Aviation is for Everyone
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY SUN ’N FUN
What could be more fun than cheating gravity?” asks Eric Crump, revealing an inexhaustible enthusiasm for aviation. Crump is VP/COO of the Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE)–located at the Lakeland Linder International Airport–whose campus boasts an amalgam of all things aerospace: the Central Florida Aerospace Academy, flight simulators, aircraft restoration, and maintenance training facilities, as well as a museum, a hangar, a fully functional 727, and more. It all exists to spark that same enthusiasm in young people and provide the instruction and opportunities needed to bring about a lifetime of flying, whether personal or professional.
“A lot of people think we are SUN ‘n FUN–,” says Crump, “that once a year for a week we get really loud when lots of planes arrive.” Even Lakelanders who don’t attend the annual Aerospace Expo each spring know what’s happening when a monstrous aircraft briefly casts a shadow over their homes or a jet creates something of a thunderclap–but that’s often as far as it goes. “But,” Crump continues, “what many people don’t know is that it’s one giant fundraiser which empowers everything ACE does the other 51 weeks a year, making the door to aviation as wide and as welcoming as possible through mentorship, education, and scholarships.”
Those things, particularly the scholarships–open to anyone who lives or goes to school in Polk County, be it public or home school–are critical for aspiring pilots because the costs of training are sky-high. As alumnus Layton Bracey explains, “Becoming a pilot can cost upward of $100,000 so it scares a lot of people away.” Without ACE’s flagship James C. Ray scholarship, he likely would not have been able to have what is already a remarkable career at just age 24.
“I got the bug for flying at age 11 when my uncle, a private pilot, took me to SUN ’n FUN,” says Bracey. “At 14, I received the James C. Ray scholarship. I joined the Lakeland Aero Club at ACE and gained a lot of experience building, restoring, and flying aircraft. I’d show up after school and help rebuild an engine or change a plane’s tire. I also attended ACE’s summer camps...until I was old enough to get my private pilot’s license just after my 17th birthday.”
Layton Bracey , an alum of ACE, continues to live out his dream of being a pilot. He has done everything from pilot a seaplane to being a commercial pilot for Frontier Airlines.
Since then, Layton has been an instructor, a seaplane pilot, and is currently a first officer for Frontier Airlines. Along the way he even had a stint flying a Cessna 207 in Alaska, bringing groceries, birthday cakes, and pizza to remote villages. He jokes that there’s no such thing as “30 minutes or it’s free” guarantees there.
“We really believe aviation is for everyone,” Crump says, “and ACE exists because a lot of people think they can’t do it.”
Indeed, there’s a shortage of professionals throughout the industry, whether it be for financial or temporal reasons.
“I mowed a lot of grass and washed a lot of cars to log 100 hours of flying time,” recalls Crump of his teenage pursuit of higher altitudes.
Bracey, for his part, laughs as he recalls he was known as the lame friend throughout middle and high school because he spent so much time studying. But for those who get the bug, the effort to become part of the tight-knit enthusiasts is well worth it.
“I love the aviation community,” says Cathy Dal Colletto, Digital Marketing Coordinator for ACE and SUN ‘n FUN, who was also a James C. Ray scholarship recipient and ACE alumna. Dal Colletto, whose training through ACE has afforded her opportunities in several aviation roles, returned to the organization in a most interesting way. “I started the @classcairspace TikTok during the COVID shutdown at Winter Haven airport to talk about my Airport Operations job. Eventually, ACE thought it would be cool to bring me on since I could now combine social media experience with my aviation training.”
Dal Colletto, who also serves as President of the local Women in Aviation chapter (www.lakelandwai.com), now uses social media to showcase all the inspirational and educational opportunities ACE has available for all ages. “I want people to see everything ACE has to offer: the Redbird Flight Simulation Laboratory, the annual Wings ‘n Things event, STEM programs, summer camps, the museum, a free story time for children, Classroom to the Sky event for teachers, after school enrichment programs, and even camping. No matter your age, ACE has an aerospace program for you. We often use the phrase ‘from carseat to cockpit’ because aviation is for everyone.”
Crump, who spent a decade building Polk State College’s aerospace program, explains it is ACE’s industry partnerships which keep the organization on the leading edge of the skills young people need to excel in aviation.
“We are fortunate to have several partners who believe in what we do and offer assistance. Polk State College, the two Central Florida aerospace programs, and Traviss Technical College all share a common advisory board on which ACE is an executive committee member. This results in excellent connections all over the industry, people who can tell us what they are seeing, what they’ve identified as skills employees need when they begin in aviation–then we can focus on the things the industry tells us are critical. For instance, to have the chief standards pilot of a major airline guide us to teach the most needed skills is invaluable.”
“Most of the time, kids just need someone to tell them they can,” says Crump, who describes his own preadolescence as wayward with a deep aversion to school–a vector that was drastically changed by aviation. “I was very fortunate to find people who wanted to mentor a kid who loved airplanes. Now, I love seeing kids’ eyes light up when they see how cool airplanes are, too.”
And ACE alums often give back hundreds of volunteer hours to the organization that made their aviation dreams possible. “We’re not just adding great pilots to aviation,” Crump says, “but we’re adding good people to the workforce.”
After all, aviation is for everyone.
Who would have thought that back in January of 1975 at our first fly-in here in Lakeland, FL that 50 years later we would be days out from our 50th SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo to be held on April 9-14, 2024? As an organization, we are forever grateful to the believers: the pioneers, our past board members, the City of Lakeland, the Lakeland Linder International Airport, Polk County, Visit Central Florida, Polk County Public Schools, our first responders, and all of the companies and organizations in this community that have contributed to our success. We are especially grateful to the more than 20,000 volunteers that we have on record, who have dedicated their time and talents to make us what we are today!
This year, as we celebrate our 50th SUN ‘n FUN, we also celebrate the tremendous impact of the Aerospace Center for Excellence, the parent company of the SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo. We reach more than 20,000 students and teachers annually via our world-class campus, which is home to the Central Florida Aerospace Academy (CFAA), Lakeland Aero Club, the Skylab Innovation Center, ELEVATE, and Traviss Technical College’s Airframe and Powerplant program. We also impact thousands more through our outreach programming. None of this would be possible without your significant contribution each year at the SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo.
So, when the celebration ends on April 14th, 2024, what does our next 50 years look like here in Lakeland, FL?
As the Lakeland Linder International Airport continues to grow and develop, it is time for us to craft our own long-range master site plan for SUN ’n FUN and the Aerospace Center for Excellence, our year-round events, and educational programming. In partnership with the Lakeland Linder International Airport, Visit Central Florida, and our Engineering firm, CMT, we have begun the effort to reimagine our footprint on the airport.
With the development of the airport’s much-needed new runway, we are preparing for the anticipated impacts on our campus. I appreciate the concerns that community members have shared with me regarding the new runway. To these concerns, I emphasize the positives and the tremendous opportunity we have at hand to reimagine our footprint for the next 50 years. I can already see two new 40,000 square foot exhibit buildings that will house our exhibitors during SUN ‘n FUN, as well as welcome large year-round events to Polk County; I can see new campgrounds for our visitors, a new, expanded Florida Air Museum facility that will be able to house much larger aircraft, Central Florida Aerospace Academy with increased capacity, a K-8 Aerospace Academy on campus to feed into CFAA, a purposefully-built facility to house Traviss’ A&P program, and who knows what else we can come up with, but I will say…the next 50 years are shaping up to be just as exciting as the first 50 and I look forward to unveiling our plans at our 51st SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo on April 1-6, 2025.
The Aerospace Center for Excellence and the SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo are grateful for your significant contributions to our event each year and so are the kids and families that we serve…Thank you!