LINCOLN – Ten-year-old Justin Botting and his 7-year-old stepbrother, Brandon Thompson, got their first rides in a floatplane at Lincoln’s Homecoming celebrations Sunday, but not without a little intrigue.

“We told them we were just going shopping,” their mother, April Thompson, said Sunday, “and then when we got here [Prince Thomas Park], we told them we were just going to the beach.”

Justin and Brandon were happy with their first ride – “It was great,” Justin said – but their mother was less than thrilled, even though she helped set it up.

“I didn’t like it,” Thompson of Enfield said. “I’m kind of freaky that way. When my family gets in a plane, all I can think of is planes crashing.”

For Kurt Thompson, Brandon’s dad, the ride was one of the relative few where he actually stayed in the plane from takeoff to landing, he said.

“I used to be a paratrooper,” he said.

Bob Enochs and Dr. Mark Weatherbee gave more than 70 rides in their floatplanes on Sunday as part of Homecoming, giving their guests views of Mattanawcook Pond and other Lincoln scenes in exchange for $10 donations to the Homecoming effort.

One passenger, Tim Bernard of New Hampshire, did literally bail out during a ride at about 4,000 feet. He took his swan dive, which was planned, with a parachute, landing safely on the pond’s shores.

In a tradition of more than 60 years, more than 8,000 people attended Homecoming events, including a beach barbecue, used book sales, craft fairs, children’s games, yard sales, dinners, alumni reunions, fireworks, concerts, the parade, and food, beverage and crafts sales, organizers said.

“Everybody I have talked to so far has told me that this is the largest Homecoming since the town’s 175th anniversary,” said Shelly Crosby, the town’s events coordinator and Recreation Department chief.

About 600 people attended the street dance festival; fireworks at Cobb Field drew about 1,300; and about 440 people came to the bounce house and the three-on-three basketball tournament at Prince Thomas Park on Saturday, she said.

Forty-seven antique vehicles came to the car show; Howland’s All-Star Little Leaguers lost to Lincoln’s 14-6; and almost all of the vendors at the Food Court in the municipal parking lot off Main Street reported being sold out Saturday night, Crosby said.

Homecoming started Thursday night and ended Sunday. The town spends as much as $30,000 on the event, sometimes turning a profit. Within the next few weeks, town officials will review the receipts and see whether this year’s made or lost money, she said.

Crosby, a photographer who took about 1,500 pictures during Homecoming and hopes to post a collection on the town’s Web site, lincolnmaine.org, said the event provided many sublime sights and pleasures.

“The best feeling for me came when I looked across Cobb Field and I couldn’t see a single patch of green, there were so many people,” she said. “Everybody had glow sticks, and just before the fireworks started, you could look out into the darkness and see the whole field glowing with them.”