Episode 352 of the pilot the Pilot Podcast takes off now.

The Pilot the Pilot Podcast is brought to you by Ground School from the Finer Points, the indispensable training app for new and experienced pilots.

Visit learnthefinerpoints.com Justin to save 10% off your first year, fly with Garmin Avionics.

Then grab your mobile device and make the Garmin Pilot app your cockpit companion.

Get advanced functions you'll use before, during and after every flight, including updating your aircraft's databases and logging engine data plan file.

Fly log with Garmin Pilot all pilots need the big weather picture and I use SiriusXM Aviation to check the fronts, airmets, segments, turbulence, pireps and more while I'm pre flighting and in route.

All to give my passengers and me the most comfortable flight possible.

And now with the latest offer from SiriusXM, there's never been a better time to upgrade your next flight with the Garmin GDL50 portable receiver to bring SiriusXM and ADS B weather plus traffic into your cockpit.

So my name is Gene Conrad.

I am the President and CEO for the Aerospace center for Excellence in the Sun Aerospace Expo AV Nation.

What is going on?

And welcome back to the Pilot the Pilot podcast.

My name is Justin Seams and I am your host.

Today we are talking with Gene Conrad.

Now Gene is in charge of Sun N Fun.

It was a lot of fun to talk with Gene as he has a lot of great information and a lot of great stories and he actually grew up in the oshkosh area.

So to be so involved with Airventure and to now be running sun and Fun, it's just kind of fun to, to put the two against each other and to talk about both of them.

What you learned from this, how you made this better, what your future plans are.

And he tells a lot, talks about how much they make in a, in an actual event, how much, how expensive it is to put these shows on in the future planning just two years in advance.

You know I also asked him are you able to enjoy the show?

So I was very intrigued and interested by his answer because it's got to be hard in those six days of putting on amazing event you might be focusing on something that you think is going massively wrong while someone else could just be looking the plane be like this is awesome dad, thanks for taking me.

So it was really fun to talk with Gene.

Super impressed with sun and fun.

I, I, I really want to go this year and I'm hoping I can find time to go aviation.

I hope you're having a great day.

The pilot to Pilot magazine is in full effect.

Volume one is out.

We hopefully by the time you're listening to this.

Let's see, there's a massive ice storm coming here in North Carolina.

Uh, it's close to the end of January.

We're finishing up all the content, we're trying to get all the content done, trying to push this out so we can get this episode out on time.

This magazine out on time.

So very excited about volume two.

Um, it is pretty sick.

I, I cannot wait for it to come out.

Thank you so much for subscribing, for listening, for, for taking a chance on this magazine.

Uh, if I hope you have had it by now.

As we said before, there were some shipping issues.

I got all the magazines shipped here.

It was like 1200 pounds of magazines.

I'm shipping them all myself.

I feel like I am on a first name basis with everyone at the UPS store.

My buddy Gus, man, Gus is awesome.

Everyone needs a good UPS guy.

I've realized that in life.

He's made my life pretty easy.

But thank you for ordering the magazines.

It's awesome.

And we're not going to stop.

We're going to try to, to continue and try to make the best product we can.

And hopefully we'll see you at air shows and you can buy magazines in person so you don't have to pay shipping because I have learned shipping is incredibly expensive.

Like more expensive than when we ship coffee.

It is crazy.

So if you have any shipping tips, please let me know.

Justinpilothq.com I don't want to take any more time.

Gene Conra, sun and Fun.

It's a great episode.

Without any further ado, here's Gene.

I mean I, I'm not going to lie to you.

I don't think anyone would ever expect, and you probably never expected yourself to say that you are running sun and Fun and you are living, I assume in the Lakeland area.

But it's just like, I mean it's, it's EAA Venture and Sun and Fun, right?

Like you think like if you're in the Air Venture system, you're staying in the Air Venture system.

You're living there.

Maybe you saw the weather or it's like negative 50 degrees and you're like, I think there's better places to be.

I'm going to move south.

Yeah, well, you know, so I, you know, again, born in Oshkosh, grew up around eaa.

I knew Paul Poberesny Tom Poberesny, Steve Whitman.

You know who the airport up there is named after.

You know, I used to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

His wife Dorothy would bring me in his hangar.

That was my upbringing, right?

So fast forward to, you know, it's 1987.

My dad takes the airport director job at Huntsville International Airport, Huntsville, Alabama.

So Homer, Redstone Arsenal.

So I go from Oshkosh, the kind of the mecca of the flying world, to Redstone Arsenal, kind of the mecca of, you know, the start of the, you know, the space.

Space race in the industry back in the day.

You know, we ran the airport there until, I want to say, 94, and then in went to Worcester, Mass.

Ran the airport there, and then wound up at Dayton.

Right?

So Dayton, Ohio, they're home of the Wright brothers.

So my dad ran that airport from 98 to 2005 when he passed away.

But because of those moves, you know, moving to Alabama, I went to high school there, graduated there.

I went to Auburn my first two and a half years.

So I love.

I'm a War Eagle.

I love Auburn.

But then when my dad moved to Ohio, I transferred up to Ohio State and graduated from there.

So go Buckeyes.

I say go Buckeyes, but, you know, I'm an SEC guy.

I love Auburn football.

It's all good, man.

But anyway, but, you know, getting up to Ohio State, you know, graduated there in aviation management, and I interned at Port Columbus at the airport there when I was going to school.

And then when I graduated in the summer of 2001, I went full time there, worked there for about a year, and then I moved over to Dayton, started working for my father at the Daytona, not working for him because of nepotism and all that, but worked there as an airport operations duty supervisor.

And then when he passed away in 2005, I moved up to.

I was a spokesperson for the airport, did marketing for them, and then, you know, then moved on from there and moved to Branson, Missouri.

And I was.

Worked for a private airport company.

So all these airports, whether it's.

It's Lakeland or it's Dayton or it's Columbus, you know, they're all run by municipalities or government, you know, or county governments or their authorities or whatnot.

The Branson Airport, you know, period of my career, about a year and seven months, private company built $155 million airport in the Ozark Hills.

And as part of that, and when we left, you know, AirTran was operating there, and I believe sun country at the time.

So Two airlines in there to bring people in and out of Branson, Missouri.

So that was cool.

But in saying all that in the summer of 2009, I've volunteered at Airventure for the last 37 years.

Right.

So when I left when I was 11, came back, started volunteering when I was 12.

And then up there at Airventure in the summer of 2009, I found out that the airport director position was open here in Lakeland, Florida.

Right.

And because of my background and obviously Sun N Fun growing up out of the Experimental Aircraft Association, I jumped all over it.

I was 34 years old.

I was like, hey, maybe they'll hire me.

And January 2010, moved here and ran the airport here for 12 years.

And 2022 decided to make the change.

My predecessors decided to leave sunflon.

I said, well, maybe it's my.

Here we are.

Here we are.

I know that's a lot real fast, but that's kind of just my background and how I got here.

So when.

When did you graduate from Ohio State?

I graduated it was June of 20.

June of 20.

2001.

Excuse me.

I may say 2021.

2001.

Nice.

Yeah, I. I graduated aviation management at Ohio State.

I graduated in 2012.

So not too far behind you.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, that's really cool.

It's really interesting to kind of, you know, I kind of view airport directors now.

If you said that based on, like, people chasing, like, dean, being dean of a med school, being a dean of a school.

It's like you have to move around to get to the eventual job that you want to go to.

Like, it's usually don't just get hired at.

I mean, I did a lot of my flight training at Monroe and Charlotte, North Carolina.

It's like, you don't just stay there.

Like, you're like, you're working up.

You want to get to Charlotte one day, right.

Like, you want to get to dfw.

Some people might, but there's always kind of the next thing.

And I never really put it together that people kind of go here to keep moving to get the job they eventually really want.

Yeah, I mean, that's.

That's part of it, just like anything else.

But airports are, you know, they're.

You got it.

You got to move around.

Obviously, I grew up watching my dad moving around to get those cool jobs.

I mean, Oshkosh to come out of the gate, right.

So he was an army aviator.

He flew Obi Mohawks in Vietnam and then the Georgia Air National Guard.

So he had over 5,000 hours in that airplane.

But, you know, watching him move around, I kind of expected that.

And able to get those jobs that you really want, that you're going to have to do that.

And just been fortunate, you know, I'm not.

Not a genius.

You know, I always say I like to put in.

You know, I'm not perfect, but I put in perfect effort and just a lot of hard work to get to these various places and then to get to this job, you know, it's kind of surreal.

I wish my dad was still alive so he could.

Yeah, we came here that.

We came here to Son of fun in 2003 when we.

When he was at Dayton, because we were getting ready for the 100th anniversary of Flight celebration in Dayton for that air show.

We came here to scout.

There's a bolero here that came from Europe and, you know, we wanted to get it up to Dayton or whatnot.

So I came with him here to son phone in 2003.

So that was my first experience.

And it's kind of fun growing up a little bit.

I think I got the Lakeland job to be the airport director here, because when I was interviewing with the city manager, you know, he's asking, you know, I was 34 years old, so I'm probably a little younger than some of the other candidates.

You know, he's probably taking a chance on me.

But I told him, he's like, what.

What differentiates you from everybody else?

You know, you're younger.

I don't know if he said I was younger.

Probably not supposed to say those things if he did, you know, but what differentiates you from everybody else?

And I just told him straight up.

I said, I guarantee you none of your other candidates at 13, 14 years old were counting aerials of San Phon and Airventure to see who had the most airplanes on the airport at the time.

I said, I guarantee you no one else did that.

And I think that may have put me over the edge and got me the job at that point.

So when you.

When you say that, would you say that there is a competitiveness between kind of the sun and fun or the Lakeland Airport area about, hey, like, we would like to be the EA Venture.

We would like to beat them in numbers.

We would like to do this.

Or is it a place where they, you know, that both of these can kind of not necessarily coexist, but, like, it's okay if they're kind of like, the world's busy, you know, the world's Busiest airport for a week.

And we have our own thing down here as well.

Yeah.

And I think that's kind of the way it's always been.

I mean, hey there, Eaa, AirVenture.

That is the Mecca.

We are never going to be that.

You know, we're probably.

And, you know, people ask me this all the time, you know, oh, we're going to be bigger than Airventure.

Well, it's physically impossible because there's just not enough ground for us to be able to do that.

It's physically impossible.

And, you know, at the end of the day, again, they're the granddaddy of the mall.

They're the Mecca and we coexist.

But we're great partners, too, you know, when we do our thing, because we are the, you know, we're spring.

Spring break for pilots.

You know, it's cold up there right now, these winter storms getting ready to hit.

I don't know when this is airing again, but I know they're having one heck of a winter right now, you know, but we're kind of the, you know, the kickoff for the air show season, too, each year, you know, being in April, whether it's, you know, late, late March, early April, we're a little later in April this year because one question we get all the time is why?

Why is the date always moving around?

You know, because Airventure generally is like that last week, you know, full week in July, we're moving around Easter.

Right.

So I get asked that all the time.

So it's basically our weeks are moving based on where Easter falls on the calendar.

So it kind of pushes out a little farther.

Like this year or last year we were like, what, April 1 through 6.

So, you know, but, you know, our events are very, very similar.

We do a lot of the same things, you know, but the big thing is Too, you know, EAA is a membership organization.

So you've got 275, 300,000 members and, you know, that are coming, you know, their events during the summer.

I wish ours was, to be quite honest.

Right.

Because where we fall, again, moving around Easter, you know, we don't match everybody's spring break.

So a lot of folks have spring breaks in March or April or whatnot.

So it's a little harder for the families to get here and, you know, those types of things.

So, you know, but, you know, a lot of, lot of similar things, but I would say.

And, you know, a lot of our visitors, you know, they go to, you know, both shows, you know, ours is obviously A lot easier to navigate.

Right.

Because it's just not as big as far as just the acreage.

And again, Airventure is just gigantic.

And the thousands, and, you know, the thousands and thousands of acres that the event sit on, sits on, we probably sit on about 800 acres.

So you can get around, you know, a lot of the same exhibitors as well.

But, you know, just.

It's a more condensed show, gives you a little bit more opportunity to, you know, see everything in a shorter period of time, but also gives you more time to, you know, hang out with your friends and.

And, you know, have a good time.

And that's really what both events are about.

You know, Paul Poberesny always said the planes bring us together, but it's the people that keep us coming back.

And that's what it's.

You know, I love seeing my friends every year, whether I go up to volunteer at Airventure or when they all come back here for summon, fun and hanging out, you know, once you get through the day because everybody's busy and exhibitors and watching the air show and all that stuff.

Once you get to five o', clock, that's probably the most fun for me.

Yeah, it's ready to go.

Yeah, it's over.

Yeah, I agree with you.

I mean, I've been going to Airventure.

I don't know, now maybe like eight years.

I'm from North Carolina.

My dad was an airline pilot, but had no interest.

I played football my whole life, played sports, thought I was going pro, all that kind of stuff.

So aviation kind of came to me a little later.

Never really grew up wanting to go.

And then when I finally went, you know, I love airplanes.

I obviously have a podcast, the magazine, I talk about it, but there comes a point where, you know, after like a couple days there, it's like, I just want to hang out with my friends.

I just want to, like, we don't have to.

Let's just hang out, buy a tent.

Let's just sit down.

You know, Air Venture gets hot.

Sun and fun gets hot too, right?

It's like, I want some shade, some ac, and I don't want move.

So I have found myself now.

It's a yearly trip with some of my buddies, right.

We never see each other except for this one week.

And we just have a lot of fun.

So it's.

It's a good time.

And I. I will give a shout out to Pete's Garage Bar.

You've probably been there before, but my favorite place in the whole world to Eat food is Pete's Garage Bar.

I never make it over to Pete's.

On.

On.

On the.

On the field there at Airventure.

I believe it's over there by the fly market.

So it's up there by the exhibit buildings and all that.

But the last day of Airventure last year, after we were done volunteering, we went to Pete's Garage.

We went to the actual restaurant.

Oh, you got to.

You got to go to the actual restaurant.

It is awesome.

We had a good time.

Pete's the most unique person I've ever met in my life.

Yeah.

And by the way, the per.

So I went with some of my friends, you know, people I work with here at Sun N Fun.

And then also I'm good buddies with Jim Shell, who's the airport director up there at Oshkosh.

So we all.

I mean, we hang out, we talk to each other every so often throughout the year because, you know, I ran the airport here with this big event, and he's there with that big event, so we talk quite a bit and stuff like that.

So it's fun to hang out with him because we come from the same world a little bit, so it's fun.

Yeah.

And, you know, what's interesting is people see, like, two different organizations.

Whether you can bring it down to a level of like, podcasters versus podcasters or YouTubers versus YouTubers, but at the end of the day, we are all here to create an environment for aviators to come and either begin flying, love flying, kind of foster their love and education for flying.

So, I mean, yeah, there's competition, right?

Yeah.

Like, I want to have the biggest and best podcast, but at the end of the day, if you like listening to someone else and you're still a pilot and you go to Airventure, then let's do it.

Like, this is awesome.

I'm glad that you're here.

At the end of the day, we need more flying events.

We need more air shows, because guess what?

There's so much competition for everybody's attention.

Right.

There's so much out there in the world now for everybody to consume.

And, you know, we need to.

We need the industry as a whole.

We need to stay relevant.

We need to stay in front of folks.

So these events, air shows all over the country, very, very important.

I'm on the board for the International Council of Air Shows.

Right.

And a lot of kids who have never experienced aviation go to that first air show, and they see something that, you know, clicks the trigger in their brains, and you Know whether it's a demo team or it's Mike Gulian or God rest his soul, Rob Holland flying.

And they're just in awe of what they're.

What they're watching and seeing and that sparks it.

And then they go from there.

I mean.

Yeah.

That's all about.

Yeah.

I got a four year old and he's.

I'm pretty sure he's me ask me to tag along here soon.

So I look forward to the day taking him to my first.

To his first son and fun or to his first Airventure.

Yeah.

I've got an 18 year old and I got a. I got a 5 year old by my 18 year old.

He goes to Polk State College Aerospace and he wants to be an airline pilot.

I don't know where he got this aviation bug and all that stuff, but.

I wonder what it is.

Yeah.

So he wants to go do that.

And my five year old absolutely loves space.

I'm at three years old.

You can name all the planets.

I could just get my iPhone, pick a planet, any picture.

And he would just say what it was.

I couldn't even believe it.

The kids.

He's super smart.

That comes from his mother, not from me.

Same.

I say the same thing.

Anyone knows me know it's from his mom, not from me.

You mentioned you talked a little about the size of the airport itself and the differences between what Airventure actually owns versus what you guys own.

I remember recently.

Ish.

I don't know the timeline.

You probably know better than me.

But Amazon is a big factor where you are as well and you share.

Amazon's ramped up a lot.

There has.

Are they been a good partner with this.

Are they all in for this or are they kind of like, look, this is our side of the airport.

Don't mess with it.

We got stuff to ship.

Well, guess what?

I was the airport director who brought them here.

Right.

Yeah.

I figured they gotta ask.

Yeah.

And I'm gonna be honest with you.

I mean the first day when they came in, I told them and I thought they would walk out the door, but I said hey, summer fun is here.

It's a six day event.

It's super important to what we do.

You know, there is impact so you need to prepare accordingly.

And the big thing for them is where they actually.

Where they have built now.

You know, back in what it opened in July of 2020 actually during COVID But where that building sits, it's in the aerobatic box for the jet jet demonstration team.

So for the blues and the Thunderbirds.

So we wrote into their lease that they have to vacate completely.

Evacuate that building.

Yeah.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for up to two hours per day to accommodate the jet demonstration teams.

So it's in the lease and they have to get out and they agree to it.

I'll be honest, I couldn't believe they agreed to it.

But what I'd also tell you is, you know, they also, because of the event, especially Saturday, you know, or Wednesday and Saturday when we do the night shows or whatever, they cut flights to accommodate the various things that we're doing.

So, like last year, for example, they cut 28 flights during the week to help us accommodate everything that's going on on Saturday.

They actually shut down the building and do maintenance.

Right.

So they cancel all flights.

Last year, it happened to be Thursday.

The three or four prior years, it was Saturday.

It'll probably go back to Saturday this year.

But they completely shut down and do maintenance on the building one of those days, too.

So they use it to their advantage as a time to, you know, do some preventative maintenance and stuff.

Because that building, three floors inside, the conveyor belts, robots, all these things all over the place, but.

Insane.

Yeah.

But I mean, you know, it's.

You know, the big thing is, when you think about it, you know, I grew up, you know, again, at Oshkosh.

When I was a kid, I used to watch Republic Airways flying in Air Wisconsin, all that stuff.

And.

And, you know, it does create, you know, it doesn't make things as seamless and smooth, I guess, as you could say sometimes, you know, with them being here.

But, you know, faa, over the last several years, we've just like Airventure, you know, our.

The arrival procedure, the holding pattern.

Right.

You know, at Airventure, it's out through all those lakes, Green Lake or whatever it is now, it's a giant.

If they have to go into the hold, it's a giant hold.

So we increase the size of our hold because if Amazon's coming in, they'll shut down the arrival, let them land, and then open it back up, you know, and we just needed a bigger hold based on the volume of the aircraft.

But, you know, it's no different than like a C17 or C130 or someone else coming in, too, during the event, to be here, static or whatnot, you know, so we just got to accommodate it.

So I think the big thing, too, for the airport, I think there's a lot of misinformation out there.

So, for example, you can go to flatsnf.org our website.

There's a button at the top says news media and the first drop down it says sun and fun future narrative or something like that.

And so in the future there's gonna be a southern parallel here, right?

So we've got 10 to 8 and then you've got 523 which the crosswind.

But we close that during son fun because we're putting all the heavy statics on there and stuff like that or the, you know, the jet teams.

But there will be a southern parallel in the future.

So that crossing will go away.

A southern parallel which then, you know, pushes us down a little bit, you know, to accommodate that Runway plus a southern taxiway.

But having that new Runway, having two real parallel runways here, we can do so much more volume.

I would tell you during sun and fun because what happens now, you know, if you got a heavy bird coming in on 1028, you know, it needs to go north, right?

Whether it goes wants to go to the FBO or it's Amazon, they want to go to the ramp, they can't turn north because we're using alpha as the Runway.

So 10 left, 2, 8, right, right.

So we're landing with the orange and green dots on the taxiway.

So indeed, in order to keep that sterilized, they can't turn north.

Once we have two parallel runways, they can land on the existing 1028, turn north and then we continue to operate on the smaller parallel to the south and makes our life golden.

The one thing about Airventure, if you think about they are set up perfectly because they have 927, they have 10.2.8 plus the taxiway.

You can work so much and then, you know, if you got to close down 927 because there's a fender bender or someone did a ground loop or whatnot.

You can still operate, you know, on 1836 to the south here.

You know, we're pretty limited just having the big Runway and then the taxiway.

But with those two parallels and maybe even using a third in using a taxiway too, we could do that.

We could have three parallels and run a lot of, a lot of traffic in and out of here.

So that's kind of the way the future is looking.

But with that, you know, we got to get ready for the future and that future parallel.

So we're going to build new exhibit buildings in the future.

2 40,000 square foot air conditioned.

They will be air conditioned exhibit buildings.

Let's go.

You'll probably see Those in the next three to four years coming out of the ground.

So that's the goal and where we're moving.

So when people come back this year, it looks just the same as when they left last year.

But the planning, we're moving forward and getting ready for our long term future here in Lakeland.

Yeah, love to hear that.

And I also love to kind of hear how your brain works.

Right.

Like the average person that comes to sun and fun is there for the event.

They don't think about, like, all right, this plane needs to go north.

How do we do that?

We got to shut this down.

Our heavy planes are over here.

The benefits that like your brain's probably like always, like, all right, how do we just make it like 2% more efficient?

Right.

Like, how can we make this just more efficient and make more sense?

So the way that you're able to do that and the way that you're able to think about that, it's just fascinating to kind of get that idea.

And it's also great to hear here that planning for the future is happening and going to happen because everyone wants the improvements.

Everyone, I mean, I'm going to say this.

Everyone wants the air conditioning.

No, you cannot get enough air conditioning at these air shows.

It's just like a magnet for bad.

It's a magnet for one really bad storm and just really hot weather.

It doesn't matter where you go, but it always happens.

Yeah.

And I mean, you know, it's, it's, you got to have a plan.

It's all about the future.

I mean, when, again, go back to our footprint when we said we sit on 8, 800 acres, we spend.

So we lease from the airport about 177 acres year round.

Right.

So we're fenced out of the airport.

We have access with aircraft.

We can get through an aircraft gate or whatnot.

But you know, when we get, when we have the event, we come out of the fence line.

Right.

And we expand out to additional 600 plus.

Right.

So we only lease about 177.

We don't own it.

We only own 15 acres that are volunteers.

We have a campground on, but the rest of it we're leasing from the airport.

You know, so we've got great partners there and they're gonna, you know, there's a lot to do.

I mean, this stuff is not easy.

But I mean, if you think back to airventure, you know, 30 years ago, you know, those exhibit buildings weren't there where they are now.

You know, the way it looks now where the tower is, all that stuff has changed over time.

But they did a master plan, right?

And they planned their footprint out and what it was gonna look like in the future to make it much more guest friendly and the walking paths and all these things that they have now.

And we just went through a year's effort prior to last year, you know, doing that planning and getting ready for our future as well.

So, you know, can't wait for others.

And we got to get moving on our plans.

And we've got great partners here, for example, with business Central Florida, our tourist development council, you know, they're going to put 10 million in these buildings for us.

So we've already got that programmed with them.

So these things all cost money.

Well aware of that.

Right.

You know, working at the airport here in Lakeland, things cost a lot of money, you know, but.

But we're going to be ready to go and start getting these things out of the ground and get this place set up for the next 50 years.

From your first takeoff in a Cessna 172 to chasing horizons in a Beechcraft King Air or cruising high in a Cessna Citation Longitude, Textron Aviation has been there for pilots like you, generation after generation.

For nearly 100 years, the name Cessna and Beechcraft have meant one thing, an aircraft you can count on.

Whether you're flying for business, for adventure, or just for the love of it, Textron Aviation builds the aircraft that help you do more and go farther.

So if you're thinking about upgrading your aircraft, stepping into your first jet, or expanding your fleet, Textron Aviation is ready to help you take the next step.

They offer the performance, capability and support that pilots trust every single day.

Because when the sky is your inspiration, Textron Aviation is your partner.

And what's next?

Learn more about how Textron Aviation is built for the skies ahead today@txttav.com that's txtav.com/config.

Very excited to add Textron Aviation to the sponsor list for the pilot.

The pilot podcast.

Always, always wanted a plane from Textron Aviation.

My dream plane is a 182, maybe a 206.

So hopefully the next couple years we can make that happen.

But shout out Textron Aviation and as I said, make sure you go to txtav.com what does it take?

So like sun and fun ends when is planning for the next year?

Sun and fun.

Has that already been planned?

Is already done.

So we're already working on 2027 right now.

That was a question.

Yeah.

So getting ready for 2026.

I mean it's non stop and you know, I think something for people to understand too.

So Sunflond, everybody knows us for that.

But our parent company is the Aerospace center for Excellence.

So the other 51 weeks out of the year we're doing educational program.

We've got our aviation high school here, Central Florida Aerospace Academy, the Lakeland Aero Club, our high school flying club.

We have the Skylab Innovation center.

We're bringing 4,000 fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders through here.

We're paying to bus these kids in for purpose built field trips in our Redbird flight simulation lab, our engineering lab, UAS drone lab, just to introduce these kids, you know, to aviation.

We have an A and P program here on site.

I mean I can go on and on and on.

There's so much here, you know, but we're doing that on top of getting ready for the flying this year.

So it's, it's year round and something, you know, coming from the airport side, people are like, oh, it must be easier to work at Sun N Fun and run Sun N Fun or ace because you know, you're only, it's what, six day event and you only start planning right after the holidays.

No, sir, that's, that's not the case.

It is year round and you know, and it's kind of, I would tell you too, just being in the, specifically in the air show flying industry now for the last four years, you know, our show also being at the beginning of the year kind of puts us a little bit at a disadvantage.

Especially when we're like, I'll just tell you, like when we're trying to get cool warbirds here because they're all in winter maintenance right now and then if something, they find something like last year we tried, we wanted to get Fifi here in Diamond Lil with the commemorative Air Force, right?

But they're coming out of winter, they're in winter maintenance at that time and they had big mechanicals and had to change engines and do all kinds of stuff and they couldn't get here.

So being super early in the year is also to get those cool things here.

It is, it is not as easy as people think.

Like why can't you get this or get that or.

Well, trust me, we're trying.

Yeah, like we want them there too.

They have mechanicals, you know, things happen or they just, you know, and, or it costs a lot to move these things across the country and they have to choose and pick, you know, what makes the most sense for them.

Because a Lot of these obviously organizations are non profits foundations that are operating and running these warbirds.

And again, they're super expensive, so I get it.

I mean, they got to choose them.

They got to pick and choose where they want to be or where they're going to get the best bang for their buck, you know, because a lot of like caf, when they come here, they're doing ride hopping and they need to generate revenue.

We don't take any of that from them.

You know, we want them to keep all that, to keep these warbirds flying.

So these people have to.

These, they have to pick and choose what makes the most sense for them to, you know, because they got bills to pay too.

So we try our hardest though.

We're gonna have a great year though.

Stay tuned, you know, for stuff that's gonna come out this year.

We have a lot of cool airplanes coming, so keep your fingers crossed.

Yeah, no maintenance, no heavy maintenance.

Everything needs to go smoothly.

As someone that has been involved with Airventure, with sun and fun, when you go, let's say you're on a weekend, you know, someone's like, hey, there's this cool weekend show.

Let's go check out on the east coast of Florida or North Carolina, wherever it is.

What to you makes a good air show?

Because obviously these air shows aren't going to be able to get the names.

You get to get everything else that you get.

But what, like just a core makes a good air show?

Oh, it's hard to say, you know, because, you know, growing up at Airventure, you know, I was spoiled, so I've always seen some of the best.

But it really depends on what you're looking for because then, you know, then my dad, I wound up in Dayton and then, you know, I'm working airport operations.

When we're at Dayton, we had the 2003 show and we had, we had the Thunderbirds, the Blue Angels and the Snowbirds for four days in a row and they all flew every single day.

So it really depends on what you like because Airventure, you get the single ship demos and that and.

Right.

But the blues and the Thunderbirds have performed as Snowbirds in the past.

But if you want like hardcore thunder, knock your socks off, your heart's pounding, you know, that kind of stuff, then you probably want to go like a Dayton or one of those weekend air shows.

But like a Son of Fun or Airventure, you know, the aviation enthusiast I think is more inclined to.

Most probably want to come to our shows because there's just so much more to offer.

You know, a lot of those weekend air shows, you know, they have the static displays and all that.

They'll have the, obviously the military recruiters out there and you know, local things.

But just as far as like you want to be see what's happening in the industry, you know, then it's Airventure or it's a Buckeye out there with aopa.

Now that show has been doing really well for them out there with Buckeye.

The airport people out there came to visit, you know, our airport several years back because they're, you know, getting ready to, I guess work with AOPA to get that event going.

I think they had an event and then partnered with aopa.

But those types of events are different.

But if you just want that heart pounding, non stop action, you know, those weekend shows are pretty cool.

You know, but on our weekend we're doing that here.

So our show, when you think about Sonophone, it's kind of really two different shows.

You got Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

It's like for the aviation enthusiasts, right, because you want to fly in, you want to see our exhibitors, you know, you want to go to the forums and the workshops, right?

And obviously those weekend air shows aren't doing all those things like Airventure and sun and fun, but we're kind of again, two, two different shows.

Aviation enthusiasts be here with us Tuesday through Friday.

And then when we get to the weekend, it's a stroller derby.

I'm just gonna be honest with you.

Saturday, stroller derby Sunday, stroller derby Saturday.

Last year we had 60,000 people here.

We parked over 18,000 cars.

It was single biggest day in the history of our organization or this flying.

So it was, you know, and what.

You know, and some people like it and some people don't.

And I appreciate that, you know, because you know, some of the flying guests, you know, there's just so much going on with all these people here.

But you know, at the end of the day, we're a non profit and we're just fortunate that that many people want to be here with us.

So you know what, I love to not, you know, or just have all aviation enthusiasts and do.

Yeah, yeah.

But you know, we also got lots of bills to pay and so we gotta get.

I'm just being honest.

I mean that's just a real thing, you know.

And so we have to, we have to get as many people as we can in here on the weekend.

So, you know, I would like it because you know, if you go back to like With Sonnen Fun back in the early days, or EAA at AirVenture, you could not, unless you're an EAA member, you couldn't even go on the flight line.

Do you know that?

No.

Yeah.

So way back in the day, that's what a lot of, you know, like a lot of our folks that have been around for a long time, you know, are used.

Like that's what they remember, you know.

But it was also.

It wasn't very inclusive to allow that little kid to get in or that family to be up close to those airplanes.

But you literally couldn't go out to the flight line.

You could be there, but you were back behind the fence, literally.

And I think it was that way, too.

Here.

If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me.

But I remember when I was a kid, you couldn't do that, you know, unless you were a member, get on the flight line and stuff.

So those days are gone, you know, but we, you know, there it is expensive, I will just tell you right now, to put on some fund each year.

It's about $7 million.

Dang.

That's how much the cost is.

Right.

And so what's the overwhelming cost of that?

Is it the.

The infrastructure that's been built?

Is it just for airplanes to show up?

Is it for food?

What's kind of like the biggest cost out of that?

I mean, obviously I got staff costs, so my staff, I mean, that's all built in, so all in salaries, all that stuff.

But then it's, you know, then it's, you know, I got to pay for police officers, I gotta pay for firefighters to be here.

I gotta pay for Polk County Sheriff's Office to control traffic out there, you know, on the roads.

I, you know, all the tents, you know, that we produce.

Right.

I mean, just a tent bill alone is about $700,000 for just the tents that we produce.

Yes.

You know, hotel rooms.

You know, we're very fortunate because we're a volunteer organization.

So we have over 3,000 volunteers that converge on Sunflower to help us put on this event each year to converge on Lakeland, you know, just to feed all of them.

It's $72,000.

Right.

That's crazy.

We got to keep our workforce going.

Right?

We got to feed these folks.

And, you know, Porta Potties alone, you know, Porta Potties, I mean, we have 600 plus porta potties, plus all the comfort stations and shower houses, and that's another $260,000.

And I could just go down the list.

I mean, get the invoice out.

I was going to say the hotel rooms, like the air show performers and the demo teams and stuff we got to pay for, that's $250,000.

I mean, so it all just adds up really fast.

Security, that was 75,000.

So I mean, it adds up real quick.

But, you know, but that's what it's all about.

But once we pay all those bills, then those, the net proceeds from the event go back into all of our educational program.

And so when people come and they're buying that $45 ticket, they're buying that hot dog or they're doing whatever, you know, those proceeds help us pay those bills and then go back into our programming for our youth here in central Florida.

What would you say you've learned?

Whether it's from Airventure back in the day, whether it's from other air shows or other stops along the way to get here to help you to put on the best event possible and to kind of build what you did at Lakeland or just at the airport in.

General, the biggest thing is to find the best people.

So I'm fortunate.

So on my air shows and attractions person, Dennis Dunbar, I don't know if you know Dennis.

So he did air shows and attractions at Airventure, right?

So when I came here, I made a phone call.

So he ran all the air show and stuff up there at Airventure.

I volunteered for him.

So when I came here, I asked, say, hey, you want to come with me, buddy?

So he did.

But I will tell you, he's one of the best in the industry.

You know, these night shows that we see nowadays, those are his brainchild, right?

And he's here and he helps us put on great shows.

He works other shows throughout the year as well because it really doesn't make sense for us to just keep him here in an office, you know, and he needs to be out there in the industry, be relevant, be out there with those folks, you know, and be, be pushing the envelope safely, right?

Be pushing the envelope so we can put on cool stuff to inspire and show people some things that they haven't seen before.

But you know, to bring in Dennis here, or Jane Winter used to work for Airventure, just finding the right people to fill those seats, I mean, is really the biggest thing to help drive these things that we want to do.

Because it is, again, as we talked about earlier, it's not easy.

You know, it's a year round job to get this, get this thing Moving in the right direction, you know, putting all this programming together.

There's just so much that goes in, you know, to these events.

I mean it's really, it's a logistical ballet, you know, and finding like minded people, people that just want to get the job done.

I've been very fortunate to just have good people that have worked with me because I'm not, you know, I'm not, I don't know everything, but I'm, I have my talent, I guess, is to find people that complement my weaknesses.

I know that's kind of cliche and oh, what book did you read just come up with that.

But I'll be honest, that's, that's the truth of it is, you know, I know my weaknesses is I will tell you right now, I'm an appeaser and I try to make people happy and I'm well aware that I can't always deliver and make everybody happy at the same time.

But sometimes you have to have the person that's a little more, you know, on your team, that's a little more heavy handed, kind of sometimes pass that over or whatnot.

So, you know, finding the good, the best people possible to help is key really for business or anything else.

But for these, for our type of events, it's difficult.

But you got to have good people that are willing to put in the hours and are here for the mission too.

I mean that's, you know, that's one thing is I got people that believe, you know, what we're doing here and trying to, you know, get the next generation ready and doing as much as possible.

Yeah.

What would you say are the main differences between running an airport and running what you're doing right now?

Is it very similar?

I would imagine.

I mean, just like outside looking in, running an airport can be exciting, but this has to be way more exciting, right?

Like who you're talking to, what you're trying to plan, what you're trying to do.

But I'm sure there are still a lot of, you know, like lawyers, fine print details that you got to figure out.

So there's probably a lot of similarities just with a little bit more excitement, especially for six days.

Yeah, well, there's definitely more excitement during six days, but I, it was a lot of excitement when I was running the airport too.

But you know, again I get asked that all the time.

It is, it is so much harder doing this because whether it's running and when you run the airport, you're running it every day.

Right.

You're tweaking it.

Every day you're tweaking your operation, you're trying it.

It's all about efficiency being better, continuous improvement.

But when you run an event like this, Sonnofon Airventure, these air shows, you know, we plan, plan, plan, right?

So we came out, we came out of April, we had a great event, knock on wood.

It was safe, all of that stuff.

But there's always things you want to make better.

So then you come out of that, you debrief, you talk about these things, hey, we got new plans.

We're going to try this.

We're going to do this and correct this thing that didn't work, and then you unpack it.

You operate for six days, you look at it really fast, and then you pack it all back up, put it back in the suitcase, and then start talking about it again.

But I only get to operate for six days, right?

I don't get to do it every single day.

I can't fix things.

It's not as easy to like turn the ship or like, you know, the tram routes, for example.

When I first got here, I made some changes my first year and you know, going in thinking, oh, this will be really smart, it'll be great.

It was a miserable failure.

I'll just be honest, it sucked.

It was horrible, right?

But we fixed it.

So we come back out, we're like, that was bad, my fault.

I take the hit.

Now let's go back to what we're doing or do this, or make these little tweaks.

And then it's been good ever since, right?

But I messed it up.

I'll be honest, that was my fault, you know, thinking.

But that's what the difficulty with it, right?

Because I can't go out and put it into practice before I bring all these people in, right?

And that's, that's the difficult part of basically everything that we do.

For events of this size and scope, it is very, very difficult.

We try really hard.

You know, but also when you think about it, you know, again, having 3,000 volunteers, so just trying to communicate and make sure every volunteer appreciates and understands what we're trying to do, it is not easy.

You know, you set up structure, chairmans, co chairs, do all this stuff, but to get the message out and get everybody on the same page is not, it is not easy.

So I love it.

It's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of stress too.

You know, being a non profit, you know, there's all these variables, weather, other things that we don't Control, right?

That, you know, put the pressure on and can affect, you know, the outcome and the performance of what you're trying to do.

So that's.

That keeps me up at night.

That's what I worry about.

You know, I know we're gonna have cool planes, a lot of people are gonna show up and all that, but all those things I can't control, which I'm told not to worry about.

I still worry about it.

Are you able to enjoy the six days or is it just like, problem after?

Like, is it just like, boom, boom, boom?

Or like, are you so are you so much just engulfed with, like, how to make this better, how to make it better?

What can I do?

What can I do?

But can you ever just sit down and be like, oh, look, I like.

To tell you, my first Sonic, I was miserable the whole time.

I'm not gonna lie.

I'm just gonna tell you, you know, like, for example, you know, we have these 500 plus exhibitors show up here this each year.

And we worked really, really hard and spent about $400,000 trying to improve our WiFi, right?

Because I have all these exhibitors in here.

They need to be able to transact business and communicate home and do other things while they're here.

And it didn't work great.

And so I had to eat the humble pie on that one, you know, my first year, so I couldn't enjoy it because I'm just getting bombarded with upset people, rightfully so, because we screwed it up, right?

And so that's.

That's what I worry about.

So 2023 wasn't great.

2024 was better.

I had the most fun I've ever had last this back in April for our 51st.

That was a good time.

But I will tell you Sunday at 5, when the air show's done, the jet team's landed.

I'm a pretty happy camper at that point, but it's stressful.

I mean, there's just so much going on and you want to do your best.

And, you know, and the biggest thing for me is I want to be able to.

Whether it's my team that works for me or it's our volunteers, my number one job is to provide resources to these folks so they can go out there and execute, you know, and I tell them all the time, you know, if I don't know, I can't help you.

So reach out.

I monitor social media for us, so I have people that do that.

But I look at it, right?

And so I'm watching What's happening?

Also, like, my first year in 2023, we had my vintage camping and parking friends.

You know, people that flew in were not happy because we moved some of our comfort stations around in the shower houses and stuff.

So they were not happy with that.

So I saw it on social media.

I'm like, oh, oh, take a note of that.

But I'll reply and say, hey, we screwed that up.

We'll fix it, all that stuff.

But I like to stay on top of it.

But again, my job is to provide resources and if I can make those quick fixes, you know, during the event, then I want to be able to do that, but also empower my people to do it too, and just get it done.

So, yeah, so Sunday at 5pm, show's over, you're sitting back, you know, whether you're on fire, you know, whatever it is you're client, I don't know, whatever you do to relax, have a beer, have a beer.

You're drinking a beer of your choice.

Probably not new Glarus spotted cow, but maybe you never know.

When you look back on the previous six days, what determines a good show?

Like, what would make you happy?

I'll be honest, what makes me happy is everybody's safe.

There's so much going on.

I just want no hits, no runs, no errors.

Wayne Boggs, who's if one of our air show bosses, been around for decades and decades and decades.

He always says that at Air show briefs.

No hits, no runs, no airs, and let's go home and let's see everybody's smiling face next year.

That's the biggest thing.

The money and all that and the performance and how many people show.

Everybody loves to ask about that, but I'm relieved when I know everybody's safe.

That's all I care about.

Yeah, and that's like a common theme in everything in aviation, right?

Like the brief that we do.

I'm an airline pilot, so the brief we do, you know, they always ask, do you have anything to add?

It's like, yeah, I want to make sure I go home to my kids.

Like, that's what's most important to me is I want to make sure, avoid paperwork, and let's go home to our families and get everyone else safe.

You know, it's like, it's really cool to see how that kind of just takes into account all throughout aviation, whether it's air shows, running an airport, running an airline, whatever it is, like, the main goal here is for people to be safe and go home and see their Families and come back again another day, like you said.

And to that point, like when we were talking earlier about Amazon, one thing that happens like last year, like Tuesday and Wednesday, I don't know what days you're here, but we had fog until what, 10, 10:30 both mornings, right?

So you have, so what happens with like aircraft arrivals and departures for us, you know, it gets really condensed, right?

Because the notam goes into effect at 7am and then it stops, you know, then we shut down for the daytime air show at one, right?

Then we have a four hour air show and then we open again at five and then we close again at seven.

So we have really condensed periods of time for aircraft to depart and arrive.

And last year, you know, Tuesday and Wednesday and even think Thursday we had fog till 10, 10:30 in the morning, right?

So then it really squeezes the arrival window and departures, right?

So it gets really busy here, right, with aircraft movements.

And so a big change that we're making this year and no one's done this is like in the fly in, like Airventure hasn't done this yet.

I think it'd be a little bit more difficult to, for them to do it just because of the size and the scope.

But Wednesday this year we are not going to do the daytime air show.

We're not going to do an air show from 1 to 5.

We're going to start it at 5 and go to 9:30, right?

So on Wednesdays we would have the 1 to 5 air show, stop, open for two hours, close and then go 7 to 9:30.

We're going to start the daytime air show at 5 and go through 9:30, right?

So it gives everybody a much larger window to get in here, get out, depart, maybe go do a fly out somewhere, come back and then you can come back and watch the air show.

So it's a big change.

So we're trying to get the word out.

So I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today to kind of talk about that.

I got you man, I got you.

But it also gives, you know, if you're flying in, it gives you more time, especially with our exhibitors.

Our exhibitors are paying a lot of money to be here, right?

So they're paying for booth space, they're paying for food and beverage for their folks, time off or you know, paying them to be here.

You know, hotel rooms, rental cars, it all gets super expensive to be here.

Doing this also gives them more time for our aviation guests to get in here, the enthusiast and go talk with Them, look at the technology, look at avionics, look at airplanes, do whatever it is instead.

The air show starting at 1 and everybody leaves the exhibit buildings and goes out to the flight line.

They can stay back and continue on with their day.

Gives more times for forums and workshops and all that, but kind of just takes that high pace and, and gives us more, a little bit more breathing room.

So we're going to try it this year.

It's a new thing for us.

So we're looking forward to that.

So as someone that's been around air shows forever, you know, you've seen everyone perform.

You've seen every big airplane you could ever see.

There's probably nothing that you haven't seen, right?

But outside of, you know, those awesome performers or the biggest airplanes, what is maybe something that most people don't really realize that they can do an air show that that is very beneficial or something that you love to do.

Like, I mean it could be as simple as like grabbing your favorite snack here or sitting under here.

But like, or like going to this forum, just talk about something that most people wouldn't know about.

Sun n Fun that you think they should really try and encourage them to go do.

You know, I think it's.

Over the last couple years we've been just trying to really work.

You know, we talk about camaraderie early and obviously being with your friends and all that.

So out on the east side of the airport, you know, we have the island.

Have you heard of the island?

Yeah, so the island.

So we developed that my first year here in 2023.

So it's out there with all the aircraft areas, whether it's home built, it's vintage, it's seaplanes, you know, our bushwheel base camp for our big tire friends.

You know, the island has all the amenities for our folks.

So there's a big tent out there for shade.

There's food and beverage there.

Pilot welcome center is there.

There's a country store there.

So for our general aviation campers that fly in, so all their supplies are there and all that.

But we also do entertainment over there.

So there are pockets actually of various entertainment in the evening.

So we do our concert Tuesday night, the Warbird ramp and all that.

But even after the concert on Tuesday night, we're having music at the island.

So we have a stage out there, we're doing music.

This year we have a new area called the Swamp and our west campground for our RV tent campers by hangar E where our parts exchange is and right outside hanger E We're gonna have a 50 by 50, 10 for shade.

But at night, you know, obviously the tent will be there, but there'll be food and beverage out there, lights up in the trees, picnic tables.

We'll have some entertainment, you know, some music out there from 8 to 10 as well.

The corn roast.

Have you been to our corn roast?

Do you own barn roast?

So there's a stage out there in the campground that runs, I think, from six to eight.

There's music out there.

We actually have an EAA chapter that drives around with ears of corn that they've roasted with butter.

Right.

So those little things like that.

And I know that they have that up at Airventure too, and various things or whatnot.

But you have all these little areas of cool things that are happening again at the island or the swamp.

There's even music in the exhibit area at Sunset Grill.

They have music out there.

So just kind of relax in the evenings, have a good time, you know.

But that stuff is kind of just all, you know, little pockets of that happening all over the place and just finding those things.

I'm.

I will tell you, everybody likes food and, you know, various things.

Chick Fil a will actually be here this year.

So let's go.

Yeah, so let's go.

I mean, every time, you know, I love Chick Fil a. I don't go there very often, but, you know, it's very good, obviously.

But they will be here this year.

They will not serve on Sunday.

Just like everybody.

They've been asking me that.

No, they won't serve, but, you know, cool little things like that.

We used to have the Amish donuts here, and so there was donuts in the morning and for whatever reason, they haven't been back.

And I've tried to contact them and I can't get them back.

But I get asked about the them all the time.

So, yeah, those types of little fun things, you know, they're.

They're, they're all over the place, if you can find it.

Oh, Aopa, I was watching on social media this last year, they have like a trivia night, like at 5 when the air show ends and they're having beverages in their tent and stuff and doing trivia, just hanging out.

And so I was like, oh, that seems cool.

I gotta go check that out.

Yeah, you're like, how do I get an invite?

Where's my invite?

Aopa, I think it's Friday.

Fasaka, the Vintage Aircraft association over there, they have a fish fry on Friday night.

There you go.

During the event too.

So lots of cool stuff like that that's outside the air show and the.

All the airplanes, all that stuff.

But again, it's all that people stuff that makes it fun at the end.

Of the day, you know, let's just say you have like a magic crystal ball or even like just you're dreaming, right?

Like, you seem like you're planning.

You want it to be the best.

It can be 10, 15 years late, like, in the future.

What's your dream?

I don't know.

Like, we're talking right now.

Like, what would you.

What would make you the most happy or would bring you the most joys of 50 years?

Be like, well, guess what?

Son of fun is doing this, or son of fun has done this.

I'll be honest, I will be the happiest in 10 or 15 years.

When we're.

When the event is on, we're in the middle of the week and we have to close the airport because we can't park any more airplanes.

That make me super happy.

You know, that happens at Airventure, you know, especially at GA camping and GA parking up on the end of the field or whatnot.

I would love to get to that point.

I just want to close.

I gotta.

I want to be able to call the airport director and be like.

Or the airport director called me and said, we have no more space at the end.

That make me super happy.

I love it.

As someone who has done some cool stuff and has been around and has led airports, led sun and Fun, been involved with Airventure.

When you retire, is there anything that you want to be known for?

Is there anything like leaving a legacy or just continuing to show how you can build stuff like this and put on great events and be happy doing it?

Is there anything that, like, would really, I mean, kind of similar question about sun and Fund, but more like personally, that would make you happiest when.

When you finally wrap it up and you're finally like, I'm done.

I'll be honest with you, you know, now that I'm 50, so I just turned 50 in October.

I have just been super fortunate in my career.

God forbid I was to pass away, I'm pretty happy.

Like, I can't believe the things that I've done, the things that I've been part of.

You know, I worked at, the various airports I've worked at.

But specifically what I've been able to do here with my team and the people I've been able to work with over 15 years, you know, whether it was, you Know, bringing Amazon here, doing that deal.

The NOAA hurricane hunters are based here.

Yeah, they're the biggest tenant as far as like revenue paying the airport.

But to get that deal done, we had to.

We built them an eight and a half.

Eight and a half million dollar facility.

Was it eight and a half?

Maybe 12.

It was 12, 12, 13 million, whatever it was.

For the first phase, we built them106,000 square foot facility in six months.

Dang, the city government.

Right.

I mean, so that doesn't happen very often, but those types of things and those projects that I've been fortunate enough to be a part of and now being here at Sunflon, I'll be honest with you, I don't know what else I would even do that would top anything that I've been fortunate to be a part of and the people I've been able to work with.

I'm sure I'll meet new people in the future and they'll be great and all that stuff.

But I'm pretty happy with where I'm.

What I've been able to accomplish.

I mean, my, my goal is to ride out, you know, when I'm 70, retire and we'll made all these improvements to Sunflower in this site, you know, to get it ready for the next 20 years.

That's my goal over the next 20 years, is to do that.

So as long as the board keeps me here, doesn't fire me, I don't screw up.

You know, that's the plan.

Because, you know, I don't kind of like watching my dad.

It wasn't really to jump to these big airports.

It was to go to something that you could actually do something, right?

Because I could have left Lakeland, I could have gone to a bigger airport or done something like that.

But you know, once you've like.

I built a tower here, you know, we rehabbed the Runway, we did all these great projects and did NOAA and built hangars and like kind of done all that stuff, right?

And.

But what we're doing here and what we can do here in the future there, it's really unique and there's really, there are, there's only a handful of opportunities like this in, in the country, right there's here in Airventure and, and I love Florida.

You know, the weather here is pretty nice, so I'm gonna stick around as long as possible.

But you know, I'm just again, very fortunate in life.

And there's really nothing on my bucket list that I said I need to go do and you know, at the end of the day, people, only people are gonna remember me at the end of the day are my boys.

That's really all that matters, right?

That's all that matters, yeah.

All that matters what my son thinks of me by the end of the day.

I mean, my wife too, but.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I'll tell you something real cool, but real quick though.

You know, my 18 year old, he just grade.

He graduated high school last year and I was at Polk State College, Aerospace, but he moved out, got an apartment.

I have a better relationship with him now than when he lived in my house because he wants to talk to me now because he's busy with school and friends and all that stuff, and it's just completely different now.

So, like, the happiest moments of my life have been like, watching my son Gunn, who's 18, and my five year old Jake, just grow up watching my son, you know, gunner play flag football and stuff.

And, you know, they kind of tinkered around in high school football and it go really go the way he wanted it to, but just watching them excel, that gives me the greatest joy.

Anyway, I know I got off topic there, but that's.

No, it's great.

I mean, I look forward to that with my kid, right?

Like, I'm at the stage, he's four right now, so like, he's starting to, like, we're doing the growth chart and like, you see like an inch, you see two, and you're just like, holy.

Like you're at the part where it's bittersweet, right?

You're like, I just want like, what happened to my little kid.

So, yeah, I, I look forward to seeing him grow and eventually taking him to sun and fun.

When we meet up, I'll be like, hey, this is my kid.

But my boy James, 5, he'll be 6 in February, so they're close enough in age they can hang out and stuff.

So love it.

We'll make it happen.

But Gene, I appreciate you coming on.

It's.

It's always fun to get kind of an inside look because like I said, people don't really understand what it takes to put on a show like this.

They show up, they think, hey, yeah, they just started doing this like a couple weeks ago, or they could put this together.

But no, this, like, you're two years in advance, right?

Like you, you plan this year ago, so hopefully you planned correctly, right?

I'm sure you did.

You come here and you're, you're coming.

Just, you know, be nice, give us a little grace.

You know, we're trying really hard to make it right.

It'll be great.

It's going to be great.

And we all look forward to it.

You guys have built something great.

You're continuing to build something great and it has such a great place.

And like you said, it's kind of the kickoff for the air show season and it, it holds a special place.

Air shows, really, Airventure and Sun N Fun are just two massive shows that really are needed in aviation and they help foster the love of aviation and for what we all do, community and just actually flying.

So everyone's appreciative of Sun N Fun and the job that you're doing and keep it up.

And we can't wait to see what's next.

Nope.

And hey, I appreciate it.

But hey, big shout out again to our volunteers.

You know, we're a volunteer organization.

We would be nothing without them.

So.

So, you know, when you see one of our volunteers, just thank them because they're, you know, they're here, you know, taking time off from work and their families and other things to be here to help us put on this event.

So kudos to them.

Can't say enough about them.

Well, Gene, I appreciate your time and thank you again.

Thanks.

Appreciate you.

Take care, AV Nation.

That's a wrap on today's episode.

I kind of talked a little bit too long in the intro, so I'll keep this short.

I don't even know if anyone listens to this.

The outro.

I hope you do.

Thank you, Gene, for coming on.

That was awesome.

I'm also going to do a spotlight of sun and Fun in the magazines coming out.

And thank you again.

I appreciate you guys.

Pilotopilothq.com Mag for the greatest aviation magazine you will ever hold.

I promise you.

It feels like a coffee table book.

That's all I got for you.

Hope you're having a great day.

Hopefully this ice storm is not bad tomorrow and we'll be back soon.

Anyways, happy flying.