Richard McGee, 56, of Hanover climbs into a 1944 Stearman biplane owned and piloted by former Hellam Township Police Commissioner Terry Inch on Sunday during York Aviation Days events at the York Airport in Thomasville. (John A. Pavoncello photo)

Caillou did it, so 3-year-old Gabriel Brickner knew that he could too.

His father, Joe Brickner, 43, of York Township, was riding with his son for his very first flight on Sunday afternoon at the York Aviation Days.

Gabriel was excited for the helicopter ride, but if he got scared his dad planned to remind him of the episode of one of his son's favorite television shows, "Caillou," where the cartoon character is scared to fly but braves the sky anyway.

The York Airport was full of people eager to take rides in helicopters and small airplanes for the fourth annual Aviation Days on Saturday and Sunday.

Roy Orndorff, of Adams County, enjoys going to local air shows and took his 15-year-old son on his first flight

Pilot Terry Inch and passenger Richard McGee, 56, of Hanover come in for a landing in Inch's 1944 Stearman biplane Sunday at the York Airport. (John A. Pavoncello photo)
for Father's Day.

"It was cool that you could be that high," said Adam Orndorff. "My ears were popping."

Michelle Fehntrich took her very first plane ride by herself on Sunday. Her mother, Lucrezia, said she gets motion sickness and her dad, Brian, said, "I chickened out."

But 14-year-old Michelle said, "It was a lot of fun. When you hit a bump it felt a lot different."

More to do: Street rods and airplanes were on display for visitors to check out in between taking rides and watching the planes take off and land.

When visitors ask Paul Smith whether he flew his Kyper L4 to the event, he jokes that he brought it on a truck.

He restored the plane himself and said, "You have to either be independently wealthy or have a very understanding wife."

Smith, 59, of Frederick, Md., has been flying ever since he served as a pilot in the United States Army and Air Force for 10 years.

Another former Air Force pilot, Dick Stambaugh, stood watching the planes flying in and out on Sunday just as he has done ever since his childhood, when he lived at a house on property adjoining the York Airport.

"I was here when the airport was just being built," said Stambaugh, 65, of Thomasville. "I remember when President Eisenhower used to fly in. I would run across to his plane, because they didn't have security back then like they do now. He would shake everyone's hands before he went over to Gettysburg."

Stambaugh misses his days of drag racing his 1966 Chevy Belair on the runway at the York Airport, before the airport switched ownership in 1979 and stopped allowing people to race there.

Stambaugh took his first plane ride in a biplane that was spraying crops in York.

"I was kind of adventurous back then," he said.

'Defying gravity': Flying is infectious, said Dr. Michael Zittle.

"Once you start flying it's like the bug got you," said Zittle, 65, of Hanover. "It's just the idea that you're doing something that you're not supposed to do. We're defying gravity."

Zittle was at York Aviation Days representing Faith Flyers, a nonprofit organization that provides opportunities in aviation for ages 14 through 18.

Faith Flyers reaches out to teenagers with an interest in flying and provides them with flight lessons they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise.

"Aviation Days is our biggest fundraiser to help acquire money to pay for the kids' flying lessons," said Zittle. "We're looking for the average kid who needs a chance. Hopefully we'll get him started, and he will make it in a career in aviation."

The program has been around since 2005, and several of its students have gone on to receive their private flying license.

"We all love aviation and feel it's a way to give back to the next generation," Zittle said.

-- Reach Chelsea Shank at cshank@yorkdispatch.com.