AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2011 - 74

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Munsungan Lake, and uses a Cessna 172 Skyhawk seaplane to fly guests in and out. Although nearly 50 miles from the nearest town, Munsungan is about three air miles from Big Reed Pond and The Bradford Camps’ guests have fished Big Reed’s trout for many decades. Sikorsky says Big Reed has been a “trout factory” in the past, and is confident the efforts will return it to its previous status. “I have flown for the project officially since 2007—close to 100 round trips to Big Reed Pond. Some of the flying is to get personnel in and out of Reed, and some for equipment. The project has required a lot of contortionist, back-breaking work in loading and unloading engines, pumps, nets, 35-gallon barrels of chemicals, and numerous external loads of traps, canoes, and lumber.” Sikorsky is a 1,000-hour pilot, with 800 of those on floats. “While I come from an aviation family, that is no guarantee that I would become a pilot. I had to learn, like anyone else.” He began taking flying lessons in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in a Citabria. His float training was on the Merrimac River in New Hampshire. Sikorsky’s airplane is a green 1968 Cessna Skyhawk. It has approximately 1,000 hours total time, and he recently had it upgraded. “My Skyhawk is a good performer. It might be hard to believe, but I can tell you that it will perform at least as well as a 185 with the same payload in and out of Big Reed. I have a 180-horsepower Penn Yan engine conversion with all the bells and whistles: Power Flow exhaust, polished ports, Hi-Flo air filter, Sportsman STOL kit, plus the big Bauman 2550s [floats]. When my other seats are removed I have an available 995-pound useful load, and she is happy to climb on step with that. Since the pond is close, I can stay light on fuel, and devote lots of that useful load to payload.” The Skyhawk was perfectly equal to the task of flying in and out of the tight confines of Big Reed Pond. Big Reed Pond is about 3,500 feet long, at an elevation slightly higher than 1,100 feet msl. The best approach is southeast over the outlet. There are no immediate high obstacles. And in the end The effort to reclaim Big Reed Pond was intense, rigorous, logistically nightmarish—and very costly for the Maine
AOPA PILOT •

Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which is already under financial constraints. According to Fisheries Director Peter Bourque, the total cost “will be very scary.” The chemicals alone cost $36,000. Another $75,000 is contracted to a private hatchery for “culturing” the fish—spawning them and raising the young trout. Add in all the other expenses: personnel, transportation, restocking, environmental monitoring for years— and the total will not be known for years. The funds will come primarily from the fisheries general budget and from the Federal Sportfish Restoration program. The department has received a contribution from The Nature Conservancy; the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund provided grants to support the hatchery work, and some of the captured char are being cared for at the Presque Isle high school. And there has been “lots of free camp rental and aircraft time from Bradford Camps and other private contributions from Igor’s clientele,” says Bourque. Sikorsky estimates his Bradford Camps will have donated more than $20,000 in flying and cabin services. In fact, Sikorsky and his wife, Karen, spent hours in a canoe-and-kayak “catamaran” he flew in and put together with lumber and straps, helping to net any surviving fish. No char were found—indicative of the sad state of that population. Forty brook trout were netted, 13 of which were successfully revived in fresh water. They were placed in a special tank with an oxygen system, and flown by Sikorsky to a hatchery. “I will look very much forward to the monumental day when these fish, and their young, are flown back in their pond this spring,” he said. Restocking the char is scheduled to begin in June. Brook trout stocking will occur later, to give the char a running start. Is all of this worth it to save one small, isolated pond and its unique fish populations? The project’s lead biologist, Frank Frost—and the committee of interested professionals and lay supporters with which he is working—think it is. “I think we caught it just in time…only time will tell now,” he says. Paul J. Fournier, of Palm Bay, Florida, began flying in 1948. He is a commercial pilot.

74 • MARCH

2011

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - March 2011

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