Appreciate the history of flight at Miller’s Field

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 and his wife Elizabeth opened Miller’s Field in the mid-1970s. John had been brought up on the farm next to the airport.

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

He holds a Private Pilot Certificate, Certified Flight Instructor, Multi Engine Rating, Seaplane Rating, and Instrument Rating. He has logged more than 6,000 hours.

He supports his operation with aerial photography used in mapping and the buying and selling of aviation artifacts.     

He admits to being somewhat of a pack rat, so I get the impression that there is more buying than selling going on. I am sure this is the genesis of his aviation museum.

He collects, sells and displays military, airline, and civilian aviation artifacts, ranging from old military uniforms, patches and pins, flight helmets, service manuals for aircraft and their engines. You will see old aviation signs, photographs, and models of various aircraft. One of the photographs he showed me was autographed by Orville Wright.

I pointed to another old photograph mounted high up on the wall of two gentlemen in suits. That opened up a whole new discussion. It was a picture of Wiley Post and Will Rogers, icons of aviation history.

John said Wiley Post was one of his aviation heroes.

In 1931 Wiley Post and his navigator Harold Gatty flew around the world. He did it in seven days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes in a single-engine Lockheed Vega. In 1991 to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Post flight, John had the opportunity to act as navigator and get some copilot time in a twin engine Fairchild Metroliner covering the same course and stops. This occurred shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, so they were able to land in the same Russian cities that Wiley Post had landed. 

John said they followed the same course and stops with a couple of extra stops at the end.

“Our flight took place from May 30 to June 7, 1991. We departed from Kennedy Airport in New York City to Goose Bay, Labrador, to Keflavik, Iceland to Berlin, Berlin to Moscow to Novosibirsk to Irkutsk to Khabarovsk to Magadan to Fairbanks to Edmonton to Minneapolis to San Antonio then back to New York City.”

According to John, the crew of the Fairchild Metroliner included Al Caruso, pilot and owner of the aircraft, Dave Norgart, copilot and Fairchild Aircraft demo pilot, Dana Lovell, mechanic, John Gallichon, flight coordinator, and Lance Zellers, National Aeronautic Association record recorder.

In one of the display cases in his museum, he has a model of the Metroliner and some of the Russian memorabilia he was able to collect on the trip.

The aviation museum is just part of Miller’s Field. The private grass airstrip has a 2,400- x 50-foot runway and a large taxi and ramp area. The runway is situated in a north/south position in fields that were once pastures. There is a slight increase in elevation from the south to the north. Although it is pretty straight, it has a couple of small dips. It reminded me a bit of the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome runway in New York. 

Trees do not crowd the runway too badly, except in one spot where there is a dip at about the half-way point. John says you need to pay close attention to what you are doing at that spot. However, most general aviation aircraft won’t need that much runway to take off or land.

The wooden hangars and other buildings on the west side of the airstrip are interesting. It made me think about old pictures with the stories I’ve read about the old barnstormer turf aerodromes of the 1920s and early 1930s.

The hangars look to be built of a modified post and beam construction and sheathed in gray weathered and unpainted barnboard. They are opened to the elements in the front and have earth floors.

Next to the combination office and aviation museum, EAA Chapter 827 has a meeting room for members to congregate and do some cooking. This is called the Cub Café. These two buildings are completely enclosed and decorated with old aviation signs on the outside. Next to the Cub Café is a large wooden hangar with a sign over the front indicating it is the home of the Penobscot Valley EAA Chapter 827.

There was a Cessna 150 tied down at the ramp and John’s immaculate 1947 Piper PA-11 Cub tucked away in his hangar next to the office.

His hangar also contains the power equipment he needs to maintain the airport. The inside walls are decorated with old aviation signs which are a reflection of some of the past Maine aviation history.

The air strip seemed to be well groomed with the grass short. John says he does not snow plow the field in the winter. Once there is enough snow on the ground and the Maine lakes have frozen over, he will put skis on the Cub and the field will be open for business again.

Miller’s Field is found in the Montreal Sectional and is about seven miles southwest of Bangor International Airport. If you would like to fly in, remember this is a private field, so call John Miller ahead of time at 207-356-9313. 

When my wife Joan and I left our summer cottage in Maine to go in search of Miller’s Field, we had no idea what we would find. This turned out to be a pleasant surprise. John was friendly and anxious to show us his airport and museum. The museum had a lot to see and talk about and we could have spent a lot more time there. A good excuse to go back again.