Sun-N-Fun 2002

 

We left as planned on Thursday April 4th for Sun-N-Fun in a formation flight of 2 with Ross Barnett in his M-II and Joe Haas as his navigator.  Weather worked out beautifully and we had good VFR with a tailwind most of the way.  Both our planes have 160hp engines so we were fairly closely matched.  Ross' plane has a different Hartzell prop on it that is only 66" in diameter but has a very wide chord.  Down low he kept running away from me but up high I had to power back for him.  [click on the picture for a larger version]

     

 
Our fly-in lunch at Hidden Lake was on Saturday the 6th.  We had 9 Mustang II's attend.  Later in the afternoon 4 left for Sun-N-Fun as a formation flight.  Because of an accident at Lakeland we ended up taking the extended scenic tour around Lake Parker and arrived individually as they let a handful of airplanes in at a time.

[click on the picture for a larger version]

        

        

 

The Mustang dinner was Sunday night at Farmer Jones Red Barn.  We completely filled the back room with almost 60 people.  Next year we might have to find larger accommodations.  A few builders finished their projects since last year and those still building filled up on motivation.

All told 16 Mustangs were in attendance at Sun-N-Fun this year.  Only 1 was a Midget Mustang.  Art Irvine of nearby Palm Bay brought pictures of his newly finished Midget.  We hope to see it in person next year.

           

        

 

3 of the Mustang II's at SNF this year were built from our kits.  Steve Crocker, Don Morris, and John Martino all finished in about 4 years.  None of them purchased  the completed wing option and they did their own avionics installations and paint.  All of these planes are set up for full IFR and use the 360 Lycoming.  Don and Steve have constant speed propellers.

     

 

The Sun 100 race on Monday had 5 Mustangs participate; Don Morris, Kirk Harrell, Bob Wagner, Ross Barnett, and Richard Woodsum.  Rick Henry flew with Kirk Harrell and Chris Tieman flew with Ross Barnett.  Don Morris, Bob Wagner, and Richard Woodsum were veteran Sun 100 race pilots.  Wagner, Barnett, and Woodsum all had 320 Lycomings so there was a Mustang II class just for them.
 

Don Morris N468DM

 200 hp IO-360  196 kts
Kirk Harrell N22YR 180 hp IO-360  148 kts **
Robert Wagner N791RW 160 hp O-320  188 kts
Ross Barnett N44Q 160 hp O-320  170 kts
Richard Woodsum N9PA 160 hp O-320  166 kts

  ** Kirk Harrell had a canopy come ajar during the race and had to slow up

LINK to Rick Henry's Mustang Website with more SNF 2002 pictures

 

The show ended on Saturday and we flew home on Monday, a day later than planned because of weather.  Enjoying the warm Florida sun before heading home to Michigan made the decision to stay an extra day much easier.
 
 

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