Location: Lakeland Linder Regional Airport, Florida

Admission: Gates are open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Admission is $35 fro adults, $15 for youth, and free for 11 and younger. $150 for a weekly pass. EAA and Florida Air Museum members received a $5 daily or a hefty $40 on weekly pass.A Florida resident and military weekend special admits adults for $25 and youth for $5. On Sunday, admission is $15 for adults and $5 for youth.

Parking: Daily parking is $5.

The annual aviation gathering known as The Sun-N-Fun is a 6 day long affair in Lakeland, 20 miles east of Tampa, Florida. The event is held at the Lakeland Linder Regional Airport. The event is just more than an air show being very similar to the Oshkosh event held annually in Wisconsin by EAA Organization. The six-day event includes hundreds of exhibitors, displays, hot air balloons, and of course the weekend air show. There are hundreds of civilian aircraft fly-ins for this particular event and during the 6 days the Lakeland Linder Airport becomes one of the busiest airport in North America.

Commonly known as “Spring Break for Pilots”®, Sun ‘n Fun 2011 took place 29 March – 3 April. This event is a combination of a fly-in, exhibition and aerial display every day of the show. Aircraft manufacturers, avionics engineering companies and flight schools, among many others, occupied the main display areas and the several hangars on the airport. The airport layout allowed for homebuilts, vintage aircraft, warbirds and general aviation to have ample room on grass, while larger attendees (a USCG C-130, a US Customs and Border Patrol P-3 Orion) and aircraft participating in the aerial displays were parked on runway 5/23, which was closed to arriving and departing traffic.

This year’s convention was a bit out of the ordinary. Some of the show’s airborne attendees were delayed for their arrival on Tuesday the 29th due to weather to the north of the Lakeland area. Wednesday brought the weather closer, and by Wednesday evening heavy rains were drenching the show grounds, cancelling the air display and sending the many tenants of the campgrounds scattering. The weather also delayed the arrival of the F-22A Raptor and US Navy Blue Angels. Thursday brought what no one thought could strike – the day started out with a slight drizzle that, around 3:00pm, turned into a heavy downpour. The rain shrouded vision to less than 20 feet, and the wind picked up in advance of what was later determined by the National Weather Service to be an EF-1 tornado. Major news networks incorrectly reported of building collapses, but the damage was nonetheless severe. Over 40 aircraft were damaged beyond airworthiness, with many of them having to be written off as total losses. Many of Zenith and AirCam’s airplanes were totaled by the winds and some came to rest on or among aircraft over 100 feet away. A Cessna Caravan was flipped onto its back, crushing the vertical stabilizer. Many other planes were pushed into ditches or across fields, like a DC-3 that seemed to teleport during the storm from the heavy parking area on the runway to the field adjacent to the homebuilt area. An emergency team was immediately assembled by the Sun ‘n Fun staff, and they were promptly activated to 24 hour duty. Incredibly, the show was open for business by 8:00am on Friday 1 April, with much of the damage removed from the show grounds.

The rest of the weekend’s weather was nothing short of perfect – few clouds and temperatures in the low 80sF/high 20sC for the airshow, and wonderful cool weather for the Friday night show and fireworks display.

Considering the weather was out of control, I give the Sun ‘n Fun staff 10 out of 10 for doing everything humanly possible to bring the show back to operational status less than15 hours after a tornado plowed through the displays. 90% of the concession stands and portable sanitation facilities were clean and useable by show open on Friday morning. Being that there were more than ample accommodations before the storm, this was no issue of which to speak. The quality of the airshow was marred heavily by the weather, but the incredible response of the staff and volunteers made it an enjoyable experience in most ways, if not all.

Performers who were able to arrive and perform included:

* Fly-ins are excluded from The Best Air Show Award for the Year.