General Aviation News

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Searching my past while flying over Moosehead Lake

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I don’t really need a reason to go looking for a general aviation flight when I am traveling or on vacation. But when I can come up with one, it makes the flight more interesting.

My wife Joan and I have been spending the summer in Maine to escape the summer heat and humidity at our home in Tavares, Florida. It seemed that Maine is much better at controlling the COVID–19 pandemic outbreak than the Sunshine State. An added bonus!

Earlier this summer we made a day trip to Moosehead Lake in Greenville, Maine, to check out Currier’s Flying Service. The owner, Roger Currier, has been posting great photos of old flying boats of the 1920s and 1930s to my Facebook page, which I enjoyed, although we never actually met. 

I figured this would be a good reason to make the trip to Moosehead and meet the man. Of course, while we were there we also could take one of their aerial seaplane tours of the area.  

Unfortunately, all their scenic air tours were booked on that day and since it was a two-hour drive from our summer cabin on Pushaw lake in Glenburn, I didn’t know when we might be back.

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Appreciate the history of flight at Miller’s Field

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Miller’s Field (ME74), the home of Vintage Wings, is nestled in a bucolic green valley of Penobscot County in Newburgh, Maine. It is surrounded by farms and lush green pasture land in the summer.

Now 72, John Miller knew at a young age that he wanted to be a pilot. During the Vietnam War he enlisted in the Navy hoping to learn to fly courtesy of Uncle Sam. However, the Navy had other ideas. He ended up on a ship doing navigation. He had to wait until he was mustered out before he could begin flight training with the GI Bill.

When he finished his flight training after getting out of the service, John opened Miller’s Field in the mid-1970s. He had been brought up on the farm next to the airport.

“I fancied flying more than milking cows each morning,” he says.

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Flying the backcountry of Maine

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Many of us think that the age of wilderness bush pilots no longer exists in the lower 48 states. But that is not the case.

There are many pilots in the northern tier of states that offer fishermen and hunters charter air transportation into remote wilderness locations in this country, as well as Canada.

A large majority of these bush operations are using floatplanes or amphibians that enable them to fly their passengers into remote lakes where there are no roads and little or no civilization for miles around. These remote lakes often have hunting and fishing camps that can only be reached by these intrepid and self-sufficient pilots.

My wife Joan and I recently visited one of these flying services in Northern Maine called Currier’s Flying Service, based on Moosehead Lake in Greenville.

For some time the owner of this business, Roger Currier, has been posting pictures and stories of vintage multi-engine amphibians dating back to the 1920s and 1930s to his Facebook page, which I have been enjoying. He clearly has a love for vintage seaplanes and flying boats.

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Discovering the Maine Center for Classic Aviation

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One day while on vacation in Maine, I opened my Facebook page and found a post titled “Thompson Memorial Field,” which had a nice picture of a plane making a landing on a grass strip somewhere in the state.

I’m not sure how they found me, but I am glad they did.

It turns out that Thompson Memorial Field (ME62) is about four miles west of Pittsfield, Maine, and you really have to get out the magnifying glass to locate it on the Montreal Sectional.

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Finding a safe way to fly through COVID -19

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These are trying times to run a small air tour business. People are worried and don’t want to expose themselves to COVID-19.

Recently, wife Joan and I stumbled on an air tour business that has found a way to ease customer worries about this dreaded virus.

We left our home in Florida in June and traveled to Maine for the summer to escape the sizzling heat and debilitating humidity of the Sunshine State. This northern state seems to have found a way to tamp down the virus and it has one of the best records in the country. We do feel safer here than back in Florida. Even with that said, we are still careful.

As we entered Maine we quarantined until we could get a negative COVID-19 test. It was not easy to find a place to get tested, but when we finally did, we had our negative results in two days. That was fantastic! We do realize that was only a picture at that time. 

We still want to be careful, but we also wanted to find some fun and interesting things to do. That led us to take a day trip to Mount Desert Island in Maine and visit Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor, and some of Acadia National Park. 

As we approached the area in the car, we saw a large roadside sign for Acadia Air Tours at Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport (KBHB) advertising rides in a glider, biplane, helicopter, and a couple of other aircraft.

It was a great day to fly. Sunny with a temperature around 78°, low humidity, and a light breeze out of the southwest, so we pulled in. We always are on the lookout for a local general aviation flight. To find one that took us over Acadia National Park was icing on the cake. 

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The challenge: Repair a C-150 to teach kids to fly

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Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 534, based at the Leesburg International Airport in Florida, has launched a fund-raising campaign to repair a donated Cessna 150 as part of the chapter’s Aviation Youth Program.

The idea is to repair the plane to flying status so it can be used to launch a flying club that provides flight training for the Aviation Youth Program participants.

The campaign was boosted significantly when a White Knight appeared. An anonymous person stepped up and offered the chapter a $5,000 challenge grant for the completion of the Cessna 150 — if the fund-raising challenge could be matched or exceeded by March 31, 2020. 

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Florida’s newest pilot

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Mateo Colmenero, a member of the Aviation Youth Program sponsored by EAA Chapter 534 in Leesburg, Florida, earned his private pilot certificate Jan. 12, 2020.

Mateo, who has been a member of the youth program for several years, was the chapter’s first recipient of a $10,000 EAA National Ray Scholarship.

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Pleasant surprises at the TICO Warbird Air Museum

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A spur of the minute decision to visit the TICO Warbird Air Museum in Titusville, Florida, over the holidays turned up some surprises my wife Joan and I had not expected to see. 

I have been a member of the Valiant Air Command, which runs the museum, for many years, but had not visited its hangars for some time. We always tried to make the annual March air show, but the museum itself is always closed during the show.

They move many of their warbirds out of the hangars and onto the flight line during the TICO air show. People can then get up close and personal with each plane and talk to the knowledgeable docents who know all the statistics and history of the planes on display. You can have the same experience inside the hangars when you visit the museum.

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Helicopter pilot saves the day for Florida Young Eagles

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When scheduling a Young Eagles event, Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) chapter officials are at the mercy of the weather.

That’s what officials with EAA Chapter 534 in Leesburg, Florida, discovered at their Nov. 16, 2019, event. It was a very cloudy and cool day in usually sunny Florida.

And while there was a group of excited kids waiting to become Young Eagles at the Leesburg International Airport (KLEE), where the chapter is based, it didn’t look like the flights would happen.

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