International Seaplane Fly-in draws crowds, camaraderie, competitions

There were several pre-event highlights: the highly anticipated flight of the world’s only Douglas DC–3 on floats, and the annual Thursday afternoon fly-out to Lobster Lake for a cookout and camaraderie.

Thirty-six seaplanes arrived at an idyllic sandy cove that could’ve been in the Bahamas instead of northern Maine if you closed your eves and imagined palm trees replacing the maples just beginning to display the yellows and reds of autumn. A campfire cooking burgers, hot dogs, and seafood attracted a ravenous crowd of sandal-wearing pilots and guests to the “Little Claw” beach about 25 nautical miles north of the seaplane base.

Scheduled events during the weekend splash-in included social hours, live music, aviation vendors, and several seaplane-specific manufacturers including AirCam, Wipaire, EDO, and PK Floats. The entire town of Greenville welcomed the event with businesses offering up special deals and food trucks sprouting like mushrooms along the East Cove of Moosehead Lake.

Saturday’s events included a seaplane parade, several pilot contests, and a must-see Bush Pilot Canoe Race event that combined canoe paddling prowess with seaplane handling and docking skills. Weather was a factor for some of the scheduled events after rain showers arrived, pushing the taxi-slalom and takeoff contest to Sunday.

Nonetheless, thousands crowded the shoreline and cheered as competitors dove into a canoe, paddled to a mid-cove dock, and awaited the arrival of their step-taxiing seaplane partner. Then both members of each team lashed a modified Old Town canoe (made in Maine, of course) to the float-struts, hopped into the aircraft, and sped around a series of buoys before returning to the base. The paddlers literally flew out of the aircraft to the dock while dangling on a mooring rope before untying the canoe, throwing it to the deck, and simultaneously reeling in the seaplane.

The defending champion Dunn family, with Tommy in the left seat and son Dustin on the water, set a brisk pace in their red-and-white 1953 Cessna 180 while relative newcomer Baily Cust and her uncle, Jeff Hardy, in his 1969 Cessna 180, finished strong after a mid-race knot-tying snafu slowed them down.

Cust, who moved up to the advanced class this year after a strong novice performance in 2024, said organizers are “fairly certain it’s the only competition of its kind in the world.” She said the other fly-in competitions are solo, pilot-only, endeavors but the canoe race “mixes a paddler’s endurance with the taxi skills of their pilot.” She credited her uncle as “the biggest driver when it came to my love of seaplane flying and it’s something we bonded over throughout the last decade. For him and I specifically, it’s a really cool opportunity to for us to compete together.”