Pilots will soon see reminders around Wiscasset Municipal Airport and online, requesting they avoid flying over Chewonki Campground.

The airport advisory committee on June 19 nodded a flyer with information Airport Manager Rick Tetrev said local pilots already follow, because they know to. He told committee members, including the campground’s co-owner Pam Brackett, visiting pilots would have been the ones going over the campground despite a sign that advises them otherwise.

With a diagram and language headed with “Pilots we request your help!” the new flyer calls the airport’s southwest end “a noise sensitive area.” Departing runway 25, fly straight out or turn right, reduce power when safe, and do not fly over Chewonki Campground, it states. Tetrev planned to laminate copies and post them near the fuel tank; at the main building, including one for the bathroom; in the airport’s e-notices; and on Facebook, he said.

“I want everyone to see it,” he said.

Brackett asked him, “If these procedures aren’t followed, let you know?”

“Yes, let me know.”

In response to a question later from the Wiscasset Newspaper, Brackett confirmed the planned new notification was part of the agreement the town and campground reached recently on the avigation easement.

She plans to pass the flyer out to her campers, she said in the meeting. “This will be helpful for them, to understand.” In past seasons, Brackett has reported incidents to the airport of planes flying over the campground, and one over the pool.

Committee members agreed to make the flyer an addendum to the airport’s rules. Chair Steve Williams reiterated June 20, the statement is a request. "The airspace above the campground is not restricted or prohibited airspace. No violations can be issued for an aircraft inadvertently flying over the campground," he wrote in an email response to a question.

Also June 19, the committee brainstormed how to use a $300 gift Bryan Buck’s family is making in memory of the Wiscasset pilot and former committee member. Tetrev will look at starting a scholarship to help children attend aviation camps. Pilots and others could donate, possibly in the main building, into a container beside Buck’s framed picture the family already planned to provide for display, members said. 

Williams called those great suggestions. A camp scholarship could help a child become a lifelong aviation lover, Tetrev said.

Tetrev reported the airport’s use in May was steady with last May. That was good, considering a lot of days this spring were not good flying days, Williams said. “Yeah,” member and fellow pilot Ray Soule agreed.

New York City area schoolteacher Andrea Williams is returning for a second summer as the part-time airport supervisor, Tetrev said.

The committee meets next at 5 p.m. July 17 at the airport.