THOMASVILLE — The last training ground for U.S. Army pilots headed to World War II battles in Europe was the weekend scene of a different type of aviation adventure.

More than 100 planes had landed at Thomasville Regional Airport by 11 a.m. Saturday for the 42nd annual Thomasville Fly-In.

A bright-red helicopter, a large banana-yellow plane and a 1942 silver T-6D criss-crossed a perfect blue sky above the former World War II army air base.

The T-6D with red trim shot skyward and disappeared to return a little later and land — much to the delight of people on the ground watching the handsome aircraft.

Pilot Chris Rounds performs at airshows in the mid-United States, Texas and Reno, Nev.

Rounds, who lives at Tullahoma, Tenn., said his hometown also is home to George Dickel, “the world’s finest sipping whiskey.”

The vintage World War II plane Rounds pilots is a nostalgic aircraft that continues to fly and play a role in history preservation.

“You’re talking about an airplane that helped win the war,” Rounds explained.

Willard Hinton, a Cairo citizen and former crop duster, took a close look at the engine of a mustard-yellow Gruman AgCat.

“You have to pay attention to what you’re doing,” Hinton said about the art of dusting crops from a plane.

Upon surveying the many planes of various shapes, sizes and colors, one, in particular, stood out. It was big and shiny and impressive.

The owner and pilot is Joe Shepherd of Fayetteville. The plane is a 1936 Lockheed Electra Jr.

The aircraft was used — and piloted by Shepherd — in “Amelia,” the cinematic story of Amelia Earhart’s failed attempt in 1937 to become the first woman to fly solo around the world.

“I traded a restored Cessna 195 even for this thing that had been sitting for 14 years,” Shepherd explained.

He discovered the Electra in Bremmen, Texas, in 1988, and began a 19-year restoration project on a aircraft that was not derelict, “but close to it.”

He totally dismantled the Electra and cleaned and replaced everything, including wiring.

When asked who piloted the plane in the movie, Shepherd said, “I wouldn’t let anybody else touch this plane but me.”

He donned a woman’s wig and shaved off his mustache for scenes in which Earhart appears to be piloting the plane. The woman aviator is portrayed in other scenes by Hilary Swank.

The film was shot in Canada. Water scenes were shot at Lake Ontario.

Shepherd has not seen the movie. He will fly the Electra to New York this week for the premiere. The film opens Friday, Oct. 23, in theaters.

Earhart was on the last leg of her doomed mission, when her plane disappeared on July 2, 1937, over the Pacific Ocean.

Shepherd thinks she “missed” Howland Island, a 450-acre uninhabited, coral island halfway between Hawaii and Australia. An airstrip was built on the island for her stopover.

“It’s interesting they never found her airplane,” Shepherd said. The Pacific is several miles deep in that part of the Pacific, he added.

“She was not a great pilot. She had a lot of money, and she tore up a lot of airplanes,” Shepherd said.