The Spirit SE-1 Left Grand Junction CO Early Sunday Morning
One of the more pleasant aspects of working here at ANN, as well as being SUN n FUN's media partner, are the questions we get about what to expect for the coming year's event.
It covers a lot of ground... warbirds, airshow performers, how to fly in... you name it. BUT, the most frequent question we've heard this year is this... is the Spirit SE-1 coming to Lakeland?
For those of you who have been hiding in caves in lower Botswana for the past year, the Spirit SE-1 was the big hit at Oshkosh 2025... it is an affordable, all-aluminum Special Light-Sport Aircraft (SLSA) with a $69,500 base price. Designed strictly for recreation, the silvery single seater features a 42-hp Spirit-designed and built engine, 100 mph cruise speed, and folding wings for easy storage.
But is it coming to Lakeland?
Well... now we have an answer.
Spirit's Boss, Steve Wood, has been keeping in touch, letting us know his plans for SnF were weather dependent... and as of a few hours ago, Steve and SE-1 N4027V, blasted off from Grand Junction, Colorado at the cold crack of dawn and headed East and out over the mountains.
He's got some weather to contend with, and texted ANN's Jim Campbell this morning that he was going to have to "stray North of direct route to dodge some WX in OK." As of early afternoon, Sunday, Steve was cruising at 112 mph at 10000 feet East of Pueblo, and seemed to be making good time... though the weather ahead did look problematic.
Wood had similar issues to contend with when he made the long cross country from their headquarters at KGJT and came to Lakeland last November in order to make it to our Inaugural Affordable Flying Expo... but his arrival and appearance was easily one of the highlights of AFE25... and is likely to be a major draw here at SnF26.
We'll keep you updated, and we have invited Steve to be a part of the MOSAIC Day event this Thursday, in the LightPlane area's forum tent... which will be broadcast live, starting at 1000ET. Join us in person if you can, or watch everything in Real-Time (or later in archive format) at www.airborne-live.net.
