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(16 pix)
The last several hours of my drive from Indiana to central Florida early Thursday were under low ceilings and rain, so I decided to start my Sun-n-Fun 2011 experience over at the Fantasy of Flight Museum since the weather wasn’t cooperating very well. The museum is about 20 miles northeast of Lakeland Linder airport were SNF takes place. Plus, the ‘Splash-In’ with seaplanes was scheduled to take place Thursday on Lake Agnes (right next to the museum) so it seemed like I had a plan.
As it turned out, the weather went from bad to worse. The Splash-In was cancelled and re-scheduled for Friday, but as you most likely already know, severe storms came thru the area in the afternoon (see the radar pic) causing substantial damage to a lot of aircraft and temporary structures at SNF. Fortunately it appears injuries were minimal… and as it turned out, the museum site didn’t experience any damage at all that I’m aware of.
Getting Sun-n-Fun back on track will require a lot of effort, but I have no doubt that the job will get done. Similar to the challenges with extremely heavy rains at Oshkosh in 2010, the aviation community will come together and rise to the challenge. And while many people are dealing with the loss of their aircraft right now, we can all be thankful for minimal injuries, and for a very sunny weather forecast for the remaining days of SNF.
The following 15 pictures and captions show some of the cool aircraft and aviation oriented experiences from my day at Fantasy of Flight. A lot of people were enjoying the chance to be an avgeek and stay out of the rain… and while this was my second visit to FoF, I have to say I enjoyed this time every bit as much as the first. It’s a great facility that I highly recommend you take time to experience anytime you’re in the area.
The Art Deco inspired entrance to the Fantasy of Flight museum. It was definitely an umbrella kind of day.
Fantasy of Flight is run by Kermit Weeks (arms folded) and he was seen all over the facility today… here he’s enjoying conversation with some people in the entrance area.
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