September 4, 2024 Edition
By Jakob McKenney
It’s hard to remember a time before the International Seaplane Fly-In. The world was different back then. The town of Greenville was where the pavement ended and the moose outnumbered the people. Many a dauntless aviator made a living in the region hauling anglers, hunters, trappers, and goods to the Moosehead Lake Region’s many remote sporting camps and to the countless lakes and ponds unreachable by land. As Maine’s Mr. Seaplane, the late, great Dick Folsom put it, “Greenville was the end of the road back then, a jumping-off place to the Woods. There weren’t all the roads there are now, and nobody had snowmobiles, so everybody had to either walk, canoe, or fly to the best fishing spots.”
The skills of these seaplane pilots were unparalleled anywhere outside of the Alaskan Bush. The spark that led to the World’s Largest Seaplane Gathering was a conversation on a cold day in late fall 1973 between local bush pilots Telford Allen, Dick Folsom, and Charlie Coe. The trio were sitting around the Folsom’s Air Service office one evening doing some ‘hangar flying’ as it was known: reminiscing about the year’s flying season. As the late, great Telford Allen Jr. recalled in 2006, “A group of guys, local guys, got together and decided to have a little fun [the following year], It was a quiet weekend around Greenville normally, the weekend after Labor Day. So [we] invited a few people up and one thing led to another.”
Their idea: one last weekend of fun-flying and fellowship among the local seaplane operators and pilots as the season winded down. Meanwhile on the banks of the Hackensack River in Little Ferry, New Jersey, recently licensed seaplane pilot David Quam, upon discovering there was an absence of information and communication amongst the water flying community, founded the U.S Seaplane Pilots Association alongside Al Lisch, Bill Hooper, and Bob Murray to promote seaplane flying nationwide and unify pilots and operators through a quarterly newsletter and seaplane base directory.
The fledgling organization would hold its first Seaplane Safety Seminar on Long Lake, deep in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York over the summer of 1973. This get-together was attended by Greenville’s Duane Lander and Chip Taylor who managed the Big Squaw Mountain Ski Resort. Both were seaplane pilots who had been taught to fly by Charlie Coe.
Upon returning to Greenville, Chip suggested to Duane, “Why don’t we do something like this on Moosehead Lake?” Soon afterward Telford, Dick, Charlie, Chip and Duane along with Louis Hilton, Herman Bayerdorffer, and a few others met at the Squaw Mountain Lodge to discuss their respective ideas. The weekend after Labor Day was preferred as it would bridge the gap between the busy flying and recreation season in the summer months and the popular ski and snowmobile season during the winter.
They decided to get in touch with the new Seaplane Pilots Association and get together with them to help promote the planned event. As David Quam recalls “Duane called me and he introduced himself. He said, ‘We’d like to get a Fly-In going up in Greenville,’ and I’m on the telephone.
I said, ‘That sounds fine, but where’s Greenville?’
He says, ‘Up on Moosehead Lake.’
I said, ‘Where’s Moosehead Lake?’
He says in Maine. I say ‘Okay, got it figured out, I’ll find it on the map.’ I looked on the maps and thought, ‘Oh My God, it’s way up in the middle of Timbuktu!’”
In Winter 1974, Quam, along with SPA’s Bob Murray and Al Lisch, flew up to Greenville with the late, great Jay Frey, President of EDO Floats and a lifelong supporter of the float flying community aboard Jay’s Cessna 206 for the first Fly-In meeting in Folsom’s Hangar. There, Telford Allen Jr. (T2), Duane Lander, both Dick and Max Folsom, Charlie Coe, and Chip Taylor, laid out plans for the proposed Fly-In.
It was agreed upon that, unlike the Seaplane Seminars held on Long Lake and later in Speculator, NY, which were more informational and forum oriented, the Greenville Fly-In would, from the outset, be about the fun and camaraderie found in the wonderful world of water flying and be aimed at lifelong seaplane pilots and also those interested in getting involved.
There would be activities and displays at the Fish and Game Hangar and Folsom’s Seaplane Base followed by cookouts, films, speakers, and awards up at the Ski Lodge in the evening. With both the Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and Maine Forestry Service on board, the date for the Fly-In was set. Bob Murray drew up the first Fly-In cartoon ad, featuring a seaplane and a moose, calling it the Moose BBQ Fly-In. A questionable forecast would postpone the inaugural Fly-In to the chilly first weekend of October 1974.
When the original date proved splendid, the decision was made to hold any future Fly-Ins on the weekend after Labor Day in September, come hell or high water. That first weekend was attended by around 30 or so pilots, mainly from around New England and upstate New York. On Friday night they all got together in Folsom’s hangar where Jay Frey showed old EDO film reels from the early days of float flying in the 1930s and 1940s followed by bloopers from Dave Quam’s New York City broadcasting workplace, projected onto two bed sheets nailed to the hangar door.
Great fun was had by all and the good will continued into the after-hours up at the Ski Lodge bar. It was here that a bet was placed between resident Bush Pilot and former WWII fighter jockey Charlie Coe, visiting bush pilot, Reverend, and Humorist Bob Bryan (of Bert and I: And Other Stories from Down East fame) over who could get off of the water and up to a thousand feet first between Charlie flying Folsom’s De Havilland Beaver and Bob in his Helio Courier.
The debate spread amongst the other pilots and pretty soon everybody present believed themselves to be the best pilot anyone ever saw. For Saturday’s entertainment it was decided to settle these scores on the lake. Chip and Duane set up the contest rules, dividing the competing pilots’ aircraft into weight and horsepower classes while Dave tuned up the PA system. While the event was initially intended to be more of an informal gathering of pilots, a crowd of welcomed locals began to gather on the hill by the Fish and Game hangar and the Fly-Ins competitions were born.
Such fun was had that the Fly-In was soon to be held on an annual basis. As David Quam recalled “To make it interesting we decided to have some other contests: who could make the best landing, who could drop a milk bottle filled with water to hit the marks… We had little contests among ourselves and so forth. And it was fun to do and the word got out, so the next year more people came, because it was a gathering. It was a clan of people interested in the Fly-In.”
Each year the Fly-In grew with more participation from both private pilots and industry representatives as well as increased interest and support from the local community. Soon the competitions rounded out the entire day, but they weren’t the only aerial activities in the early days. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources provided a CL-215 water bomber for a water drop demonstration each year while the Maine Forestry Service performed similar feats in their fleet of DHC-2 Beavers.
Not to be outdone, Telford Allen donned his Bell 206B Jetranger and pulled Duane Lander across the lake on a water ski at amazing speeds. This was repeated the following year with Max Folsom water skiing behind Charlie Coe piloting Folsom’s Beaver. Year after year more and more pilots and aviation enthusiasts flocked to Greenville not only from New England and New York, but the southern states, the midwest, and North to Canada and thus, the International Seaplane Fly-In was born.
The Fly-In soon became the largest annual event in all of Piscataquis County, often seeing upwards of 100-150 seaplanes on the lake, 200-300 landplanes at the nearby Greenville Airport, and up to 15,000 people in town on a good year by the 1980s, all thanks to five hardworking Maine men, pillars in the seaplane community who put their dream into fruition back in 1974.
In 1995 the International Seaplane Fly-In became a non-profit organization. Today the Fly-In remains largely unchanged from its humble roots; its continued purpose has been to promote fellowship, contact, and unification among the seaplane flying community through recreational events, as well as encouraging those interested in this wonderfully unique field to pursue their passion. As the Fly-In approaches its 50th year as one of the longest running events, not only in Maine and the seaplane flying community, but in all of General Aviation as a whole, we reflect on all the friendships it has created, the careers in aviation it has sparked, and the lives it has touched. 2022 saw near-record levels of attendance and we look forward to seeing you all again as we celebrate this milestone year and who knows, if this level of passion and enthusiasm continues to persist and be passed on, then perhaps some of the young folks who grew up coming to Greenville year after year the weekend after Labor Day will live to see the Greenville Fly-In celebrate its 100th Anniversary someday.
