Sun-N-Fun 2003
 

This year the show started on Wednesday instead of Sunday.  Because of weather and scheduling all but a few of the Mustangs flew out on Thursday, much earlier than we thought.  The whole flight line was fairly vacant by Friday afternoon.  We left the prototype Mustang II at home because we did not finish some upgrades we are making to it.  One thing led to another and some minor changes turned into major ones.  Because of this we did not have an airplane at our booth (folding wings are required to fit in our spot).  The quick build wing and quick build M-II center section drew plenty of attention at the booth.  We did bring our Midget Mustang down and it was on the flight line all week.  It gradually turned from white to brown from all of the dust by the end of the week. Brian Schmidtbauer flew his Mustang II in the Sun 100 race on Thursday.  This was Brian's first Sun 100 race and he tied for 2nd in his class with a Lancair 360, beating another Lancair 360 by 10 kts.  The first place finisher in the 180-200hp open class was the Pollen Special which was powered by a 360 Lycoming using twin turbos to really boost the horsepower.  Brian was significantly faster than all the RV's except Dave Anders highly modified RV-4 which was less than 5 knots faster.  Brian was also faster than an IO-540 powered Harmon Rocket and an IO-540 F1 Rocket (modified RV-4's).  Steve Hammer was the only Glasair that was faster than Brian and that was less than 2kts difference.  It is also worth noting that fellow Mustang II builder and friend Larry Kinder flew in the race with Brian.  We don't think that any of Brian's competition had 2 people on board.  Most of the racers strip their aircraft of all non essential items to save weight.  Larry, a veteran of the 1998 Sun 100, helped with the course navigation which is very important as the turns are not that easy to spot.  Congratulation Brian! The Mustang dinner was on Saturday at the Texas Cattle Company.  There were fewer people than normal as so many had already left but the food was excellent.  Next year we will have it earlier and probably move back to the Farmer Jones Red Barn since it is so much closer to the show and has a private room. Even though it seemed the attendance was down from last year, the show was a good one for us.  There was a lot of interest in the Midget Mustang and we sold more Midget plans and kits than the Mustang II.

	Quick Build Wing display in our tent
	Quick Build Center Section display (bottom skin and left leading edge skin removed)
	Mustangs on the flightline
	Mustangs on the flightline (with a T-18 mixed in)
	Brian Schmidtbauer's Mustang II (see Sun 100 race results)
	Brian Schmidtbauer and Larry Kinder ready for the Sun 100
	Brian Schmidtbauer and Larry Kinder heading home to MN. Not only is Brian's airplane fast but the steep departure was very impressive as well.
	John Martino's Mustang II
	Paul Cox's Instrument Panel
	Steve Crocker's Instrument Panel
	John Martino's Instrument Panel
	Our Midget Mustang on the trip down to Florida (flown by Brian Templeton)
	Our Midget Mustang on the trip down to Florida (flown by Brian Templeton)
	Our Midget Mustang on the trip down to Florida (flown by Brian Templeton)
	Our Midget Mustang on the trip down to Florida (flown by Brian Templeton)