Florida Relentless Pursuit: Part 2

By Raimo Roonet

(Recap) At the end of April I finally returned from a "little" relentless pursuit of my own, having spent nearly a month in Florida with my wife and kid.

How to plan a month-long family trip across the pond to Florida? Squeeze in three airshows and a museum or two plus a night shoot, of course! That was not an easy task however. No, not necessarily because of the "wife approval factor" but rather due to time and driving distance constraints.

Of course, some sacrifices and compromises had to be made to fit it all in and the month was filled with all sorts of  non-aviation related activities as well - schedule was pretty tight, we had only a few days for  "just chilling" but luckily neither of us is of the "lay by the pool" type, preferring active pursuit of experiences and roadtrips to the poolside. The first aviation event in the schedule was Sun 'n Fun Aerospace Expo, held in central Florida at Lakeland Linder International Airport. The event is often referred to as "spring break for pilots" or "Oshkosh with better weather" and while the scale is smaller than at the Osh, it still is impressively big.

In fact, it is said it is only surpassed by the Oshkosh. I did not even reach the expo area, focusing entirely on the warbird ramp, static displays, flightline and daily airshows, getting only a glimpse of the campgrounds and the secondary landing strip for the ultralights.

Schedule

The event spans from Tuesday to Sunday, with airshows on every afternoon. The daily airshow schedule is different during the working days but the Saturday and Sunday daily airshows are largely the same. Wednesday and Saturday also have a night airshow starting at dusk and the one on Saturday usually ends with a fireworks show. Thursday is the day of the the arrival for the main performer for the weekend (Thunderbirds or Blue Angels, depending on the year) and they also do their practice run on that day. Saturday morning begins with traditional mass launching of hot air balloons.

This year it was unfortunately cancelled due to strong upper winds but the crews still put up a standing show. Saturday morning is great for photo oppurtunities – gates open before sunrise due to the ballooning event, and you can also access the warbird ramp before the sunrise. Just be quick, sunrises and -sets at this latitude happen FAST. On the rest of the days the gates open early too, just do not expect getting in before the sunrise. You might get lucky however when you camp at the site or there is an arranged early-bird tour.

Although the schedule is published online in advance, changes may happen and the finalized schedule is usually posted (on the SNF social media) in the morning of same day. There may also be a few unscheduled events that get maybe a hour or two notice (flight of MiG-23 and F-22 joining the heritage flight were such occurences). Some information about their upcoming flights can also be obtained from the flight crews on the ground.

Due to the somewhat fluid nature of the schedule and a few surprises here and there it is highly recommended to attend for several days. Whole week would of course be best but that is really going to take a toll on your supply of memory cards. No worries if you run out though – there are several Walmarts near Lakeland and they sell their Sandisk ImageMate brand, which is reportedly the same as Sandisk Extreme Pro cards and cheap!

Tickets

This is not a free event like many of the airshows at airbases. If you plan to attend for 4 days or more, get a weekly ticket, the cost is the same. Considering the price of bottled water at these kinds of events (4-5 USD) it is very well worth getting the Preferred Seating option as they provide unlimited free bottled water (ice cold!) throughout the day. This also grants access to the bag check service, so you do not have to haul all your gear with you all day. None of the seats are numbered, so they are first-come-first-serve basis.

You can also dish out a little extra to gain a sticker on your wristband to gain access to the Photo Pass bleachers right by the Preferred Seating area. You also have access to all the benefits of the Preferred Seating. Is the Photo Pass deck really worth the extra money? Perhaps on weekend when the preferred area is also crowded so you do not block anyones view standing up with the camera. During rest of the week however it might be better to move around more and there is also a second set of bleachers further off next to a taxiway and flightline which is free and offers great views on the taxiing aircraft and runway.

Parking is paid as well, so keep that in mind when purchasing the tickets online – parking costs twice as much on-site. Luckily you may exit and re-enter wit the same wristband and parking ticket during the day, so you may leave tripod in the car until you need it. Bear in mind however this is quite a walk.

Arrangement

Having arranged it yearly for nearly half a century (next year is their 50th event, so hopefully it will be even more awesome), they do seem to have gotten the arrangement side of things right. Parking works flawlessly, there are volunteers posted at 50m intervals or so, directing you to your parking spot. Similar system is also used at Disney Parks. There were some traffic queues during the weekend but nothing too bad considering the road constructions taking place on the adjacent roads.

Lots of ticket booths at the gates as well, so the queues there are not very long either. Even the security gate did not become a bottleneck (was there really one or was it just a ticket check gate..?). If you get the Preferred/photo seating ticket in addition, you need to go to the ticket/bag hold booth at the Preferred seating entrance to claim the sticker for your general admission wristband – the booths at the main gate are only for claiming the general admission wristbands.

Flight crews of propeller planes usually get paraded after their show in front of the Preferred seating area and many of them start up their planes right in front of the Preferred area. This was especially important during Kyle Franklin’s show (drunk guy stealing the plane) with preflight part of the show taking place right in front of the preferred seating area. The hosting airport, Lakeland Linder International Airport, holds a little competition each year called #klaltowerchallenge which means trying to get a shot of the action with the airport tower in the frame. While they do not give out any awards, it is still a fun challenge to participate in.

The sun is luckily mostly behind you (almost overhead) as the runway is north of the viewing area. There is plenty of grassy area as well which might be a bit cooler under the sun and does not reflect as much light into your eyes from below, but the soil is ash dry and therefore extremely dusty.

Throughout the whole week new exhibits may arrive and the ramp (not to mention the flightline) may be rearranged. Some aircraft may even be moved from the warbird ramp to the flightline which may provide new opportunities for photography (or ruin them instead).

What could have been arranged better?

Not sure how it has been before but the Blue Angels were stationed on the other side of the active runway, near the terminal area, so unfortunately no ground show from them.

Merch tents. There was no dedicated area for merch tents, instead the demo teams and visiting squadrons sell their patches and coins near their aircraft or wherever there is space for the tent near the flightline. Also, those tents will not be there for the whole week and they may change location when aircraft are parked around – for example the F-35A Demo Team’s tent was raised on Saturday and for some reason it did not even offer the full range of their merch – their challenge coin seemed to be absent (luckily got it from another show). Event merch has their own huge tents dotted around the venue but they do not sell other stuff. I would really like to see more options for merch the next time.

This is not SNF-specific problem, as it has appeared on every airshow I have attended in the US: The mobile data connection. Large crowds tend to oversaturate the mobile towers in the US, so expect losing your signal, at worst case you can even lose the call signal not just 4G. Sometimes restarting your device helps, for a while, but it will surely drop at some point. It baffles me that they do not arrange extra towers or anything to improve signal in a country that has so much resources and at the events that draw such crowds. What this can also mean is you may have trouble getting back home if you use data connection for navigation app.

Highlights

The whole event itself and its scale is already a highlight! So many different aircraft from the dawn of aviation to the modern fighter jets.

The photography possibilities. Deserves to be in the bucket list of every aviation nut.

The follow-me vehicles, sometimes motorbikes with bearded guys, sometimes this thing… only thing more american would be a monster truck with flames shooting out the exhaust pipes. Actually I was surprised the truck did not spew out black smoke.

The beautiful warbirds you can get up close and personal with.

This Catalina that is in flying condition, fitted with modern waist blisters. The real treat however hides behind those blisters – they have built a cabin there that looks like it’s from a luxury yacht or a business jet! What a way to travel – can you imagine the views from back there?

The F-14 of the Florida Air Museum. Something different about seeing the aircraft in open air instead of dimly lit musuem. Plus you can walk all around and under it freely. For some reason, in the US they do tend to repaint them with glossy paint instead of matte, and do not even start me about the canopy painting. It makes the whole thing look like a plastic toy but it still is the Tomcat under there. Wouldn’t it be awesome if they’d paint the fake wear and oil streaks on them like the modelists do?

The MiG-23 (floggerone on instagram). Can’t get around it, what an awesome thing to see in the air (even with all that is happening in Ukraine). There is something so different in Soviet jets, something raw, unrefined, wild. As my father used to work with those aircraft back in the day (due to Soviet occupation he had to serve in the Soviet military), I started a conversation with one of the pilots and interestingly enough it turned out he had visited Estonia while flying C-17s for the USAF. He was also surprisingly well informed about Estonian role in supporting Ukraine in the war.

Another cool encounter was with the Bulldogs from Duluth ANG Base. Bought a few small patches from them and then remembered that during the KC-135 ride back in 2014 we were in formation with F-16s bearing the Duluth tail stripe along with Bulldog tail art. Showed one of the guys the picture and explained when and where it was taken.

The Blue Angels. It was my first time seeing them perform, beautiful aircraft. On Saturday they held an autographing session also and I managed to get their first female show pilot ,Lt Amanda “Stalin” Lee, to sign a couple of my own photos. I took those last year during Ocean City Airshow while she was still flying for the Rhino Demo Team. Amazing, that they are allowed to sign non-Angels stuff also. Planning to frame them with VFA-106 Gladiators coin/medal. Must bring large print of the whole team with me the next time.

The F-35B. I have not seen Harriers in action outside movies, so I was looking forward to seeing the B-model hovering. I remember looking at it hovering in my camera, zoomed in – okay, it is there, slowly yawing and drifting. Then I lowered the camera and saw the surrounding landscape as well, this looked so surreal to my mind, which is used to seeing jets move differently. Just stood there for a moment, taking it in.

Altough the merch hunting was a bit difficult there, still got an awesome Warthog patch and 30mm shell casing (just the casing though, no “cap”). Plus some other stuff.

The night airshows. Definitely worth attending. Starting with heritage flight during sunset and ending in darkness of the night with pyrotechnics and explosions lighting up the surroundings. Saturday night’s show ended with a fireworks show like of which I have never seen. 15 minutes of constant shelling! Usually the fireworks shows have their peaks and lows and culmination – not this one – this one was just a relentless pursuit of shock and awe the whole time! As if this was not yet sufficient, they also had a pyro team setting off explosives and fuel, creating huge fireballs – the heat of those could be felt several hundred meters away. But wait, there is more – then came this one guy (Ghostwriter Airshows), in a plane, amidst all of this mayhem doing his loops while shooting out his own fireworks attached to the wings. Spectacular Insanity! All the while I was running around the ramp setting my camera up at different foreground subjects to photograph with the fireworks in the background. What better way to end the day?

Summary

I attended the event on 3 days – on Wednesday (stayed for the night show too), Thursday and Saturday (Also stayed for the night show). For the first two days I went alone, the rest of the family joined me on Saturday. Loved every second of it, even while sunburnt (fair nothern complexion is no match for the Florida’s sun). And that one day was enough to win my wife over – altough she is not an aviation nut like me, she liked the event so much that we are now planning to attend the next year for the 50^th anniversary show! And the next time we I will definitely take the weekly ticket!