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.
I decided that when I returned to Maine this summer, I would look him up.
Roger got his start in aviation with the United States Air Force as an aircraft mechanic back in the late 1960s.
“But I noticed pilots seemed to have more fun than mechanics, so I started flying lessons,” he says.
After leaving the service he ended up in New Hampshire working on aircraft engines. It is clear when you talk to him that he really enjoys working on engines. By this time, he had an Airframe and Powerplant with Inspection license. He was a fully certified aircraft mechanic.
He then decided to make better use of his flying skills. He convinced his wife Sue they should move to Greenville, Maine. There he ended up flying for a couple of seaplane bush and aerial tour outfits in the Moosehead Lake area. After flying for others for a few years, he decided to branch out on his own.
He and Sue opened Currier’s Flying Service in 1982. Roger has been doing bush piloting and air tours from Moosehead Lake for four decades now and knows the area like the back of his hand.
He manages a fleet of five seaplanes. Because of his love of vintage aircraft, he has some old favorites, such as a 1954 de Havilland Beaver with a Pratt and Whitney rotary engine. This plane can take seven passengers. He also has two older Cessna 195s, a Cessna 180, and a Super Cub.
Because he has his A&P/IA, he maintains all his own planes. You will not find many people in this north country with these kinds of skills.
He reports he’s logged “just a little over 35,000” flight hours — all over the north woods of Maine.
Roger has had some health issues recently, which keep him from flying revenue flights, but he can still get up in the air for fun when he has the time.
But he’s kept busy maintaining his fleet of planes or adding some new piece of equipment to his eclectic museum.
Roger has a large hangar that displays lake memorabilia, aircraft engines, outboard motors, signs, and his latest acquisition, an old snow blower. If it works, I am sure it would come in handy up there in the winter.
Speaking of winter, Roger says he and Sue go “south” for the winter to the Ossipee area of New Hampshire because, he says, “it’s warmer there.”
Since Roger Currier is not flying commercial flights any longer, they hired a young man, Roger Paradise, as Chief Pilot. He is from Jackman, Maine, which is even further north up near the Canadian border.
Roger is now the Director of Operations and Maintenance. But he is quick to tell you the real boss of the operation is his wife, Sue.
Roger and Sue are not only great at the business of serving the public, they also excel at being involved in the community, I would share some stories about that but they would not want me to. Love this couple and this great business. Flew with them many times and my wife even worked there one day a week long ago.
Great article.
Roger took me for my first floatplane flight over Moosehead many years ago. Definitely contributed to me becoming a pilot.
I spent a few summers hanging out at Roger and Sue’s seaplane base. It amazes me the knowledge he has as a mechanic, pilot and the understanding of all the FAA rules! Very few people in this world could fit this bill!
Thanks for this wonderful article. It is a beautiful story of true Americana that is so hard to find these days and it involves airplanes. I am already plotting to get up there to see them before the snow blows in. Roger and Sue, I hope to see you soon.
No one that has heard or seen the spinning cylinders of a rotary aircraft engine in operation could mistake a rotary for a radial. True both have cylinders arranged in a clock like pattern with the propeller in front but they differ dramatically after that. Many first ww fighters used rotary engines for lighter weight and better cooling, but improved metalurgy and engineering brought the radial into favor and all but eliminated the rotary from use shortly after WW 1.
Unfortunately many of the sources you might search through remain confusing and misleading.
Careful study, of the ROTARY aircraft engine development, usage and eventual replacement by the Radial engine, will reveal why the rotary feel out of favor long ago.
During my ( what seems now like countless years of flying and maintaining these “prehistoric beasts” ), I have heard so many aviation folks refer to “round” ( or radial ) ” engines as “rotaries” ! We have learned to accept this for what it is meant to be ……. all these round, rotary, or radial engines all make the same beautiful music we have learned to love !!
Pratt and Whitney didn’t make a rotary engine as stated in this article, Mazda makes rotary engines. Pratt and Whitney makes radial engines.
Not to nitpick, Dan, but Mazda engines of the type you mentioned are properly referred to as “Wankels”. Yeah, the PR people called them rotaries, but the name was taken already. As noted above, a rotary looks like a radial, but the cylinders rotate with the propeller. Early engines operated at low rpm with big power strokes; using a rotary eliminated the need for a flywheel.
The “error” is trivial, and doesn’t detract from an interesting article. Well done, Ted.
Nothing more beautiful than a 195 on floats..