Day 24 - Stow to Greenville

Tony Cacciarelli • July 8, 2020

Stow, MA (6B6) to Greenville, ME (8B0)

- July 8, 2019

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Original Instagram Post

Today was an exercise in on-the-fly planning.

I set out from Stow, MA to Rangeley, ME. I did one detour on my way, over to Lake Winnipesaukee. I figured I was so close it'd be a shame not to at least fly over it.

As I got closer to Rangeley airport the automated weather informed me that their runway extension project started today and the one and only runway was now closed. This was posted in a notice that I should have seen during my pre-flight briefing, but somehow I missed it. 🤭

I had plenty of fuel, and always had the option of landing on the nearby lake if I had to, so - PLAN B.

I plotted a course to the nearest airport - Sugarloaf Regional. This had a really cool approach along a valley to a small but well-maintained airport.

I met Alex, a local A&P mechanic with a hangar right next to the fuel pumps. He was incredibly helpful, pointed me towards a store up the road for a sandwich and suggested I'd be better off heading up to Greenville, since it's a bigger town with more options for hotels etc. So much for PLAN B - on to PLAN C.

I refueled and headed out. On the way I flew over Flagstaff Lake and followed the Kennebec River up to Moosehead Lake. I was itching to get on the water at this point, so I found a nice spot and splashed down. The weather is cooler up here and it was the perfect temperature on the water.

I took off from the water and headed to Greenville airport. There, I met John who organizes the annual seaplane fly-in at Greenville. He'd seen me landing and came over to have a look at the A5.

I borrowed a crew car from the airport and got sorted out with a room at the Greenville Inn, an historic old mansion that's now a Bed and Breakfast.

It's amazing how friendly and helpful everyone is in the aviation community. Multiple times today I had complete strangers offering me the use of their car or making suggestions to help me out. I can't imagine how today would've turned out if it wasn't for all the amazing people I met along the way.

Tomorrow I'm off to Glens Falls, NY. I'll be there for a couple days to meet up with another A5 owner And a few other friends as well.

😀👍🏼

I think it was more difficult leaving on this morning than the first morning of the trip. When I left Torrance I had no idea what was in store. But, now that I was three weeks in I had a better sense of what to expect from the flying parts, but I also knew what it was going to be like to be away from home and Julie for at least five more weeks. So, it was a more emotional goodbye this time around.

My IG post covers the rest of the day pretty well - a good test of on-the-fly thinking/planning and decision making to compensate for my not catching the runway closure. It ended up being better than originally planned. Greenville is a beautiful place.

The whole concept of a courtesy car is something I don't think a lot of people are familiar with, at least with respect to general aviation.

Most airports will have at least one Fixed-base Operator, or FBO. There are a lot of different types of FBOs, from as minimal as a self-serve fuel pump that's owned and run by the city, to private businesses that offer a range of services to pilots flying into the airport. Those services can be very simple or very elaborate, depending on the size of the airport and the type of aircraft coming in and out. Larger FBOs will cater to business jets and can have plush offices with free snacks, drinks, internet, showers, quiet rooms etc. Smaller FBOs may offer some of these services but maybe not quite as...fancy.

It's fairly common for FBOs to have a courtesy car so pilots have a way of getting around while in the area. There's usually no charge for the use of the courtesy car, but it's not like a rental car where you can keep it for several days.

At the smaller FBOs the courtesy car is usually an old junker that's kept running just well enough to get around. Usually it's just for a couple hours to go grab a meal or something nearby, but I did have a few times at smaller airports where they let me take the courtesy car overnight, since there wasn't any other demand for it.

This whole concept is amazing on a couple levels. First, it's FREE. Second, there's a trust that you aren't going to steal the car (also part of the reason they're junkers) or do something stupid. Whenever I had a courtesy car for anything more than a quick drive I'd top up the tank before returning it, just as a thank you.

It's this kind of trust and camaraderie that made me lean towards the smaller airports and FBOs. They're a vital part of the whole National Airspace System that I've talked about and probably the part that has suffered the most with the decline of general aviation.