Reflecting Back To My Greenville Splash-In Adventure
Reflecting Back To My Greenville Splash-In Adventure Also, There’s One Thing: There are some things you only get to do once in your life. For years I’ve been trying to squeeze one big event into a calendar stuffed fuller than a Thanksgiving turkey. My friend Dave Wiedersphan and I had worked long and hard to get my airplane ready for the trip. When aspirations are high, Mr. Murphy made his best grinning entrance. In my case it was a dragging left brake requiring new parts grounding my plane for at least another week.
Furthermore, there’s always Plan B: Best laid plans may be subject to Murphy’s law, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a plan B. For me that meant a 300 mile drive each way from Hanscom Air Force Base to Moosehead Lake to attend the Greenville Splash In. It was a 200+ mile drive on interstate 95 followed by nearly 100 miles of country roads driven in darkness to my midnight destination, the Birches Lodge – a welcomed site for my tired eyes.
Finding A Big Green Frog in Greenville:
What I saw from the back porch and dock the next morning was the island-dotted Moosehead lake. Steam fog rising and drifting like spirits of bygone days seemed like they were seeking something that was no longer there. After a hardy breakfast in this rustic lodge, I packed my gear in my nearby cabin into my trusty 2003 VW Eurovan and made the 30-mile trip to Greenville. There I luckily found parking and my way through crowded streets to my rendezvous restaurant, the Black Frog. I added my name to a waitlist longer than my last 1040 filing and another hour later found friends who had driven there from New Hampshire.
A Seaplane Sensation: After lunch we drove to the Greenville airport to check out airplanes. On arriving, 3B1 looked like a mini Airventure. Airplanes of all types and colors were packed onto every available spot. Singles, multis, gas, and turbine graced the field. If there’s pilot heaven this was it.
My friend, like a kid in a museum was taking full advantage. He knows his airplanes like sports fans know pro players. Secretly, we were looking for what was missing and couldn’t find it anywhere this windless day; a Seawind. Back to downtown, we watched a procession of floatplane departures, landings and taxiing. The wind and water couldn’t have been friendlier. It was ideal conditions throughout this partly cloudy Saturday. I understood why thousands of people gathered: To admire the skills of pilots and the freedom of water flying. But, why have pilots come?
Friends before politics:
With the sun soon setting, I returned to the Birches to be warmed by the lodge fire and a late dinner. Mixing it up, here I noticed lots of camaraderie and history. There were no political divisions. Republicans sat with democrats and independent voters. Some shared stories and all joined me in laughter.
Near a glowing fireplace and surrounded by walls decorated with historic photos, and yes, the head of a bull moose with cocked ears as if tuned in to what occupants are saying, I heard retirees say there might not be a second chance to make this migration or see old friends again. Through employers like Raytheon, they had helped create navigation systems familiar to us all like Radar, Loran and GPS and now spoke of their families and an undying love of flying. While still climbing up the tail of the waitlist I had the opportunity to meet second generation owner John Willard who had been making table rounds to meet his guests. Congenial and with an easy laugh, John welcomed me as a first timer.
He asked why I didn’t fly so I said; “perhaps another time.” After he accepted my offer to share a few photos I had taken of the Birches lakeshore estate. Later, I admired the setting sun over the lake, and later enjoyed a big dinner with friends. After dinner I left to settle in for the night in my Lincoln-like log cabin – with electricity and creature comforts of course. Before laying my head down I reflected: With the Birches now listed for sale in DownEast Magazine, wouldn’t this be a great headquarters for the proposed Maine Woods National Park? A national park of the last great eastern forest for the people. Ah, something else for me to dream about tonight.
An awakening;
the eerie distant call of loons echoing across the long showery lake shook me from slumber. It was a yearning call and a declaration: Yearning to fly on. I knew this unshakable feeling well. For me, I also knew this was my dawning day to return to what I now knew was missing here: A single-engine airplane made to land also in the water. I had collectively spent 12 years building and improving my kit plane; a PT6 powered Seawind now sleeping in my hangar waiting for parts and a pilot.
Fall migration Maine style:
Why would fuel price sensitive pilots fly from states afar, risk being marooned by weather or mechanical problems at their own not small expense merely to be among this winged flotilla? It may have something to do with raptor migration. I don’t mean survival but seeking some larger calling; soaring to a state of being along a path set by winged forbears – a way that I hoped to find more than once in my life.
This was all about my Reflecting Back To My Greenville Splash-In Adventure
if you want to read about on the Birches Resort please go to http://www.birches.com
For those who want to go deep into the Maine Wilderness have a look at Bradford Camps: https://www.bradfordcamps.com/
National Park I dreamed of while at the Birches. Well it’s now a national monument, the child of a future national park with a lot of luck. Have a look at; https://www.nps.gov/kaww/index.htm
ALSO READ My Super Seawind Seaplane Saga. Movie: From Napkin Sketches to Sky High Flight!