Whew, what a day. Could not ask for better weather to fly in. Slightly gusty which made a couple of pilots hesitant about multiple flights, but a full day of flying, nonetheless. SO many more spectators today! It was packed. I spotted the smallest UltraLight I had ever seen as soon as I walked up this morning. A free ride was given out as one of the raffle prizes. I took some time out today to get the down low from these guys on some of their detailed work. I first caught up with Jim Thackeray, that I met on Friday. HE was nothing but smiles, and he told me about his Piper Tri-Pacer that he built from scratch from Hostetler plans. It has a 10 ft. wingspan and weighs about 34 lbs. He says it flies beautifully, slowly, but beautifully. You will also see Arnold Marcus, proudly, with his P38, and boy can he fly it. He gave me, and the crowd, a couple of hold-your-breath low passes. You can tell by the look on his spotter's face what he was thinking. Then there was the Nieuport 24, this plane, along with a 1/3 scale Air Coupe belong to Al Pepin. The Nieuport is a WWI French Ace paint scheme, it has a 9 cylinder radial engine and weighs about 35 lbs. It took him over a year to build and he did the paint job himself. Al entered this plane in Top Gun last year, but was unable to come up with the plans for it. This year he has the plans and a new plan to re-enter Top Gun. Harold Voigt is the lucky pilot you see at the transmitter. He also flies Al's Coupe. The Coupe was made from Balsa USA kit. It has a 10 ft. wingspan, 4 cylinder opposed engine, and an upholstered cockpit. This man can build. Be on the look out for Mr. Pepin's newest project to date, a 1/4 scale of The Spirit of St. Louis. Ben Fontaine had everyone's attention at noon demos, helis usually have that effect. Sponsored by Zeal Blades, flying an HD Cell 500, Fontaine wowed the crowd. I need to thank Andy Bowen for being an all around go to guy and for being such a hospitable host. The Festival of Giants received an award from the AMA for their service and hard work, and for putting on and pulling off and fun and safe festival for 25 years. Also, a thank you to Kevin Leisy the club president and emcee Ron Wilson for having Flying Giants out to DeLand. What an event that I definitely would not miss next year!

Photos de Ash...

A few more..

T'was great having you there, Ashley!
Thanks for the smiles and all the wonderful pics

Thanks Ashley for the great coverage. It was nice to meet you in person.

Thank you guys! It was a pleasure to be there!