Sun 'n Fun Aerospace Expo (officially styled SUN 'n FUN) is a nonprofit organization in Lakeland, Florida dedicated to the promotion of aviation education. It is best known for the annual week-long fly-in and airshow at Lakeland Linder International Airport in Lakeland, Florida, usually held during late March or early April.
The first weekend fly-in, called Mid-Winter Sun 'n Fun, was held in January 1975 at the Lakeland Municipal Airport and was limited to pilots and Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), SESAC and FSAACA members. A total of 1,980 guests and 365 aircraft were present.
In our sunny country the Sun 'n Fun franchise has been a longstanding event of the local EAA of South Africa. It was for a number of years hosted at Rustenburg then for a number of years moved to Tempe, in Bloemfontein in the Free State before it again moved up north finding a home at Brits.
This year Airspan, the new Executive Airfield close to Rustenburg put in a bid to host it and it was successful.
Neil Fenton and I flew in with Captain Karl Jensen in ZU-VAL, Karl's precious Cessna 170. The Pixie Plane is probably the most photographed of any of Cessna's products in SA. We left Fly Inn Estates on Friday at 15.15 and arrived at Airspan at 36 minutes later.
There were already a number of aircraft parked at some of the visitors had already pitched their tents or had mase used of the prebooked and erected tents. We, like some others were booked into out very reasonable priced guest house in town.
We spend times socialising before the evening's braai commenced after which Nigel l Musgrave who handled the AFIS service from a rather precarious tower offered us a lift to our accommodation. The next morning, we got a lift after breakfast and arrived at the field that had quite a large number of new arrivals with more arriving until an estimated 80 plus made it.
A number of activities were arranged for the day that in included an aircraft judging competition, a fun ANR race and a spot landing competition hosted by SAPFA.
Paul Lastrucci and Laura McDermid with Adrienne Visser and Tarryn Myburgh winners of the ANR Rally
Some of the landing competition participants on long finals
Paul Lastrucci and Laura McDermid with Sean Cronin winner of the short take off and landing competition
Dale de Klerk in the Orion Cub won the Spot Landing Competition
Ethan Levin ZS TCA Cessna 140 Best Vintage Aircraft
Greg Rooken Smith ZS MHV Super Decathlon Best Restoration
Scott Williams Bearhawk LSA ZU ISP Best LSA
Not present Mike Davis and Tony van den Heuvel Osprey GP4 ZU CLC Best Wood Aircraft
&
Etienne Doman Sling LSA ZU SBK Best Homebuilt Aircraft
Peter How Longest Distance Flown ZU ITS 303nm Gariep Dam
New was a Cleco Contest sponsored by Sling Aircraft. Participants had to insert and remove a twelve Clico's against the clock. The winner was Hans de Beer. Hans inserted and removed twelve in 33 seconds. The world record currently is 28 seconds.
There also were two forums, one a crash course in conducting a forced landing you can walk away from presentation by John Comley and Paul Ludick and the other on the Hunt for the Rietbok presented by Wouter Botes.
Dinner was then served. I unfortunately missed it.
We were up early on Sunday for the flight back.
Comments from social media
I would also like to extend a big thanks to the EAA and Neil and everybody (and there are many) who had a hand in organising and making this Fun in the Sun event. Everything was perfect, the food delicious, the facilities amazing, and the people were just nice. You really turned up the heat to make this a successful event. Andrea Antel
It was well organised and a fantastic venue. Venessa Richards
Thanks, Neil and Team, for a great weekend of flying, fellowship, and fun. Bruce Harrison.
Neil thanks to you and your team for making once again, such a sterling effort for making it so pleasurable for us, the EAA members. Peter Lea
Awesome EAA! What a day! Well done to Team EAA. Roel
Thanks to everyone for making it a great weekend!! It was a lot of fun and went off smoothly and safely. Neil Bowden
We did 163 movements on Saturday Amazing! Nigel Musgrave
Many thanks to all this a great event, it was a lot of fun and well attended, Airspan is a great venue and as always, we will post mortem the event and see where we can improve the experience. Great to get participation from the KZN guys who made the effort. Paul Lastruci
It was a great weekend and location and worth the nearly seven hours of flying to be with old friends. Peter How
Sun 'n Fun Airspan 2024 There & Back in ZU-VAL.
Video by Karl Jensen
