Road trip: Catching color season

Flying around Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park in Maine

October 1, 2019 By Dave Hirschman

The scenery is astonishing as soon as you take off from coastal Maine’s Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport (BHB)—and it only gets better during an evening circumnavigation of Mount Desert Island. Summer is the busiest time of year in coastal Maine, but an autumn flight here is magical.

October is peak autumn color season in this rugged and picturesque corner of America. Cadillac Mountain, the central feature of Acadia National Park, reaches 1,530 feet from the ocean’s surface to its windswept peak. The mountain’s flanks are blanketed in flaming yellow, red, and orange.

Why you should go: The bracing air, dramatic ocean views, and wondrous natural beauty make an aerial lap around Acadia simply unforgettable.Acadia National Park, a long-ago gift from the Rockefeller family to the citizens of the United States, covers about 80 percent of Mount Desert Island, and FAA rules and common courtesy dictate that pilots keep their aircraft at least 2,000 feet agl over the unspoiled natural area.

Stately white-painted homes dot the shoreline at water’s edge, and the town of Bar Harbor slides by underneath. A menagerie of vessels ranging from tiny, low-sided lobster boats to exotic, tall-mast schooners fill the harbor.

Bar Harbor is called the gateway to Acadia. Mount Desert Island is situated on Frenchman’s Bay. It has been a summer destination since families like the Rockefellers built their summer “cottages” here. Today they are the gracious inns and hotels along the bay. Main Street has boutiques, restaurants, and shops. Summer is peak time, but fall offers warm days and crisp nights.

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Take the Leap

COLOR SEASON

Fly here before winter sets in

Bar Harbor’s Runway 22 is preferred for VFR takeoffs and landings when winds are 5 knots or less. The 5,200-foot Runway 4/22 is long enough to accommodate business jets, and they’re frequent visitors here during color season, along with turboprops operated by regional airlines and a variety of piston general aviation aircraft. Gliders land in the grass on the west side of Runway 4/22, and they fly regularly throughout the summer and fall. The airport’s crosswind Runway 17/35 is 3,253 feet long and has a slight downhill grade heading south toward the water that seems steeper than the 1-degree slope. This runway is little used during the summer when the winds tend to favor Runway 22; in the spring and fall winds vary widely in direction and sometimes blow sharply from the north.

Columbia Air Service is a full-service FBO and offers plentiful tiedowns and a courtesy car. But the airport also is a regular stop for Island Express buses that provide quick and easy ground transportation throughout Mount Desert Island. Two “lobster pounds” are close by and can provide lobsters and other fresh seafood to eat there or carry out.

Dave Hirschman

AOPA Pilot Editor at Large

AOPA Pilot Editor at Large Dave Hirschman joined AOPA in 2008. He has an airline transport pilot certificate and instrument and multiengine flight instructor certificates. Dave flies vintage, historical, and Experimental airplanes and specializes in tailwheel and aerobatic instruction.

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