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7AM Sunday morning: Out of the morning mist comes a faint sounds... then a growing cacaphony of sound... finally, it grows into an almost cartoonish ruckus made up of sirens, horns, bells, kazoos, whistles, and whoopie cushions which leaves no doubt that the traditional Sunday morning volunteer parade has arrived!
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I'm just guessing that these folks do their thing down at Choppertown...
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The British military cadets are a yearly fixture, and are obviously quite proud of their country. Their rousing songs are heard far and wide wherever they go. Carry on, mates!
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Security, Sun 'N Fun style! The volunteers always have a lot of fun with their parade. They put in a lot of very hard work to make the show happen each year... they deserve it!
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Barrett and Sandy Lanza taxi out for the fly-bys.
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After the ride... they both wanted to keep flying, but we only get to fly 3 passes a day.
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Sandy looks exhilarated, doesn't she?
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Sherry holds a slightly-tired out Ethan. (Being a really cute kid is hard work, you know.)
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We like this shot that John took...
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Aerobatics is alive and well in the USA...
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Clarence Hurd is known to many indoor R/C enthusiasts for Dynamics Unlimited which supplies very tiny R/C components for indoor and calm-day outdoor flying. This plane weighs less than one ounce and can actually handle a typical Florida breeze!
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The controls are all fully proportional. The rudder and elevator are controlled by magnetic actuators and the throttle is fully proportional as well. Power comes from a single rechargeable Lithium cell, with flight times around 30 minutes.
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By Sunday afternoon, the flightline becomes a ghost town as everyone heads back home.
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The sound of Freedom roars overhead!
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The P-51 does a low, fast fly-by before pulling around to land...
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... and the F-86 follows suit.
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The F-4 makes a roaring, low pass down the runway followed by a hard pull-up into the landing pattern. This was the highlight of the show for many folks!
LARGE FILE WARNING: 4.2 MB movie file (Quicktime .MOV format) - not recommended on dial-up Internet connections.
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The F-4 lands with the braking chute deployed. WOW! (Listen for the young girl talking to her dad in the background of the video...)
LARGE FILE WARNING: 6.4 MB movie file (Quicktime .MOV format) - not recommended on dial-up Internet connections.
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Dee plane, boss! Dee plane!
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The Brokaw Bullet is a very fighter-like design. This is the late Dr. Brokaw's prototype, which has been donated to the Florida Air Museum.
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The Tecnam P96 Golf will fit right into the Sport Pilot category. (There is an article about this plane in Sport Pilot magazine which you can read online here.)
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A T-28 taxis out to return to its home base.
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Beware the Black Duck! This O-2 is in authentic Vietnam-era night camouflage.
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This C-130 took off for it's home base on Friday afternoon right after the airshow ended.
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Paradise City is always a beehive of aviation activity!
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A light airplane comes in for a landing at Paradise City. You can get really close shots like this from the general-admission parking lot, which is right under the ultralight runway's approach path.
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Ultralights are exhilarating to fly... you are very much in touch with the air that's supporting you.
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The venerable Maxair design has been around since the mid-1980s.
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Ron Glover brought this gorgeous Airdrome Eindecker down from Georgia. Though it can be built as a legal ultralight, this one has an N-number.
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The cockpit is roomy enough for a tall guy to fly it without a problem. Ron says that it is neutrally stable, so you have to fly it allt he time, but it's not difficult to fly.
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The beautiful turned finish on the cowl really adds to the right look for a plane like this.
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The little Rotax 227 provides plenty of go-juice for the little Fokker. Ron told us that this plane really doesn't need a whole lot of power.
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Ron and family even had a trailer for the plane that looked like a hangar on a WW1 aerodrome.
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Just after sunset, when the Ultralight operations were shut down for the night, the Paradise City aircraft marshalling/safety crew blew off a little steam on their ATVs.
LARGE FILE WARNING: 3.9 MB movie file (Quicktime .MOV format) - not recommended on dial-up Internet connections.
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There are many bulletin/message boards around the SNF grounds, with people wanting to buy, sell, trade, ride in, try out, part out, measure, photograph, and examine any number of planes, cars, tools, and equipment. Fascinating reading.
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Each night at SNF, there are interesting presentations on a variety of topics in the pavillion near the Florida Air Museum.
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The Lysander quietly stands guard over the forums area. It's likely that this plane spent many an hour hidden away in the darkness someplace in war-torn Europe, prepped and waiting to fly an important secret mission.
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The Sea Dart guards the museum during the night.
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