Hi all. I can see from several of the posts that many were quite disappointed with the weather conditions at Florida Jets this year. I can't say I blame them.
With that in mind I thought I'd take a minute to explain why we would have such a problem in moving the event to another location.
First of all Bunnell Airport's new Manager literally Kicked Us OUT!! Didn't want anything to do with Model Airplanes. Believe me, I would much rather have that site!
Lakeland is a great site, the city welcomes us and the airport works with us. We only get interrupted if there is a true need for the runway we fly adjacent to.
With low visibility and lousy weather, it happened about 4 times. Sorry. But then, we weren't exactly chewing up the sky during those moments anyway. Unfortunately, we aren't as flexible with dates for FJ as you might think. We can't get to close to Lakeland's big event, Sun N Fun because they require weeks to set up and we would be in the way. I could have moved the event one week later this year, and look at the weather, it's been rainy, overcast and blah since Thursday. So I don't know what to do.
Last year we had only one crosswind day and 3 other days of great weather. Anyway, I share the disappointment with those who came a long way and flew sporadically because of weather on Saturday. One last thing, I moved to Lakeland from West Palm Beach, AFTER we secured this airport. Before that, The 4 hour drive got to be old! So, the location of the airoport has nothing to do with me personally. I drove 5 hours to Bunnell! If anyone has a better place, I am sure open to suggestions! Hopefully we can get a better weather prediction too. Parameters are: Wide open spaces, a Runway that runs east-west allowing us to face north to keep the sun out of our faces, no homes to fly over, parking for a thousand cars, room for 40 Motor Homes, electrical and water hookups for same, Electricity for charging models, room for dozens of large tents, room for 30 vendors and a government official that will welcome the dollars we can bring into his area. Let me know.
Thanks,
Frank