"Glacier Girl" @ Lakeland Sun 'n' Fun

Saturdays around here are getting pretty awesome. Last week and thru this past weekend was the big fly in for the annual Sun 'n' Fun gathering in Lakeland, Florida. There was plenty of "eye candy," whether you prefer an F-16/FA-18 era jet, or 1930's vintage Belancas that are still well maintained. The highlight of the week was the presense of the P-38 "Glacier Girl," which was crash landed in 1942 in Greenland, and recovered from under 250' of accumulated snow in 1992. The plane has been restored to flyable condition. If you chase the link for the history, it's an amazing story. There were 6 T-28 Trojans that flew, one with USAF markings, the rest USN. The very first P-51 rescued from the scrappers after WWII by the Commerative Air Force was there and made a few high spped, low, then climbing passes, also. Here are some pictures of some of the warbirds on the tarmac for Sun 'n' Fun. I didn't have time to make it through the Sun'n' Fun Museum, but there is a Convair XF2Y Sea Dart outside the main building. There's also a Convair XFY-1 "Pogo," sans engine. Both were the early attempts to get more fighter power aboard smaller vessels. A Sky Fury, Westand Lysnader and P-39 were also present. I don't have the card with me, but of the many L-39 Albatrosses there, as we walked down the flight line after the demos, one of the ladies at one of the L-39s told us how they were selling 1/4 shares in L-39s. $99K gets you 25% of a plane and your type rating. Upkeep is $1200/month. If any one really cares to get more info, I'll dig out the business card and email you the contact info. I'm pretty sure the one pictures in the link is the one we walked up to, as it was still in a flat finish camo scheme, with the yellow nose and wingtips. While finding links for this post, I also found this: Fly MiG. Got a few K buring a hole in your pocket and yearn for some adrenalin....check it out...