Splash and Dash Searey Seaplane Delights                            May 18 11:29 Guest User - Request Membership Layout | Log In | Help | Videos | Site | Emails  Search:   Front Page Calendar Photos Add Photos News Add News File Cabinet Add File Cabinet History Add History * Searey Info * Add * Searey Info * Polls Add Polls Classifieds Add Classifieds Utilities Create a New Site  News View All News | Add News | Emoticons | Mark Unread Search News:      Category: Previous Item - Buck and the Looking Glass This will go to the previous thread in this topic.       Favorite option: If you want this item to be marked as a favorite, click on the black heart.   Sun n' Fun 2011 flashback         Next Item - SNF broke This will go to the next thread in this topic.    Steve Kessinger - Nov 10,2020   Viewers  | Reply     I remembered I had a bunch of photos from the show, thought people might enjoy a flashback. 2011 was my first Sun n' Fun. I came down to visit the factory, attend Garner's Landing, and go to a seminar or four. Instead...... I knew a guy from an airline pilot forum, he was Co-Chair of Air Ops and told me to stop by and say Hi. I showed up at Air Ops Wednesday afternoon as the storm was approaching, right was their internet went down and they had no weather radar. I had just purchased my first smart phone and I pulled up The Weather Channel, showed it to him and said What can I do to help? He said You're with us now, and pulled me into the scrum.       Attachments:   Wednesday (61) Wednesday (172) Wednesday (23) Wednesday (166) Wednesday (41) Wednesday (116) Wednesday (7)         Attachments:   Wednesday Wednesday (112) Wednesday (5) Wednesday (176) Wednesday (174) Wednesday (26) Wednesday (122)         Attachments:   Wednesday (171) Wednesday (28) Wednesday (138) Wednesday (105)          Steve Kessinger - Nov 10,2020   Viewers  | Reply     Wednesday the storms held off and we had a near-miss. At the end of the day Flipper said What are you doing tomorrow? I said I think you could use my help. He said Yup. Smart people would have ran far away. I am not a smart person. I snuck in before the gates opened (I'm with the band), and acted like I belonged there. It was only my second time in a tornado type environment, I just tried to stay cool, and out of everyone's way. But Yeah, I was a little nervous. So was everyone else. I fit right in. We were sitting in the Air Ops Shack when my new Big Brother, Gator, suddenly burst in. We're evacuating, he said, bodily grabbing and lifting up an old mechanic named Mac who was an inspector at the show, and carrying Mac to his truck. I jumped in the back seat, others grabbed their cars, and we quickly, slowly, carefully drove down runway 5/23, while the car was illuminated inside by lightning.. Halfway down the taxiway Gator slammed on his brakes, then gunned it. A DC-3 had broken loose and was being blown from it's parking spot on the grass northeast of 5/23, across the the runway (executing a pirouette worthy of a prima ballerina in the process and nearly striking the car full of Air Ops people behind us.) before impaling another airplane with it's right stab and ending up in a ditch. We got hit twice, both times we evac'd to the corporate hangars on the east side of the field. I'll never forget coming out of the hangar the first time, dreading the sight of broken bodies and wondering how I'd react to my first mass casualty event. Calls of REDBIRD, REDBIRD, our shorthand for broken airplanes, filled the radio. Someone cut through the chatter, said We KNOW there are broken airplanes, leave the radio quiet and only call out injured people. Silence. Out of all the carnage, there was only one serious injury (IIRC), a broken tibia. Stunning. During his presentations on the United 232 mishap, Al Haynes would say We all have our own beliefs, but for the purpose of this discussion, we will say that Luck was on our side. Sun n' Fun had a lot of luck on their side that day.       Attachments:   Thursday (157) Thursday (289) Thursday (167) Thursday (46) Thursday (133) Thursday (199) Thursday (299) Thursday (69) Thursday (206) Thursday (130) Thursday (67) Thursday (84) Thursday (150) Thursday (262) Thursday (308) Thursday (140) Thursday (290) Thursday (74)         Attachments:   Thursday (112) Thursday (170) Thursday (36) Thursday (40) Thursday (202) Thursday (103) Thursday (196) Thursday (297) Thursday (304) Thursday (119) Thursday (154) Thursday (159) Thursday (291) Thursday (222) Thursday (155) Thursday (296) Thursday (38) Thursday (98)         Attachments:   Thursday (298) Thursday (165) Thursday (61) Thursday (11) Thursday (148) Thursday (41) Thursday (34) Thursday (292) Thursday (156) Thursday (115) Thursday (146) Thursday (325) Thursday (80) Thursday (279) Thursday (294) Thursday (75)          Steve Kessinger - Nov 10,2020   Viewers  | Reply     We got chased off the field around 7pm while heavy work began in the darkness, and it simply became unsafe for us to be around while they repaired power lines and took down tree limbs. Long before the crack of dawn I was on the road, looking for another backdoor entrance. I made my usual stop at a mini-mart north of the field, parked next to a porta-potty truck, the driver fast asleep against his door. Everyone has a job to do, but could you imagine rounding up and replacing tornado-blown outhouses in the dark? Making my way into the grounds, one of the first things I saw was a Starbucks booth at the entrance being rebuilt, they had been there long before me, if they had even left. I jumped in doing whatever I could, as soon as the field opened a steady stream of GA airplanes came in, about noon the F-22s arrived. Someone must have told them to pump up the troops, because they just beat the crap out of the field. Fuck tornadoes, Sun n' Fun had Lightnings.       Attachments:   Friday (26) Friday (22) Friday (214) Friday (131) Friday (215) Friday (23) Friday (43)         Attachments:   Friday (27) Friday (112) Friday (6) Friday Friday (126) Friday (124) Friday (24)         Attachments:   Friday (127) Friday (31) Friday (50) Friday (213)          Steve Kessinger - Nov 10,2020   Viewers  | Reply     How much can you go through in a few days? The yellow and black airplane had been build by a group of scouts, it had passed it's inspection and was scheduled to have it's first flight during the show but instead ended up looking like a discarded paper airplane. Someone told the Command Master Chief of the Blues, and he (and several other team members) took the time to visit their booth.       Attachments:   Saturday (4) Saturday (3) Saturday (2)         Attachments:   Thursday (290) Thursday (291)          Steve Kessinger - Nov 11,2020   Viewers  | Reply     By Sunday, we were all tired puppies. They asked me What are you doing next year? I said I still haven't made it to those seminars I came here for. They said Come back anytime, and you can work with us. I have, and still haven't made it to those seminars. It was a week to remember.       Attachments:   Saturday (5)         Attachments:   Gator and Steve SnF 2019          Dan Nickens - Nov 10,2020   Viewers  | Reply     Memorable and clearly an event that made a tremendous impression on everyone involved, Steve. Good show, and thanks for all the photos.

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