Sun'n Fun Lite

Takeoffs and landings are a spectator sport.

- LES ABEND

As a longtime contributor to Flying, I have been blessed with the good fortune of attending many events, including airshows. Having spent a career mostly mastering the art of straight-and-level flight in the stratosphere, I have tremendous admiration for the aviators that perform physics-defying maneuvers at stepladder altitudes. I am awed by the skills involved.

That being said, it was refreshing to observe a new type of event that didn’t involve a smoke-infused outside loop or an eardrum-shattering fly-by. On Friday, December 4, 2020, at the Sun ’n Fun Holiday Flying Festival and Car Show in Lakeland, Florida, I was introduced to the National STOL Competition. It is an event that only reaffirms what pilots already know: Takeoffs and landings are a spectator sport.

Fast-forward to Saturday, the final day of the event, I awaited the morning arrival of a lone Blue Angel F/A-18 Hornet. The airplane’s presence was to promote the US Navy’s Blue Angels performance at the 2021 Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo. Though it was disappointing that the touted new Super Hornet—just added to the fleet—was not parked on the ramp, I was pleased to witness military diversity as Lt. Julius Bratton (No. 7) and Lt. Katlin Forster (No. 8) opened their respective canopies.

The two fighter pilots answered questions for the media and, more important, the crowd of local students attending Lakeland’s Aerospace Center for Excellence. I smirked, with my airline pilot brain wondering how it’s determined who flies which leg for these PR missions. Seniority? Time in equipment? Who bought the last round of beers? Not important.