The skies were buzzing Saturday over Gainesville.
Aircraft of all eras, shapes and sizes descended on Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport for the 41st, and possibly largest, Cracker Fly-In.
They ranged from Randy Frost’s 230-pound ultralight Quicksilver Supersport, dubbed "Pinky" for its bright pink wings, to a 10,000-pound UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter flown in from Winder by soldiers with the Georgia Army National Guard. A version of Frost’s go-kart with wings can be had for about $10,000. A Black Hawk, which proved to be among the event’s biggest draws in its debut appearance, runs close to $6 million.
"There are 4 million buttons in there," observed 9-year-old Jeremy Dacus of Cumming after getting a look inside the Black Hawk’s cockpit.
At least 130 aircraft flew into the airport Saturday, "way more" than last year’s event, said Winn Fletcher, a member of Gainesville Chapter 611 of the Experimental Aircraft Association, which organized the fly-in.
Fletcher said a combination of good weather and fewer competing events helped boost attendance.
Joe Shepherd’s 1936 Lockheed Electra Junior, a model made famous by legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, also drew plenty of admirers. Shepherd’s plane, a 12-A, is one of only eight such flying in the world.
Earhart most famously piloted an Electra L-10E, but Shepherd’s lovingly restored plane plays a prominent role in an Earhart movie starring Hilary Swank due for release in October. Shepherd acquired the plane in 1988 and spent 19 years restoring it.
Shepherd, who flew in Saturday from Fayetteville, will spend up to five hours a day for two weeks cleaning and polishing the steel and chrome of the shimmering twin-engine bird.
Since he began flying it into shows three years ago, it’s won a trophy "everywhere we’ve gone," Shepherd said.
Tina Whisnant of Lula and her 13-year-old son, Morgan, took a seven-minute ride in a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter, a thrill they said was better than a rollercoaster.
"It was the best thing ever," Morgan said.
Frost said seeing so many children perusing planes and quizzing their pilots was encouraging for general aviation enthusiasts.
"With this, you can plant the seed," he said.