On Saturday, Feb. 7, the Leesburg International Airport hosted their annual community-wide Food Truck Fly-In event, which showcased an assortment of food trucks such as The Salty Fry, Island Fin Poke and many other delicious mobile spots to try. However, the food trucks were not the main attraction of this event. It was the planes that people came to see, which were flying in and parking on the large open lot to be viewed up close and personal.

This event wasn’t just aimed at the plane-enthusiasts, but also at the younger generations to inspire them and teach them about what it means to fly.

Long time fly-in attendee, Ryan Lee Smith, has been coming to events like this one for over 50 years.

“I’ve been watching these planes take off, and it’s bringing back a lot of memories,” says Ryan. “When I was a kid, it was really exciting to go and see different aircrafts, the pilots, and in particular, anything different that you wouldn’t normally see. It fostered a love for flying in me to the point where I actually helped my father do maintenance on his aircraft.”

The Miss Leesburg Scholarship Program winners were also in attendance, not only to support the event, but also to cheer on Miss Leesburg 2026 Claire Carlton, who is a student pilot.

“I think a lot of people don’t really come to the Leesburg Airport very often, and I’m sure there’s a lot of curiosity behind it,” says Claire. “As for aviation in general, I think that people don’t really know that much about it so I it’s cool that people get to come here to the airport. Honestly, I think it’s one of the better things about Leesburg, this airport, so it’s cool to get everybody here to see everything.”

To Claire, this event is important because it allows the community to learn about something she loves.

“Flying is freedom,” she says. “Honestly, it just lets you go places that you wouldn’t normally be able to go and lets you see really cool things.”

But people didn’t have to go up in the air to see really cool things. Many private plane owners parked their aircrafts allowed the community to look freely, take pictures, and sometimes even get inside these aircrafts, allowing them to learn about the aviation world while staying on solid ground. There were a variety of different aircrafts to be seen including small planes and large helicopters.

Another key feature of this event is the different career paths the community gets to learn about. Many of the aircrafts featured in this event were owned by different organizations, such as Orlando Health Air Care and Civil Air Patrol, who uses these events to recruit cadets for their organization, in which they will train in aviation.

At the airport, all generations got to see aircrafts and learn about aviation while enjoying food from local vendors, inspiring people to try new things and strive for big dreams.

So, around this time next year, look out for Food Truck Fly-In and perhaps make a trip into Leesburg to learn something new.