Procedures, Restrictions and More Give SUN 'N FUN Attendees A Little Homework

The FAA has published the notice and preflight info for this year's Sun 'n Fun Aerospace Expo, getting aviators ready for a jaunt down to Lakeland, Florida.

The notice establishes arrival and departure procedures from April 8th to the 14th, with more than a few changes to normal traffic patterns in effect. To ensure clear and concise comms with ATC, the FAA says, pilots should carry a copy of the notice aboard their aircraft at all times. Daily airshows will preclude arrival traffic until ~45 minutes after they finish, and the airport is fully closed after the night airshow.

Everyone is bracing for a lot of GA traffic, which tends to increase ATC workload with a raft of nonstandard, ad-hoc requests as conditions allow.

Where possible, ATC would like for attendees to make things as standard and orthodox as they can. VFR folks planning on activating an IFR flight plan (or flight following) in the Central Florida area should defer to published procedures. If weather descends down near marginal VFR visibilities, the FAA recommends that pilots file IFR from their point of departure and get their clearance and departure releases on the ground. Given the volume and complexity of so many aircraft, Approach centers in Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville can't promise they will reliably issue a pick-up IFR clearance in the air. Even if it burns some prop time on the ground, doing it the "checkride way" will be safer and easier in the aggregate.

Perhaps more unusually for those who aren't accustomed to jumping into the fray of a large-scale fly-in, flagmen and radio frequencies are quite likely to make an appearance once again. Monitor-only frequencies established in the pipeline towards Lakeland can help organize and sort inbound traffic, so plenty of wing-rocking acknowledgments will be done along the way. Additional info regarding parking signs, taxi planning, and more can be found at the link below.

FMI: www.faa.gov