The fourteenth annual Seaplane -A-Palooza will take place in America’s Seaplane City, Tavares, Florida, at their seaplane base on the shore of Lake Dora. (FA1)

This fly-in spectacular titled, Planes, Tunes & BBQ, will begin on Friday afternoon April 1^st through Saturday, April 2, 2022. On Friday the show will open at 4 pm and run until 9 pm with live music and food vendors.

On Saturday morning starting at 8:30 pilots can sign in to take part in the various flying contests for which there will be awards. Start practicing your short takeoffs and landings on your nearby waterways so you will be ready. The traditional watermelon bombing contest will also take place.

Jones Brothers Air and Seaplane Adventures will host a rooftop Low Country Boil meal with plenty of food and drink. This will be a great place from which to watch the twilight airshow and fireworks.

Seaplane-A-Palooza fly-in is always held the weekend before SUN ‘n FUN, the second largest air show in the country which is held in Lakeland, Florida, this year between April 5-10. Many seaplane pilots like to arrive on Friday, spend the weekend in America’s Seaplane City, then leave on Monday morning for the short one-hour flight to Lakeland.

Tavares offers plenty of overnight accommodations and restaurants close to Wooton Park and the seaplane base, where all the action will take place.

There is plenty of room to nose into the grassy beach or two large ramps for the amphibians. One of the ramps has fuel of 90 octane and 100 LL.  As you approach the seaplane base you can call them on 122.975.

Bob Tweedie, Economic Development Director for Tavares, says they have consulted the weather gods and they have been assured of good weather. Skeptics may want to rely on their favorite weather apps. Come early, stay late, and plan to have a good time.

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Seaplane-A-Palooza for 2021 began on Friday, April 9, 2021, with much promise for the weekend but Mother Nature intervened and blew it away on Saturday afternoon and Sunday with heavy winds and rain.

Seaplane-A-Palooza is an annual seaplane fly-in held in Tavares, Florida, America’s Seaplane City, which attracts numerous amphibians and floatplanes from around the country. The seaplane base ( FA1 )is located at Wooton Park in downtown Tavares on the shore of Lake Dora. Usually, the two large ramps and the grassy beaches of the seaplane base are filled with aircraft but the weather gods had other ideas this year.

Starting on Saturday the wind picked up into the high 20’s with higher gusts. By the late afternoon, there were gusts reported from the nearby Leesburg International Airport as high as 53 miles per hour issuing in a strong weather front from the west with rain and some embedded thunderstorms.

Due to the strong winds building during Saturday all the competitive seaplane contests and plane rides had to be canceled. As the wind increased during the day and the weather forecast for the rest of the weekend worsened, many pilots decided to fly away looking for hangar space and tie-downs. A total of 18 planes had arrived on Friday and early Saturday. By late afternoon on Saturday, there were only eight planes on the two large ramps and none on the docks or on the shore.

The theme of this event had been “Planes, Tunes and BBQ”, so there were several popular bands appearing in a new large bandstand each day and evening. There were numerous barbeque food trucks, and vendors’ tents filling Wooton Park.

When the squall line hit at about 5:30 with strong winds and rain, things pretty much came to an end in the park.

The vendors and food trucks packed up, and the evening program consisting of an airshow by the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team and fireworks were canceled.

The only good news to come out of this was that a young lady by the name of Chloe Kadletz from Tavares was honored by Jones Brothers Air and Seaplane Adventures with a $10,000 flight training scholarship to become a new Private Pilot with a seaplane rating.  Jones Brothers is based at the Tavares seaplane base and offers a variety of seaplane rides thought the year as well as flight training for a seaplane rating.

This scholarship is funded by money raised through the Jones Brothers exciting Seaplane Bingo program during Seaplane-A-Palooza with additional funding provided by the Seaplane Pilots Association.

Although the Seaplane Bingo game was canceled on Sunday because of continued bad weather, Bridget Fitzpatrick, Marketing Coordinator for Jones Brothers stated that it has been rescheduled to May 2, 2021, at 2 PM.

Also canceled because of severe thunderstorms and rain on Sunday was the pilot’s pancake breakfast, put on by the Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 534 and the popular watermelon bombing event.

It is always difficult to plan large outdoor events such as this as they are so weather dependent and pilots have to look at the weather closely far in advance of their flights.  A lot of people spent time, money and effort to make Seaplane-A-Palooza a success. It was nobody’s fault that it didn’t come off as planned. You just have to chalk it up to bad luck with the weather.

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If you want to fly into Seaplane-A-Palooza in Tavares, Florida ( FA1 )  and spend three festive days attending this annual splash-in at America’s Seaplane City, you should be making your plans now.

Seaplane-A-Palooza is always held the weekend before Sun’n Fun, the second largest air show in the country which is held in Lakeland, Florida. This year the splash-in will take place starting on the afternoon of April 9, 2021 and continue through Saturday and Sunday, April 10 and 11.

This event is always considered a prelude to Sun’n Fun, so many seaplane pilots like to come early for the whole weekend, then leave on Monday morning for the short one-hour flight to Lakeland.

This year is going to seem like a party.  Many different seaplanes to look at, aviation vendors, Seaplane Bingo with great prizes and flying contests, such as watermelon bombing. On top of all that, there will be barbecues and plenty of live music each day. They are planning to have a night flying spectacular and fireworks.

Tavares offers overnight accommodations and restaurants close to Wooton Park on the shore of Lake Dora downtown and close to the action.  For more information on hotels check out < www.americasseaplanecity

Tavares has put in a new seaplane friendly dock that doesn’t have any pilings sticking up in the air to catch wings or struts. It also has a new rubber rub rail and a skirt that goes down to the surface of the water so that floats can’t get caught under the dock.

There is plenty of room to nose into the grassy beach and two large ramps to accommodate the amphibians. One of those ramps will have 90 octane and 100 LL fuel pumps.  Call the seaplane base on Unicom 122.975 as you approach.

Because of the Covid 19 pandemic, masks are recommended as well as social distancing. Hand sanitizing stations will be available.

Come early, stay late and have a good time.

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