Opinion By Larry Anglisano:
I’ve said it before—Sun ‘n Fun just isn’t the product-launch show of old. My first trip to “spring break for pilots” was somewhere around 1990 as a vendor, when it was the airshow to hit for scoring smoking deals on pilot gadgets. Remember the IIMorrow Flybuddy Loran, King KX99 rig, and the Apollo 920 GPS? Get a demo from guys like Rick Garcia at Gulf Coast Avionics and Harley Bennett at Bennett Avionics, fork over the wad of cash from your sweaty pocket and play with your new toy on the flight home. This kind of retail therapy still exists at the show to a lesser degree, thanks to the well-stocked Sporty’s, Pilot Mall and others, but I think Sun ‘n Fun has lost the retail edge. But if it hadn’t, I’m not sure everyone’s cash would be flowing.
Penny-pinching pilots who flagged me down begged for even more articles in Aviation Consumer that would help save them money, because those tariffs—on top of the eye-watering price increases on engines and avionics—are concerning. “I can barely afford my little airplane now and if the price on parts and insurance keeps rising, someone’s gonna get a nice Skylane,” one told me.
One of the first pressers—an important one that addresses safety—came from AOPA, where Mike Ginter rolled out the Air Safety Foundation’s National Safety Pause initiative. It’s a multi-group advocacy effort with EAA, NATA, NBAA, VAA (formerly Helicopter Association International), American Bonanza Society and others. The link is www.gasafe.org where you access days-worth of digital courses and videos on everything from flight instruction, mountain and backcountry flying and seaplane flying to ramp ops and human factors. I asked why there wasn’t a section on flights after maintenance because the wreck reports are littered with risky post-maintenance fly-offs that ended terribly.
Speaking of head shakers, one was over at the sprawling Textron exhibit, where I planned to cover the Beechcraft Denali turboprop single. The company was ostentatious ahead of the show, saying it was the plane’s first flight to Sun ‘n Fun. But as the handsome bird stood quietly in the center of the exhibit, we were told there were no spokespeople at the show who could talk about the project. Huh? Contrast that to the Epic exhibit, where company CEO Doug King went above and beyond in the sweltering heat to show off the new E1000 AX turboprop single for this video.
Last, big props to the Sun ‘n Fun media department and the volunteers who absolutely know how to accommodate the press. For a long while, our team dreaded coming to the event. (One year they threatened to tow my rental car when I was unloading some camera gear). But that snub is over and thanks to the healthy supply of chauffeured golf carts, Legendary Aviation coffee, a well-stocked stocked fridge and air conditioning that formed icicles on the beard, Sun ‘n Fun wasn’t such a bad place to set up shop for a few days, even if proved that the market is in for some interesting times.
Opinion By Mark Phelps: Make A List
My first visit to then-Sun ’n Fun (now Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo) was in the late
1980s when I was on the editorial staff of the Experimental Aircraft Association
(EAA). I was the new editor of Vintage Airplane magazine and staff liaison editor of
Warbirds magazine with Jeff Ethell. I had taken over on Vintage Aircraft from the
legendary Gene Chase – big shoes to fill.
Just as in those early days, comparisons to EAA’s colossal event in Oshkosh (it
wasn’t “AirVenture” yet) are inevitable. My impression of Sun ‘n Fun in 2025 retains
much of the homey feel from my first visit. It’s less expansive, though the labyrinthian layout of the Sun ‘n Fun show makes up in complexity for the size of AirVenture when it comes to finding your way to your destination on the site. You walk just as much, but it seems you walk in circles a lot more at Sun ‘n Fun.
My advice to first-time and veteran showgoers, alike, is to sit down ahead of your
arrival and make a list of times and locations for “must-sees” and “must-do’s” when it comes to visiting vendors, attending forums, and catching that extra-special air show act.
What hasn’t changed, and never will, is there never seems to be enough time to get
to see everything (and everyone) you want to visit. Nor is there nearly enough time
to wander the lines of parked showplanes. So many special aircraft, so much history.
Both AirVenture and Sun ‘n Fun face the challenge of retaining a personal feel while
balancing the financial side of running a huge event. You still have to pay the bills,
and some criticism for commercialization is inevitable. But all that pales beside the
feel-good kickstart Sun ‘n Fun provides for the coming flying season. Especially for
those of us still in the tail end of winter weather up north. Though, if you could plan
the weather next year’s dates (April 1-6) to miss the record heat we experienced this year, many a sunburned face would appreciate it.
Opinion By Russ Niles: Fueling Controversy
While we’ve been embroiling ourselves in backroom gossip, high level intrigue and court cases (already!) over the transition to unleaded fuel, an ominous voice from abroad kind of put the hammer down on the process. Innospec, the UK company that is the only producer of tetraethyl lead (TEL), would desperately like to get out of that business and it is counting on the U.S., the largest market for the octane booster and neurological poison, to keep its schedule to have all piston aircraft humming along on one or more unleaded replacements for 100LL by 2030. AOPA President Darren Pleasance let that uncomfortable bit of news drop on the first day of the show and I asked him to elaborate.
“Debating whether we should or should not make the transition to unleaded fuel is not productive. There’s only one provider of Tetraethyl Lead (TEL) in the world (Innospec, based in England) and they supply this for all 100LL. Innospec has committed to ensuring an ample supply of TEL through 2030, but beyond that they are actively intending to exit that business. As such, all of our energy needs to be on ensuring we have availability of an acceptable and economically viable unleaded fuel over the next several years,” Pleasance told me.
Based on the state of discourse and action, it’s not looking good. The main focus of all the groups ostensibly trying to promote the transition are fully engaged in the defense of 100LL so we can keep churning out the lead emissions until there’s a perfect solution. That seems unlikely. Based on the information coming out about the three candidate fuels, they’re all going to demand something of operators to work properly.
It would be very nice if the Innospec announcement lit a fire under all involved to really start to bear down on this clearly solvable issue but that also seems unlikely. Get ready for a hair-on-fire race to the finish.
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