Sun ‘N Fun

Well, it’s not entirely new, but it’s the first time this no-nonsense pickup truck of an airplane has appeared at Sun ‘n Fun and in the U.S. The Discovery 201 is an offshoot of a Russian design called the Akord 201, which found some service in Russia as a heavy-hauling utility airplane. The aircraft has […]

The FAA’s decision to delay its tower shutdowns until June was a save for Sun ‘n Fun, but the federal government still has declined to pay all the expenses of sending 50 extra controllers and 20 technicians to cope with the traffic, so the bill — an estimated $285,000 — is going to the Sun […]

MyGoFlight, which sells cases, mounts, bags and other accessories for iPads, is offering a “Mastering the iPad” seminar at Sun ‘n Fun 2013. The company says the seminars will help pilots choose the best apps for their needs and identify strategies for optimizing use of the tablets in both preflight and in-flight scenarios. Specific topics […]

Although the tower at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in Florida is on the FAA’s list for closure (so is Wittman Regional’s in Oshkosh) the facility will be manned as usual by FAA controllers through Sun ‘n Fun. Under the sequestration closure plan, Lakeland is among 149 towers being closed due to sequestration cuts and was […]

The Sam LS, a new kit airplane with a retro look, flew for the first time on February 26, near Montreal, Canada, the company announced last week. “Liftoff was perfect, in about 300 feet,” said Thierry Zibi, president of Sam Aircraft. The all-metal airplane features tandem seating and a narrow fuselage with a choice of […]

Sun ‘n Fun will hire air traffic controllers on its own if necessary to staff the annual airshow and fly-in next month. President Lites Leenhouts told the Lakeland Ledger paying controllers would reduce the amount of money the organization can give to aviation scholarships but it will do what it must to ensure a safe […]

AVweb attended the 38th annual Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In in Lakeland, Florida from March 27 to April 1, 2012 – and brought back an assortment of news and interviews. Click here for a handy index to all our coverage from the show, including podcasts, videos, and blogs.

With the 75th anniversary of the Piper Cub upon us, there were lots of good Cub stories around Sun ‘n Fun this year. One of our favorites, as described in this podcast with Bob Jones, is a 1946 J-3 that became a member of Jones’ family for several generations. Jones’ father was a duster pilot […]

Any taildragger pilot who’s jammed a landing — and that’s basically all of them — will tell you that nailing three-point landings without a bounce takes practice and sometimes even that’s not enough. But in the latest version of its popular utility aircraft, the Husky A1C on display at Lakeland, Aviat has added a nice […]

Deltahawk, the Wisconsin engine development company, continues to close in on its long-awaited goal of a workable four-cylinder aerodiesel engine. According to the company’s CEO, Dennis Webb, whom AVweb interviewed at Sun ‘n Fun, several companies (and the military) have test engines and programs in various states of progress, including a Cirrus SR20 test bed […]