Air Shows & Events

The future of general aviation rests in the hands of today’s pilots, AOPA President Craig Fuller said at Sun ‘n Fun on Thursday evening, as he kicked off the event’s annual AOPA Day, which will be held all day Friday. “At AOPA we are busy doing more than ever before to keep flying strong,” Fuller […]

Although calls to Automated Flight Service Stations are decreasing steadily, the service they provide remains valuable, says Jim Derr, the program director of Lockheed Martin Flight Services. In a podcast interview with AVweb at Sun ‘n Fun 2010, Derr said that despite the huge shift in communications, weather and avionics technology over the last decade, […]

Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to download the video directly. The FAA is starting an aggressive campaign aimed at curbing runway incursions in general but GA deviations in particular. At Sun ‘n Fun 2010, Wes Timmons, the FAA’s director of runway safety unveiled […]

Sporty’s is keeping up with the electronic age, now offering a mobile version of its pilot-training video series that will run on smartphones, an iPhone E6B app featuring 23 aviation functions, and its first downloadable e-book. The mobile video series will play either on a 3G/4G network or via wifi, said Sporty’s vice president John […]

Officials from Sun ‘n Fun and the Polk County (Fla.) School Board broke ground Thursday for a $7.5 million facility that will provide a new home for the Central Florida Aerospace Academy, an aviation-oriented high school/career academy already located on the Sun ‘n Fun campus. The 58,000-square-foot facility will house up to 500 high school […]

“The down economy has been good for Build A Plane,” founder Lyn Freeman said at Sun ‘n Fun on Thursday. “We’ve had a lot of donations.” The organization is now accepting airworthy aircraft as well as projects. And the demand continues to run ever higher, according to executive director Katrina Bradshaw. “We’ve started 200 projects […]

Every aviation event needs a few new dreamers who are putting it on the line to make the airplane of their imagination a reality, and at Sun ‘n Fun on Wednesday, those dreamers were John Meekins, president of Privateer Industries, and his director of marketing, Frank Leventhal. The two turned up in the press tent […]

SMA’s jet-A-burning general aviation piston engine has been around for more than seven years now, and its time has come, according to company president Luc Pelon. “We are ready, the market is ready, and the aviation industry is ready,” Pelon said Wednesday at Sun ‘n Fun. Earlier versions of the SMA engine have been flown […]

Avidyne will have an updated version of its Entegra Release 9 integrated flight deck avionics system in coming months and the new version, called Release 9.1, has some innovative features designed to aid in en route situational awareness. At a news conference at Sun ‘n Fun 2010, the company unveiled a feature called FMS Preview […]

“Calls and emails and interest are all picking up,” said Dan Johnson, chairman of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association at Sun ‘n Fun on Wednesday, “but sales are still very slow so far in 2010.” Like the rest of the industry, the LSA manufacturers saw a sales slump in 2009, though with a drop of […]