Like a kid in a candy store.
You must go to at least one two of two events every year if you're a plane geek like me. Either Sun-N-Fun in Lakeland, FL or AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI. In a couple weeks (April 6th and 7th) I will be in Lakeland again. For the past seven years, I haven't missed Sun-N-Fun. It's a plane lovers wet dream. Thousands of aircraft, engine manufacturers, instrument makers, parts distributors, junk dealers, food vendors, literature peddlers, and even celebs like Jimmy Buffet show up at Sun-N-Fun. There are workshops and airshows every day all day long. You can learn everything from how to work with composite material to shaping your own propeller from a block of wood. You can walk the flight line and get up close and personal with every aircraft imaginable from powered parachutes (think Holyfield fight where that guy flew in to the ring) to full blown private fighter jets owned by multizillionaires. Believe it or not, these two airports become the busiest in the country (even more than Chicago or Atlanta) during these shows. There are airplanes everywhere. You can walk right up to a Burt Rutan (designer of SpaceShipOne) airplane that might have been built buy your next door neighbor, a vintage warbird like Glacier Girl, or a VW powered Sonex I plan on building one day.
Believe it or not, kit aircraft are more on the cutting edge of design that the tried and true manufactures like Cessna and Piper. You can build yourself an airplane that is safer, will out perform, and be cheaper than your typical factory design. Most of the private aircraft in production today are based on 1940/50s designs and the factories have huge overhead and liability concerns. The cost for these companies to design, flight test, and certify new designs for your average Joe is so great that all they can do is refine the old models to keep costs down. Still, even using old designs, new small planes like the venerable Cessna 172 (probably the most popular small plane ever) will cost around $170,000 if you want new base model. When you compare that to the $25,000 dollar price of the Sonex it's easy to see why people that love to fly, but can't really afford it, congregate in Oshkosh and Lakeland. It brings the dream of flight within reach of us regular folk. Even if I never put the money together to buy my own plane, it feels good that it's potentially within my grasp.
Believe it or not, kit aircraft are more on the cutting edge of design that the tried and true manufactures like Cessna and Piper. You can build yourself an airplane that is safer, will out perform, and be cheaper than your typical factory design. Most of the private aircraft in production today are based on 1940/50s designs and the factories have huge overhead and liability concerns. The cost for these companies to design, flight test, and certify new designs for your average Joe is so great that all they can do is refine the old models to keep costs down. Still, even using old designs, new small planes like the venerable Cessna 172 (probably the most popular small plane ever) will cost around $170,000 if you want new base model. When you compare that to the $25,000 dollar price of the Sonex it's easy to see why people that love to fly, but can't really afford it, congregate in Oshkosh and Lakeland. It brings the dream of flight within reach of us regular folk. Even if I never put the money together to buy my own plane, it feels good that it's potentially within my grasp.
posted by Glenn at 10:29 PM
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