Life has been keeping me busy and I apologize for not keeping up with my blog. I realized I’m over a year behind!
Following will be an update of all the exciting things I’ve been to and all the exciting things in my life.
Kermit
Over the three day weekend after Thanksgiving we celebrated having been open for 15 years!
Our initial Grand Opening Gala was on on Veterans Day, November 11, 1995 and included a “thousand of my closest friends.” People still talk about our amazing opening party where everyone dressed up in WWII Period Formal Dress or Black Tie. We laid out the red carpet with searchlights, guard gates and re-enactors, Paparazzi photographers when you arrived to valet your car, a champagne reception, tour of the immersion environments, flight-themed laser light show, my welcoming speech, night aerobatics with pyro coming off the wings, fireworks, USO style Big Band, amazing food and drink, an air raid siren with simulated bombing and strafing, a French Cafe with decadent desserts, and then a Rock & Roll Band until the wee hours! We opened to the public several weekends later after we recouperated.
To help celebrate our 15-year Anniversary we flew 15 different airplanes over the weekend, flying five different airplanes per day. We also had many things themed around the “15th” for our guests and drew a raffle ticket for a great prize every time I flew one of the planes. One group from the United Kingdom got in free, got a free lunch, AND won one of the raffle ticket prizes! I told them they needed to buy a lotto ticket as well!
While I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplised so far in 15 years, which I now see as laying the foundation for our future. I’m even more excited about the next 15, which will be the implementation of our future and a fun, creative and exciting time. Starting in 2011, we will hit the ground running to revamp our existing product and facility even more. We plan to re-theme all the old exhibits, add new ones, as well as add new tours and shows.
I thought it would be fun to share with you the 15 different airplanes I flew over the three days and in their order –
Friday #1 – Piper L-4
Friday #2 – Norde Stampe
Friday #3 – Stinson Tri-Motor
Friday #4 – Grumman TBM
Friday #5 – Grumman Wildcat
Saturday #1 – Bucker Bestmann
Saturday #2 – Polikarpov Po-2
Saturday #3 – Ford Tri-Motor
Saturday #4 – North American AT-6D
Saturday # 5 – North American P-51C
Sunday #1 – Fiesler Storch
Sunday #2 – Avro Cadet
Sunday #3 – Travelair 4000
Sunday #4 – Grumman Duck
Sunday #5 – North American P-51D with Aircraft Department celebrating with Champagne!
With Legoland opening at the old Cypress Gardens site next fall, we hope to ride on the coat tails of their marketing efforts to bring more tourists to Polk County. Other happenings in the works that will help our long-term success will be the widening of our intersection at Interstate 4, Exit 44, as well as the initial construction of a High Speed Rail and stop down the center of the I-4 corridor. Orlando to Tampa was THE #1 location for government support of a High Speed Rail System in the United States and the stars are beginning to line up for Orlampa!
We are all having fun developing Fantasy of Flight into something that does not yet exist. Our future product is all about pushing our boundaries and reaching beyond ourselves and to get to where we need to go, we will all need to do it ourselves in spades! In the end though, it’s not about getting to the destination . . . but the process and experience of getting there! And while I would love to have it all done tomorrow, I realize it’s not my timetable and it will happen in its own time. Not a problem for me as I’m doing what I love . . . and love what I’m doing!
Keep an eye on us and visit us from time to time . . . we’re going to do great things!
Kermit
Checking my body fat percentage on our new Stayhealthy Kiosk
Several months ago I went in for my annual physical and noticed my blood pressure and chloresterol had started to rise. I had been watching it for several years while trying to change it with supplements but they didn’t seem to be helping. Having just been honored as a gymnast, and once in great shape, I was NOT about to go on medication!
I’ve been involved for many years as an investor in a company called Stayhealthy that builds body composition testing equipment. You can check out the website and products at www.stayhealthy.com. One of the neat things the company does is to let people put their own logo’s on the equipment, as in the case with our Fantasy of Flight kiosk shown. Stayhealthy kiosks have been in use by Lifestyles Gyms, the US Government, major Universities and Shopping Malls.
I recently purchased the latest Stayhealthy kiosk for use at Fantasy of Flight. It is currently set up in our employee break room but we soon plan to have it available for our customers in the Fantasy of Flight entrance area.
Not only does the kiosk check for color blindness, breathing rate, and blood pressure, it is also a scale and weighs you. And while all that’s nice, its main function is to check body composition. It not only tells you your body fat %, but your lean muscle mass %, as well as your hydration %, and graphs it over time on a very inexpensive membership website.
Using the equipment while on a diet gives you accurate information in real time which is also useful later for maintaining a long-term lifestyle. Body Composition Monitors (currently the BC-3) can purchased for around $300 and are the most accurate on the market. If you’re with a diet company, they usually supply them while you’re on their programs. While other companies make body composition equipment, ours is used by the professional diet companies. Stayhealthy has done lots of research over the years with major Universities and is at the cutting edge of the technology.
One of the things Stayhealthy has done, that no one else has, is come up with a method to replace the inaccurate and outdated BMI (body mass index) charts you see in the doctors office that use height and weight. Watch for our new Stayhealthy index in the future!
When the CEO of Stayhealthy told me he had lost 35 pounds since last January using our equipment, I signed up for the program! I thought, what a great way to check out my investment AND get healthy in the process! Boy was I in for a shock! I really got an education about the obesity problem we have in the United States. It’s not really about weight, which most major diets focus on, but body fat! It is not uncommon to be on the diet while beginning to exercise and notice no weight loss. That would normally be very frustrating but what’s cool is that with the equipment, you watch your body fat going down while your lean muscle mass is going up!
Once I got into the diet, I WANTED to work out! It was so cool to watch my body change before my eyes and I got excited about the whole process! There was plenty to eat and it completely changed the perception of what I now consume. I can’t believe how much crap there is out there. It’s sad really but once you educate yourself, you can easily stay healthy.
I thought I might lose ten pounds, maybe fifteen, with the hopes it would help my blood pressure. I began the diet at 196 lbs. and eventually dropped to a low of 165! That was about 25 pounds of body fat with my body fat percentage dropping from 24.5% to 12.8% in two months! I’m now off the diet and have maintained below 170 lbs. and 14% body fat! This included Thanksgiving and I am well within the healthy range. My blood pressure dropped from my doctor office visit of 144/90 to an average of below 120/80 with readings as low as 101/63! My Hydration went from 75% to over 80%! The really cool part is that you basically retrain your body how to metabolize what you eat by rebooting your pancreas and I’m beginning to eat stuff in moderation that I used to and my body just burns it up!
And I just missed my chance to run for Governor of California! (FYI – I’m wearing tucked in gym shorts)
While the diet I went on is not directly part of the Stayhealthy company, it is one of several companies that use and swear by our equipment. You can check out the diet I used at www.livewellus.com. Having dropped 25 lbs. I now feel like I’m dancing through life like a butterfly! I can’t believe how much unhealthy fat I had on me, mainly in my body cavity. And while I may not jump back on the high bar anytime soon, I now at least look as good as I did in my twenties!
It was probably the best health decision I ever made and I feel and look great! The only down side is I hate to shop . . . and now I need to go out and buy some new clothes!
Kermit
Developing the "Star" of my new book!
As I mentioned before, I have written my next illustrated children’s book in the Gee Bee Series. It’s called The Spirit of Lindy and features two new characters along with many of the old ones. We’re making great progress towards completing all the artwork by the end of the year and I hope to have all the files ready for the printer by early next year. With any luck, I’ll have product to sell by Sun ‘n Fun in late March 2011.
With the second "new" character . . . Geoffrey D.H. . . . based on my DH-4 Mailplane.
Since I have already done much of the initial hard work laying out the first book and developing character design, backdrops, colors, text boxes, finding a printer, etc. this next one should be much easier. It’s a great story with a great theme, with somewhat of a surprising, yet profound, ending. I think it may have more potential than my first book. I have treatments for another dozen books in the series and, with any luck, hope to publish at least one a year! We’ll see.
After looking at the initial drawings, I decided to add a helmet to Geoffrey's open cockpit!
Here’s the first page to have been colored, which also happens to be the first page of the book. The same group of artists are working on the artwork and coloring that did the last book and are doing a great job! The opening text for the book reads –
"It’s a beautiful morning over a seemingly never-ending countryside . . . as a lone Mailplane named Geoffrey D. H. . . . flies along in the sunlit skies."
I think it will be a winner!
Kermit
I just got inducted as a Legend in the World Acrobatic Soceity for my participation in Extreme Sports! In this case, “Acrobatics Society” doesn’t relate to airplanes . . . it relates to gymnastics, circus performers, high divers, etc., although my award in the “Extreme Sports” catagory did relate to my aerobatic flying. The event was held in Las Vegas at the Circus Circus Hotel and I got a chance to meet a lot of really fun and interesting people, including some from my High School days that started Miami Gymnastics and coached at different schools.
While I was building my first airplane my senior year of High School, I competed on our first year Gymnastic Team. Since I was learning how to fly at the time and flipping around in the gym, it only seemed natural to begin flipping around in the sky! After High School, I competed several years in college gymnastics. It was during this time I began to compete in airplane aerobatics.
My early college formal education was somewhat lack-luster because my interest was in working on my airplane, NOT studying. When I finished my airplane, I got serious about school and got accepted at Purdue University to pursue an Aeronautical Engineering degree. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a men’s gymnastic team. And while this was the end of my gymnastic career, and my formal education, it was when my aerobatic career really began to take off. I dropped out of school and, with no formal training, designed and built my own competition airplane, making the US Team when I was twenty-four years old!
While I realize I never would have gone to the top in gymnatics, it became a stepping stone to a great flying career! In two airplanes I designed and built myself with no formal training, I flew in six World Aerobatic Championships, winning twenty medals at the world level, becoming two-time US National Champion, as well as winning several invitational contests around the world.
So, while the award was for my aerobatic accomplishments in the sky, I was accepted into this prestigious group of acrobats because of my gymnastic background and am the first person in my type of sport to even be considered! What a cool honor!
Kermit