Sport flying business, pilot school set to land in Millinocket

MILLINOCKET – A town native who helped make Bangor International Airport one of the country’s fastest-growing regional airports announced plans Friday to start an upscale “soft adventure” flying service and pilot training school at Millinocket Municipal Airport.

The Center for Classic Aircraft Skills will run from late May until mid-October, employ five to 10 people and might eventually have a light industrial component, such as aircraft repair, restoration or the manufacture of aircraft parts, Jeff P. Russell, managing director of CCAS, said.

“This is probably the first business of its kind in the state,” Russell said during a press conference Friday. “This is an absolutely gorgeous place for this business. This concept needs to be in places that can and will support it and attract people to the region to partake.”

The business, Russell said, hinges upon the attractiveness of the Katahdin region as a draw for pilots, foliage fans, tourists and residents who want to experience flying or learn it in the nearly open cockpits of rare 1930s and 1940s replica sport aviation aircraft, full-size but small and relatively slow airplanes.

The aircraft seat two to four people, burn 3.5 gallons of aviation gasoline per hour, instead of the usual 12, and typically have engines of about 100 horsepower, Russell said.

The 41-year-old Hampden resident, as Bangor International’s marketing manager, helped the airport grow from 367,000 to 456,000 passengers from 1996 to 2004.

“You’re going to see the person who lives just outside Boston who owns a $500,000 airplane with a 180-horsepower engine flying up for the weekend to enjoy the area and our airplanes,” said Russell, who will station two $100,000 Piper Cub airplanes at MMA.

Yet the sport aircraft’s fuel efficiency will help the basic flying or teaching package prices to start at $79 for a half-hour of flying. The price scale peaks at $500, but such a deal will include overnight stays at Katahdin-area hotels, lunch at local restaurants and other perks, Russell said.

His business will launch its Web site, www.flyccas.com, by Friday and won’t start taking reservations or advertising itself until January, but already has drawn about 40 reservations through its toll-free line, (866) FLYCUBS, said Russell, whose company is also launching similar businesses in St. Louis and Sebring, Fla., next spring.

The Millinocket Area Growth and Investment Council helped draw Russell to the area, Russell said. Several MAGIC board members and town councilors attended the press conference.

Tony Cesare, who manages the airport for the town, predicted CCAS will increase airport traffic and usage by an estimated 10 percent to 15 percent.

Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the late 1930s, the airport’s main runway is 4,713 feet, lighted and, like its secondary 4,000-foot-long runway, can handle most light twin-jet and turbo-propeller aircraft. It also has shorter grass runways and handles about 1,500 flights a year, he said.

“If you have more airplanes coming in, you’ll be selling more fuel and renting more aircraft and hangar space,” Cesare said.

One potential problem is the airport’s lack of rental car facilities or other ground transportation facilities. The town will have to address this if airport traffic increases, Cesare said.

Town Manager Eugene Conlogue could not be reached for comment. Conlogue and the Town Council have declared airport revitalization a priority and recently approved purchasing two hangars from the Katahdin Federal Credit Union.

Russell hopes to share customers with Town Councilor Matthew Polstein’s New England Outdoor Center guide service and other tourist- or service-based businesses, but Polstein – who supported the hangar purchases – has no direct stake in his company, Russell and Polstein said.

The Katahdin Paper Co. donated to the town a 10,000-gallon jet fuel pump system and ramps that lie in front of the new town hangars, Cesare said.

“This deal would have happened anyway without the new hangars,” Cesare said. “All the basics that he needed were here already.”

But the hangars will help give the town options for further growth, he said.