Tag Archives: Moosehead Lake

The ONLY DC-3 Float Plane In Existence: Belonging To Max Folsom, Of Greenville, Maine — April 2022 Update.

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by Anura Guruge
on April 29, 2022

I am SORRY to inform you that ‘Max Folsom’ passed away on Tuesday, September 19, 2023.

Click images to ENLARGE.

Last year’s post, i.e., 2021.

Click image to access the 2021 post. Lot of background in that post.

I saw this FLOAT DC-3 at the Greenville, Maine (i.e., Moosehead Lake), airport last year & as luck would have it also got to meet & chat with the owner of it, the legendary Max Folsom. Suffice to say my post from last year garnered considerable attention.

I had told Max I would be back to see him & check on the progress on the plane. He had hoped to have it in the air/water by September 2021, but, that, alas, did not transpire. I had checked with a couple of folks in Greenville & knew that the plane had not moved.

I was, again, up north, beyond Bangor, this week — checking out Baxter State Park & Katahdin. I was close enough that I wasn’t going to come back home without making the ‘slight’ detour to Moosehead Lake to check on Max & the plane.

I did that on Wednesday. It was raining, quite hard, up there. Went to the airport. Nobody working on the DC-3. That wasn’t surprising. It really was bucketing down. There were two ‘young’ dudes outside of a hanger. I inquired about Max. Much to my surprise & delight they said: “he is over there. In that hanger. That is his truck outside.”

BINGO. I could not have struck luckier. I knocked on the door of the hanger …

I met with Max. He is having some health issues that has delayed his plans for the DC-3. He is 77. He is going to be fine. He hopes to have it flying this year, 2022.

I will keep an eye on it. I hope to go up again in a few months. So, stay tuned.

DC-3 & I go back a longtime. When I was growing up in Ceylon in the 1950s ‘Air Ceylon’, our national airline, had 3 DC-3s. That was our entire fleet at that time. We did a fair amount of flying, within Ceylon & to neighbouring India. All of that was on these DC-3s. They flew at below 10,000′. So, you could see people & cars, very clearly below you. They WEIGHED you before they assigned you a seat! They had to balance the load. We once sat in a DC-3 while it was CRANK STARTED by 3 mechanics working a HUGE crank! Those were the days. I have only flown in DC-3s in Ceylon, 1956 — 1967. I have see DC-3 since then, but have never been in one.

The ONLY DC-3 Float Plane In Existence — Belonging To Max Folsom, Of Greenville, Maine.

2 Replies

by Anura Guruge
on July 5, 2021

I am SORRY to inform you that ‘Max Folsom’ passed away on Tuesday, September 19, 2023.

Click images to ENLARGE.

Max Folsom, the owner & pilot, with his ‘only-one-left‘,
DC-3 Float Plane,
at ‘Greenville’ Airport, Maine (at ‘Moosehead Lake’)
— below & at very top.

Click to ENLARGE & read here. Here is the link to original: http://www.douglasdc3.com/float

I lucked out; lucked out BIG time (as often happens to I (which is only fair for one who hails from the ‘Isle of Serendipity‘)). Not only did I get to see this unique & amazing DC-3 at close-quarters, I also got to meet & get to know the even more amazing Max Folsom. This alone would have been enough to make my 5-day trip to ‘Moosehead Lake‘, in Maine, last week, special not counting some of our other adventures (& as I will tell you in a later post, I also got to see & photograph the actual ‘VW Bus’ from ‘The Field of Dreams’ movie). Yes, I lucked out.

I had been by Greenville, ME airport before, in 2019. But, I did NOT see this DC-3 that time around. The weather wasn’t as good & I never went into the airport per se on that trip.

This time around, last Tuesday, April 20, 2021, I spotted the DC-3 from across the airport. Saw it was a BIG plane for what is a small airport. It didn’t take me long to realize that it was a DC-3. I know my DC-3s. I did all of my initial flying, & I did a fair amount, from 1956 to 1967, on DC-3s. The entire ‘Air Ceylon‘ fleet consisted of DC-3s. It was the first plane that I flew in. I was three. I think I remember it, but I can’t be sure. I could have reconstructed the memory much later. I do remember, quite VIVIDLY, my father having to be WEIGHED before we could board the plane. My father, especially those days, was BIG. They had to adjust the freight they took on plus the trimming of the plane around my father. He thought it was funny. He was a VVIP in Ceylon so it was all mere bagatelle. “Yes, Dr. Guruge. No, Dr. Guruge. Three bags full, Dr. Guruge. Anything you say, Dr. Guruge“. Max Folsom would have liked my father.

I am determined to get to know Max Folsom better. I asked him what HIS relationship was to the prison of that name & he laughingly told me that I would have to find that out myself. I have already started.

The Folsoms, I learnt over the next 72-hours, are BIG, VERY BIG in & around Moosehead Lake — as they should be. Lots of business, including the real estate agency, that proudly bear that name.

Max told me that he thinks he last flew the DC-3 in 2020. But, I found this picture of his plane, on Wikipedia that claims it was taken in 2003.

Max is HOPING to be able to get it up in the air THIS SUMMER. If he does, I plan another trip to Greenville to see that. I will keep YOU posted.

Say ‘Hi’ to Max Folsom. It is folks like him that make this world so rich & rewarding.

This post was originally published on my old, now archived ‘nhlife.wordpress.com‘ blog.