Comments on: Sunny at Sun ‘n Fun!

By: John Stubbs

John Stubbs — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:11:47 +0000

I came to SNF for one day, Friday April 1. I flew commercially through the storm into Tampa, spent the night and left to go to the grounds at 8:30. We sat in line bumper to bumper for four hours. At that time I was still an hour away from the show, and ran out of time, and had to leave without ever seeing the grounds. I know they had big problems. But I think they could have found some closed big box store and shuttled people into the show. This was a discouraging and expensive experience. I never did understand why the line was moving so slow.

By: Ann Gray

Ann Gray — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 22:53:34 +0000

When a pilot flies an airplane to an airshow or a flying event, he/she knows the risk of weather and damage. If he/she is unwilling to take that risk, the airplane should remain at home and in its hangar. It the free flying airplanes were not properly tied down, their owners should be held responsible for damage.
I hope the insurance companies will not plead “act of God” as one did when my airplane, properly hangared, was struck as a result of straight line wind, by a Piper Cherokee also in the hangar. No amount of fighting or pleading with them did any good. I don’t happen to believe God gets involved in airplane damage, but if one believes that way, then what ISN’T an act of God? I feel for the owners trying to collect from their insurance companies. Some won’t live long enough.
Sun n Fun, indeed any convention or airshow organization,operates on a thinner profit margin than you can imagine. Costs are astronomical for conveniences, maintenance, etc. and efforts have to be made to keep admissions low enough. Read the financials for AirVenture, or what EAA releases anyway, and you can see there is no extra money for paying off pilots for damage caused by weather. They willingly brought their aircraft to Sun n Fun. There are always risks.

By: Bob Bittner

Bob Bittner — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:06:07 +0000

Fly out to Sun-n-Fun now to help those with storm-wrecked planes? What, is SNF going to share some of its proceeds with the storm victims? I doubt it.