Podcast: Interview With Sun 'n Fun's New President And CEO Gene Conrad

Meet Sun ‘n Fun’s new President and CEO Gene Conrad and join Mike Lavitt, Aviation Week Network’s director of editorial content production, and Molly McMillin, Aviation Week managing editor of business aviation, as the three discuss Sun ‘n Fun 2022 in Lakeland, Florida, and what we learned about the market, the largest issue facing general aviation and other news.

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Mike Lavitt:

Welcome to this addition of the Aviation Week Network's, BCA podcast. I'm Mike Lavitt, Aviation Week's director of editorial content production, and the Aviation Week photo contest. Joining me is Molly McMillin, managing editor of business aviation for Aviation Week, and editor of the Weekly of Business Aviation. And with us today is a special guest Gene Conrad, the new president and CEO of Sun 'n Fun.

Molly. And I attended Sun 'n Fun earlier this month and want to introduce our audience to Gene, and also talk about our experiences at the show, and how the general aviation market is doing. Gene most recently was the director of Lakeland Linder International Airport, where SUN 'n FUN is held. Gene also is a native of Oshkosh Wisconsin. So, it really seems like you were born for this job with such close ties to the two largest air shows in the US.

Molly McMillin:

Welcome to the podcast, and to your new position. I understand your first day was just a few day ago, is that correct?

Gene Conrad:

Well, first of all, thank you all for having me. I appreciate it. Actually, I started March 7th, just about a month to be here, tag along with “Lites” (John Leenhouts, former president and CEO), kind of get my feet wet, and then obviously go full six days of our great Sun 'n Fun Aerospace Expo. And we had a phenomenal year this year, but then officially Monday this week was my first day.

Lites finally got out of his office. If anybody knows Lites, he loves aviation trinkets and posters, and things you can hang on your wall, and anything he can pick up at trade shows or antique stores, or whatnot. It took him a while to get out the office. So, he finally did that. I'm in now, and just really looking forward. And there are just great opportunities here. The future’s really bright for us and Lites and the team have done a phenomenal job running this organization over the last 10 years.

Molly McMillin:

Well, I know in the first day of Sun 'n Fun, John or Lites, as he's more known by, mentioned that pre-show sales had hit a record. You were up about 10% from 2021, which was a record year. I know you had a steady stream of traffic, but how did you end up? How do you describe it?

Gene Conrad:

Well, it always depends on the metric that you want to look at. And we don't have as far as the ticket sales and people that came through the gates, we don't have those numbers as of yet. But I will tell you, as far as the revenue and what we track for ticket sales, and for camping, and for 9/27 Club, and in various other areas, we had record highs basically in every area. So it was a phenomenal year, even with when you think about the challenges we had with Thursday during the event. It was completely rained out. And then once the weather cleared Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the weather was just phenomenal here, and it really brought people out and we had a great weekend.

Molly McMillin:

Can you talk, Gene, about what the proceeds from the show supports, and why do you have the show to begin with?

Gene Conrad:

So, everybody knows Sun 'n Fun, and Sun 'n Fun Aerospace Expo, Fly-In. And that's the great event we host once a year, but really the parent company is Aerospace Center for Excellence. Sun 'n Fun Aerospace Expo is the annual fundraiser for all of our youth aviation education efforts that we, and all the programs that we host, and put on throughout the year. We get a lot of questions or people will be like, why do you charge so much when it's like MacDill Air Fest, for example. Those events are free. And why do you charge? Well, we're a not for profit. This event is quite expensive to host and put on. It's very, very large. We're sitting on over 900 acres during the event, but all the proceeds that we generate off of the event, once we've paid all of our expenses are going back into the programming that we have here.

Gene Conrad:

And again, it's all about the kids and, our mission statement is to engage, educate, and accelerate the next generation of aerospace professionals. And that's what we're about. This was our 48th annual Expo through the years. This was always the end game. This always the goal at the end of the day, was to create an environment and ecosystem that now exists here on this airport. I was the former airport director here at Lakeland Linder International Airport for 12 years. And going back to the beginning, I was born in Oshkosh. So, my father was an airport manager, director for 30 years. I always knew I was going to be involved. I never knew I'd be in the positions I've been fortunate to be in over the last several decades, but when I was in my aviation career, I was in Branson, Missouri.

Gene Conrad:

I (was) working for a private company. We built $155,000,000 airport in the Hills of the Ozark Mountains. I've been volunteering up at Oshkosh or AirVenture for the last 34 years. And I learned about the job here at Lakeland to be the airport director this summer of 2009 when I was at AirVenture. And because of my upbringing being around the likes of Paul Poberezny and Steve Whitman and others throughout my life, I got to get that job in Lakeland because Sun 'n Fun is there. And that event grew up out of EEAA and Billy Henderson, the founder of the event, Paul used to be here and all the great legends of aviation have been here at this event. And I was like, I have to get there - plus it's Florida. So it's super nice down here. But I was very fortunate, got the job in 2010. During my 12 years, we were very, very involved in this event and whether it's helping with sponsorship, it is helping with getting the Central Florida Aerospace Academy, having a high school built on an airport.

Gene Conrad:

Sometimes with the FAA, they kind of get a little uneasy in their seats, and why were you going to put a school on the airport? Well, it's all aviation based. It's about the next generation and getting these young folks the engaged in our industry. And it's, we built a grass strip here. So even though Paradise City, we shrink it during the vent. If people remember back in the day off the ends, there used to be two giant ditches and we piped those ditches and we certified it with the FAA and we built the Lakeland Aero Club, the high school flying club, on the airport. So, during my airport tenure, we were very, very involved in this event because we care. Sun 'n Fun, when I was the airport director, (was a) phenomenal tenant, but also, we cared about the mission, what was happening here on a year round basis.

Mike Lavitt:

Tell us a little bit more about the school.

Gene Conrad:

Yeah. So the Central Florida Aerospace Academy, so it's a high school. It's a career academy here with the Polk County Public Schools grades nine through 12, and they have five tracks. They have engineering, professional pilot, drones, UAS, which we actually fly drones here on the airport. They have a club here and we allow that. We're friendly to all those things. We also have avionics and also business management. And so there's five tracks. And obviously they're taking English, they're taking math, they're doing all their core stuff. They can follow these tracks. They also have the airframe and power plant. They have a certified program with the FAA here in the school as well. The unique thing about the school is when Mr. James Ray donated $8 million to Sun 'n Fun way back, I believe it was in 2010, Sun'n Fun built the Central Florida Aerospace Academy, which is 58,000 square foot.

Gene Conrad:

The schools can host up to 500 kids. We're close to about 400 now, but all those monies that the Polk County Public Schools pays us for the building, goes back into the foundation that then provides the scholarships to the kids. Whether you go to that school or any kid in this county, to be able to pay for your private pilot certificate a hundred percent. And so over the last eight years, we have created now 140 private pilots through that program. And that is just phenomenal. And it's also, even when they're ready to go to college, we provide $5,000 scholarships per year, as they go off of whether it's to Embry-Riddle, it's Auburn, it's Polk State College Aerospace, which is located here on the airport as well. So our scholarship program is very, very robust, but we need more kids to get involved. Again, it's all about the next generation.

Gene Conrad:

We've all talked about the pilot shortage, mechanic shortage. We're doing our part. Even when I was at the airport and I talked to different groups, I would tell them, you really need to take what we've collectively been able to create here and put it on five airports in every state in this great country to just start making a dent, we are very open to people that want to come and talk to us, bend our ear, ask us questions. How do you do this? How did you do that? We're all in this thing together. And it's got to start early on with these kids and get them into aviation.

Molly McMillin:

Gene, being the new person on the job - everyone brings their own ideas and personalities into that, what's the direction as you move forward?

Gene Conrad:

Well, there's a couple things, because we have ACE and that's all the educational pieces of what we do. And then we have our Sun 'n Fun Aerospace Expo, or the Fly-In. I have plenty of ideas, but I will tell you, it was very eye opening over the last 30 days, but watching the volunteers here because we have early birds - people here year round helping us maintain the site and put on events here. And we have our early birds arrive about December and are leaving today. And then we have our volunteers that come in for about 10 to 14 days and help us put on this event. It is unbelievable. I mean the blood, sweat and the tears and the hours that these people are putting in because they're passionate, and they just want to be a part of what we are all doing here.

Gene Conrad:

So for me, that was the biggest thing. There are tweaks with the event. I will tell you, parking, vehicle parking is always a challenge. So we're really going to be focused on that over the next year. So we're bringing in all these exhibitors, and we had a great year. Last year I think we had about 380 exhibitors. This year, we did about 478, so that was phenomenal. I know you all were here at the event as well. We had about 150 aircraft on exhibit as well.  I think that was a rather large number. I don't know if that's a record, but I was pretty pleased with that. Being here for the last 12 years and seeing the exhibit area that was very robust. Wifi is a big thing, because we have all these exhibitors that are here, and are trying to conduct business and sell their latest and greatest gadgets or products, so we need to make sure they're able to do that.

Gene Conrad:

We're going to start planning much earlier for the event each year. We have our 49th annual that's coming up on April 28th through April 2nd, 2023. And then in two years we have the 50th anniversary Fly-In. So we need to start planning for that as well, because that's going to be a big one. A lot of it is just some of the programming that we do, some of the attractions, but it was a great event, and it'd been well run for a long, long time. We're going to make some tweaks moving forward. We should have a great year next year as well.

Molly McMillin:

Gene, Wasn’t there some chatter out there from  people wondering whether Sun 'n Fun would continue after this? What do you have to say about that?

Gene Conrad:

Yeah, so there's a lot of discussion on social media, running around the campus this past week, talking to different exhibitors, and vendors, and volunteers, and others, a lot of worry about the future development of the airport. And obviously I have a very, very unique perspective on what that future looks like, because I helped create that. There were people that were out there saying that, "This is the last Sun 'n Fun," or ,"the exhibit buildings will be gone this year." And we're not going to be able to operate or Amazon's buying the airport. I can tell you equivocally, that is not happening. The site that you saw when you left this year will be the exact same way next year and for the years to come. The airport does have plans for growth. There is discussion, and it's represented in the airport master plan for a new parallel runway.

Gene Conrad:

But I will tell you that is eight to 10 years out if not longer. I look at it as a blank slate and for us to really imagine what would a perfect site look like. There was also a lot of chatter referenced to Amazon and their operation here, and their future expansion. They're actually really great partners and they cut 60% of their schedule Thursday through Sunday to accommodate all of the activities here. To the point on Saturday night, for example, they usually have three arrivals and they cut those just to accommodate the night air show and the fireworks. And then Friday, historically has always been our busiest day. No pun intended, it was kind of the perfect storm - all these aircraft wanting to get in here.

Gene Conrad:

So we had done the design when I was at the airport, we had lobbied the FAA to get the funds. But what that did was when aircraft were landing 28R on the skinny, on the taxi way with the orange and the green dot, they were only able to bring 33 aircraft in at a time. Prior to the event, we had a grass taxiway, but the rain on Thursday turned it into mud. So, we're not going to take aircraft off into that. We need to operate a safe environment. What ended up happening was they were allowing 33 aircraft to arrive at a time. They all had to stack them at the end of 28R. And then they had to stop all the arrivals back taxi them on the runway to Papa Two, to get them to the other side of the airfield, and then open the flow back up.

Gene Conrad:

There was a lot of chatter out there with the departures and arrivals at Amazon, which was not the case just because of the volume of aircraft wanting that we didn't get in here on Thursday. Plus Friday is historically our busiest day. Not having that taxiway in place just created the perfect storm, but we were safe. We actually ran 1,271 operations on Friday, which is our highest single day since Friday in 2013. So we ran a lot of traffic. Unfortunately, people had to hold again. It's happened up in Oshkosh as well, but I will tell you moving forward, the FAA is looking to place some new waypoints, kind of like they did up at AirVenture for their arrival procedures as well, to help accommodate all the traffic and get everybody in and out. It's a huge logistical ballet to make all these things happen, but it was this very, very safe event. And that's the biggest thing we worry about when we host this event each year.

Molly McMillin:

Great Gene that sounds like a huge ballet and a huge dance of everything coming together. Mike, (at Sun ‘n Fun) you and I attended a panel discussion by Pete Bunce with GAMA Jack Pelton, with the EAA and Mark Baker with AOPA about what they say is the biggest and most threatening issue challenging general aviation. And that is 100 low lead fuel. And you're writing about that. Can you talk a little about that?

Mike Lavitt:

Yeah, sure. I attended that session. GAMI, which has developed a 100 low lead substitute, a 100 unleaded fuel, and has it STC'd for a couple of aircraft now and has much broader STC pending with the FAA that hasn't been approved yet, had an event later in the day. Basically, it is very likely that the Environmental Protection Administration is going to come out with a finding this year, they call it a hazard finding, that the lead admitted from generally aviation aircraft, piston aircraft, is a hazard in general. General aviation is the last source of lead emissions into the atmosphere. They are going to need to end it probably by 2030. And there was discussion about that. Jack Pelton made it really clear that there is not going to be an extension, and that there's only one plant in the world, which is in Liverpool, England, that makes the lead additive that is blended into gasoline to create 100 low lead.

Mike Lavitt:

And (when) that plant ceases operations, there's not even a source of lead. The days of leaded aviation gasoline are coming to an end. There are various initiatives to come up with substitutes. There are already some aircraft that burn a lower octane level that's unleaded, but a lot of aircraft out there can't burn that lower octane fuel. General Aviation Modifications Inc., or GAMI, has come up with its own additive that does not contain lead, that does the same thing that lead does, essentially boosting the octane level of gasoline so that high compression piston engines can burn it and get 100 octane, which is what they need. So, the people from GAMI are saying that they feel that they're ready to go, and that their fuel is a drop in alternative. There's more than just, can you burn this gasoline in this engine? You have to look at the supply chain, whether the oil refiners can make the unleaded high-octane gasoline, then transport it.

Mike Lavitt:

Whether it can be mixed with existing 100 low lead as that fuel is phased out, and GAMI says it can. I think GAMA General Aviation Manufacturers Association, and AOPA, and EAA want to see proof of that. I also spoke with somebody who's on the engineering side at an engine manufacturer, and he kind of confirmed with what people at that morning session said. They really need to take a closer look at GAMI's fuel. There's a risk that if you're using a fuel besides 100 below lead, you're going to void your warranty, whether there's an STC for it or not.

Mike Lavitt:

So the manufacturers want to know that the fuel can safely be burned in their aircraft, that it's not going to mess up the fuel system, the fuel tanks. Another question is the engine and the prop are a system, and you have to look at those, the engine and the prop together, because actually if the detonation's a little off in the engine, it may not hurt the engine, but it may cause a problem with the prop, or the prop may have a resonance that comes back into the engine. And this engineer described it as being sort of like a tuning fork. There's a lot going on with this, but 100 low lead is going to be on its way out. And hopefully there will be a drop-in substitute for leaded gasoline. 100 low lead has already been banned at a couple of airports in California. And there's concern that more airports may jump on the bandwagon there.

Molly McMillin:

And I think another issue that they were talking about is for avgas, producers only produced 180,000,000 gallons a year, which seems like a lot, but it's just a teeny tiny fraction of what they produce for auto automotive car gas.

Mike Lavitt:

They said, "Cars burn that much gas in three to four hours." So yeah, it's not even a drop in the bucket.

Molly, you spend a lot of time talking to different manufacturers about how the market is. And can you tell us what they told you, and what's coming too?

Molly McMillin:

Yes. Well, Daher kicked off the show by announcing the TBM 960, the latest version of its pressurized, single turboprop family. It is the fifth evolution of their turboprop since the 900 series was introduced in I believe 2014. The aircraft was on display. It's powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada's PT6E-66XT engine, which is a fully digital E-throttle. It has digitally controlled cabin, a new environmental control system. They've upgraded it with ergonomically enhanced seats, strip lighting, dimmable windows and some other upgrades. That kicked off the show. And that was some of the big news at the show. I spoke to a variety of manufacturers there, who are saying that it's a very robust market right now for general aviation. And the business aviation manufacturers say the same thing.

Molly McMillin:

Ron Gunnarson with Piper Aircraft, he is vice president of sales, marketing, and customer support, summed it up pretty well. He said that we've thrown everything at it from a pandemic to inflation to the Russian-Ukraine war in Europe, but the need for aircraft, both for personal transportation and for training, which is where Piper focuses, remain strong, although there are some speed bumps along the way. I think many of them were talking about supply chain being an issue. Daher said they were increasing production. Diamond Aircraft said they were increasing production, but the sticking point could be the supply chain. So they're working through those issues.

Mike Lavitt:

Thanks Molly. With the supply chain, how much commonality is there between the general aviation manufacturing supply chain and the supply chain for Airbus, and Boeing, and even companies that are making military aircraft?

Molly McMillin:

Well, I'm in Wichita. There are a lot of suppliers here for commercial, defense, and business aircraft. And  they're common. The suppliers in Wichita like to diversify their work packages. They do a lot of commercial, defense and business aviation work. They're getting into AAM and space. So, it's all the same supply chain. And they're kind of resetting right now from the pandemic. The manufacturers I spoke with at Sun 'n Fun are saying, they're working with their suppliers. But even if you have like a delay in getting a bolt, that's going to hang up your production line. So, they're working through it, they're getting there. It's just something that they have said that is a watch item for them.

Mike Lavitt:

So even though the aircraft are vastly different in size and everything else, they're still relying on essentially the same supply chain. And the supply chain problems that are affecting manufacturers' larger aircraft could also impact GA.

Molly McMillin:

Yes.

Mike Lavitt:

It sounds like the market has really come out of the pandemic well and did well during the pandemic.

Molly McMillin:

Yes. If you talk to the manufacturers, first time buyers are still wanting new aircraft. People that maybe had chartered before or flew commercial, but because of safety issues and health issues (are now flying on private aircraft). In the past, it was kind of like, you didn't want to flaunt that you had a business aircraft because of the environment. And now it's okay. You know, that stigma has gone by the wayside and (people recognize) that it's a healthy way to fly. You know who's on the airplane with you, and you want your people to be safe. And it's a safer, more efficient way of flying, which I think people in the industry have known all along, but (the word is) now getting out there to more of the masses that this is a good way to go.

Mike Lavitt:

Okay. That's great. So one of the reasons people go to air shows is they want to see the flying displays, and you had some great ones at Sun 'n Fun.  Wednesday night’s air show was a first for me. I had never seen a night air show before, so that was really great. Gene, can you tell us who a few of those performers were?

Gene Conrad:

Yeah. So we had, I think Nate Hamilton, I believe we had obviously the AeroShell Aerobatic Team, which I'm just biased. I'm just going to tell everybody right now. I think they put on the best night show out of anybody. Four T-6s burning and turning. It is unbelievable. Love that. Jerry "Jive" Kirby in his RV, I believe was one of them as well. And I also believe we had the G33 flying right before dusk, and also Lee Lauderback in his P-51, I believe flew as well. But I'll tell you, I think what's special this, at least for me, I think what's special about the night air shows is that everybody's had a long day. And then during the daytime, everybody's watching the (afternoon) air show, but there's just so much commotion and it's hot, and the sun's out and all that.

Gene Conrad:

But when the sun starts to go down, it's just like everybody kind of relaxes a little bit, and you're just so much more engaged in it. The sun's setting, it's cooler, you're not rushing to get somewhere, having a meeting, or talking to the next manufacturer or whatnot. And it's just a totally different vibe. And it is the best part of a lot of air shows in my opinion. And I will tell you, Sun 'n Fun's been doing the night air shows here a long time. And I think AirVenture's been them now for maybe a decade, but Sun 'n Fun was doing them first, and found that little niche early on, but they're phenomenal.

Mike Lavitt:

That's great. Thank you. So, another reason that I was at the show was to promote the Aviation Week photo contest, and we did a free seminar for photographers. I did it with Erik Kuna, who shot the cover of last week's Aviation Week photo issue and also won the space category. We had about 25 people there. And that was really a great experience meeting these photographers and getting a chance to tell them a little bit about the contest, what our judges look for in the contest. And Erik also talked about the mechanics of shooting photos, equipment, settings, and also his strategy for getting photos. Some of his secrets for captures, those great shots.

Mike Lavitt:

Erik has great range, too. Sometimes you find people who shoot only military aircraft, or only space photos, but Erik kind of does it all, which was really impressive.

Molly McMillin:

And I think you're doing something similar a EAA AirVenture this year in Oshkosh.

Mike Lavitt:

I am hoping to do a similar seminar there with another photographer. And we're in discussions now with EAA about that. They've been very supportive of the idea. And so I hope we will have, maybe we'll have news of it on a coming podcast.

And now I think it's time for us to wrap it up. Gene, I want to thank you for joining us today. Best of luck in your new role. It sounds like you've got lots of ideas, and lots of things to do.

Gene Conrad:

I appreciate it. Thanks for the time. And trust me, I'm feeling the pressure. This is a very important event for the industry, and we're going to be good caretakers and we're all going to work really, really hard. And I got a great team here, so we're looking forward to the future.

Mike Lavitt:

That's great. Thanks. That is a wrap for this edition of Aviation Weeks BCA podcast. Special thanks to our producer, Michael Johnson in Washington. You can subscribe to the BCA podcast in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon, Audible, Spotify, and Stitcher. Join us again soon for another episode and check out our other podcasts at aviationweek.com/podcasts.