XL – a stretched SuperSTOL with a 180 HP UL Power engine – before raindrops hit the field and slowed things down for the morning. Showers continued on and off until early afternoon, slowing additional arrivals, but stopped in time for the opening of the afternoon airshow.
For those visitors taking advantage of the airshow to spend some quality one-on-one time with vendors, there was no doubt about the arrival of the weekend’s main airshow event – the USAF Thunderbirds! It made no difference if you inside or outside – the sound of the afterburners as the team made numerous low passes from various directions was enough to put smiles on faces and fingers into ears for about ten minutes.
Sun ‘n Fun continues for three more days, and crowds of local spectators are expected to grow each day. The drive-in campground has lots of residents who appear to be staying for the duration, but fly-in visitors in camping and parking are beginning to cycle through, with new arrivals being offset by those who are headed home. If you haven’t yet been by, there is still plenty to see and do as the event moves into the closing weekend. We’ve got one more day before we depart, and we’ll report back on what we see tomorrow.
