Whirlwinds Photo Album

The first group of pictures below were provided by Bruce Stillson, a former member of the Whirlwinds who now lives in Florida (yes, we are all jealous). The second bunch were provided by Mike Klintworth, a current member of the Whirlwinds who spends building season in Florida.

Thank you , Bruce and Mike!

Here is a collection of pictures from the 8th annual Gathering of the Giants held at Cape Coral Seahawk Air Park, Cape Coral FL, March 16 - 17, 2002. This has become one of the largest events in the country, attracting more than 4000 people over the two day period. 

Click on any picture for a larger view.

"The club Bruce {Stillson} and I belong to here is the R/Sea Hawks of Cape Coral. We have an annual "Gathering of the Giants" as a fundraiser. We made $7000 this year. We had over 100 planes this year. Bruce worked in the impound area and I was an aircraft inspector. A lot of the planes were warbirds but there were lots of civilian and aerobatic planes too. One event was a fly-by by the war birds. There were 11 including a B17, 2 C47's P47, P51 P40 Corsair and T6. A spectacular event was a fly-by by a model L1011. The plane weighs 32 pounds wet, has 11 servos, 3 batteries, pneumatic brakes, Robarts retracts and a single RAM 750 jet in the tail. The wing engines are dummy. The engine develops 23 pounds of thrust and turns 132000 RPMs. It is a very realistic plane in the air and the builder did a fantastic job. It's painted like Air Force One. We had a generous display of the 40% something or others doing hovering maneuvers inches off the runway. These included one 14 year old and one 16 year old kid. Their planes probably cost $4000 or $5000. Their daddies must have pretty good jobs." (Mike Klintworth)