Maine
Former Afghan Air Force pilot fights to revive his aviation career in Maine
During the war against the Taliban, it’s estimated that the United States spent tens of billions of dollars to train and equip Afghanistan’s security forces, including the thousands of pilots that flew supply planes, fighter jets, and attack helicopters, in addition to mechanics and ground crew.
When the U.S. withdrew its forces in 2021, most of these aviation professionals went into hiding. The few pilots that have managed to get to the United States have largely remained grounded, unable to afford certification. But one former helicopter pilot now living in Auburn is fighting to get back in the air, with help from some American military veterans.
At the New England Aviation Academy in Brunswick, flight instructor Tony Alves is helping 26 year-old Farooq Safi get situated in the cockpit of a small propeller plane.
This will be Safi’s first time piloting an aircraft in the U.S., but he is no stranger to the skies. Growing up in Kabul, Safi said his childhood dream was to become a pilot. He went on to graduate from the Afghan Air Force academy and trained to fly Black Hawk helicopters.
Ari Snider
/
Maine Public
But shortly after completing his training, the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan. As the government collapsed and the Taliban stormed Kabul, Safi said he and fellow Air Force service members decided their best hope for survival was to take one of the planes and flee to neighboring Uzbekistan, and hope for the best.
“One of my friends was taking the plane, trying to go towards Uzbekistan without knowing anything,” Safi said.
With the help of the U.S. government, Safi eventually resettled in the Lewiston Auburn area, alongside several other Afghan Air Force veterans.
Safi said he wanted to restart his flying career, but ran into a major roadblock.
“First of all, you need a lot of money,” he said.
At least $40,000, to be precise, which Safi said he didn’t have.
Then, he met Jen Fullmer, a retired colonel who flew for 24 years in the U.S. Air Force.
“He reminded me of myself when I was 26 years old,” Fullmer said, of Safi. “And I just knew we needed to help him.”
Fullmer, who lives in Biddeford, started applying for grants and raising money through a GoFundMe. Her goal is to come up with the money to cover the training and flight hours Safi needs to get his private pilot’s license. It’ll cost even more for Safi to get a commercial license.
Fullmer, who flew dozens of missions over Afghanistan, said helping Safi is personal. Especially after seeing how the U.S. withdrawal hurt many of the Afghans she’d served with.
“We were over there supporting our Afghan allies for 20 years, me personally, it was, like 15 years. And I’ve seen the anguish and and of their lives just being completely torn apart,” she said.
Ari Snider
/
Maine Public
Brunswick flight instructor Tony Alves, a retired Marine, said he too was angered by how the withdrawal was handled.
“I mean, you know, our ethos is we never leave anybody behind,” Alves said.
Alves said the flight school covered the cost of Safi’s classroom instruction, and is providing today’s introductory flight lesson for free.
After taxing out to the runway, Safi and Alves lifted off into a stiff breeze, then banked left and buzzed out of sight.
Safi is among hundreds of Afghan pilots, mechanics, and ground grew who’ve resettled in the U.S. since the fall of Kabul, according to the Afghan American Development Group, a nonprofit formed to help these aviation professionals restart their lives and careers.
Russ Pritchard, the group’s CEO, said a few have gotten jobs flying for FedEx and UPS feeder airlines, jobs for which he said they are eminently qualified.
“You stack them up against some of the other employees that they’ve hired for the same positions, and this guy literally has thousands of hours more airtime under combat, under duress,” Pritchard said.
But Pritchard said the cost of training, the day-to-day challenges of resettlement, and the urgent need to send money to family back home have kept most Afghan aviators grounded.
As his organization tries to raise enough money to cover those training costs, Pritchard said he’d like to see some American defense contractors pitch in.
“There’s a lot of companies that made a lot of money in Afghanistan, like Raytheon, Sierra Nevada Corporation, I mean, they made huge money,” he said. “And I’d love for them to say, hey, disgorge, some of those profits back to the people you made money off of because they’re trying to survive.”
Ari Snider
/
Maine Public
At the former Naval Airbase in Brunswick, Safi and Alves bring the plane back to the hangar after the introductory training flight.
After years of flying helicopters, Safi said his first time at the controls of a fixed wing aircraft wasn’t too difficult.
“It was good,” he said. “It was so nice.”
Still, even if everything goes smoothly, he is still potentially years away from his long-term goal of becoming an airline pilot.
But Safi said he doesn’t care how long it takes.
“As I say, it’s a dream,” he said. “When you want to reach that dream, you have to work for it and to try to get it.”
Maine
This Classic New England-Style Cottage in Maine Has 200 Feet of Atlantic Ocean Frontage
A waterfront home with open ocean views on the coast of Maine came to market Tuesday asking $4 million.
Built in 1978, the three-bedroom cottage is at the southern point of Cape Elizabeth, less than 10 miles from downtown Portland. The 1.1-acre property on Sunny Bank Road features 200 feet of south-facing water frontage on the wide open Atlantic.
It is bordered by a rocky sea wall that’s about 28 feet high, according to listing agent Sam Michaud Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty
“The views are like a Monet painting,” he said via email. “The water sparkles and the waves are endless.”
MORE: Laid-Back Costa Rica Is Getting a $7 Million Mega-Penthouse
The 3,364-square-foot home was built in classic New England style, with shingle siding, a single sloped roofline and large windows—complemented by white-washed walls, exposed-beam ceilings and wide-plank flooring on the interiors.
The main common area features cathedral ceilings with a step-down between the living and dining room, and a partial wall divides the dining room from the kitchen. There is also a wood-paneled family room off the kitchen, a gym and a covered porch.
The sellers purchased the property in 2010 for $1.562 million, according to property records accessed through PropertyShark. They could not immediately be reached for comment.
“I have received quite a few inquiries since hitting the market two days ago,” Michaud said. “Buyers understand that this is a golden opportunity to own over an acre with 200 feet of bold oceanfront in Cape Elizabeth.”
MORE: Iranian Strikes on Dubai Put the City’s Roaring Real Estate Market to the Test
There are currently just seven three-bedroom homes available for sale in Cape Elizabeth and fewer than five waterfront properties, according to Sotheby’s and Zillow data. It is also the most expensive listing in the town, with another waterfront property on a tiny lot just south of Portland coming in a close second, according to Zillow.
Michaud sold the former Cape Elizabeth home of Bette Davis this past summer for $13.4 million, the priciest sale on the cape in at least a decade—and even those views can’t compare. They’re “just magical,” he said.
Maine
NECEC conservation plan will not protect Maine’s mature forests | Opinion
Robert Bryan is a licensed forester from Harpswell and author or co-author of numerous publications on managing forests for wildlife. Paul Larrivee is a licensed forester from New Gloucester who manages both private and public lands, and a former Maine Forest Service forester.
In November 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a conservation plan and forest management plan as mitigation for impacts from the NECEC transmission corridor that runs from the Quebec border 53 miles to central Maine.
As professional foresters, we were astonished by the lack of scientific credibility in the definition of “mature forest habitat” that was approved by DEP, and the business-as-usual commercial forestry proposed for over 80% of the conservation area.
The DEP’s approval requires NECEC to establish and protect 50,000 acres to be managed for mature-forest wildlife species and wildlife travel corridors along riparian areas and between mature forest habitats. The conservation plan will establish an area adjacent to the new transmission corridor to be protected under a conservation easement held by the state. Under this plan, 50% of the area will be managed as mature forest habitat.
Under the forest management plan, a typical even-aged stand will qualify as “mature forest habitat” once 50 feet tall, which is only about 50 years old. These stands will lack large trees that provide wildlife denning and nesting sites, multiple vegetation layers that mature-forest birds use for nesting and feeding habitats and large decaying trees and downed logs that provide habitat for insects, fungi and small mammals, which in turn benefit larger predators.
Another major concern is that contrary to the earlier DEP order, the final approval allows standard sustainable forestry operations on the 84% of the forest located outside the stream buffers and special habitats. These stands may be harvested as soon as they achieve the “mature forest habitat” definition, as long as 50% of the conserved land is maintained as “mature.”
After the mature forest goal is reached, clearcutting or other heavy harvesting could occur on thousands of acres every 10 years. Because the landowner — Weyerhaeuser — owns several hundred thousand acres in the vicinity, any reductions in harvesting within the conservation area can simply be offset by cutting more heavily nearby. As a result, the net
mature-forest benefit of the conservation area will be close to zero.
Third, because some mature stands will be cut before the 50% mature forest goal is reached, it will take 40 years — longer than necessary — to reach the goal.
In the near future the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) will consider an appeal from environmental organizations of the plan approval. To ensure that ecologically mature forest develops in a manner that meets the intent of the DEP/BEP orders, several things need to change.
First and most important, to ensure that characteristics of mature forest habitat have time to develop it is critical that the definition include clear requirements for the minimum number of large-diameter (hence more mature) trees, adjusted by forest type. At least half the stocking of an area of mature forest habitat should be in trees at least 10 inches in diameter, and at least 20% of stands beyond the riparian buffers should have half the stocking in trees greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter.
Current research as well as guidelines for defining ecologically mature forests, such as those in Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds, should be followed.
Second, limits should be placed on the size and distribution of clearcut or “shelterwood” harvest patches so that even-aged harvests are similar in size to those created by typical natural forest disturbance patterns. These changes will help ensure that the mature-forest block and connectivity requirements of the orders are met.
Third, because the forest impacts have already occurred, no cutting should be allowed in the few stands that meet or exceed the DEP-approved definition — which needs to be revised as described above — until the 50% or greater mature-forest goal is reached.
If allowed to stand, the definitions and management described in the forest management plan would set a terrible precedent for conserving mature forests in Maine. The BEP should uphold the appeal and establish standards for truly mature forest habitat.
Maine
Rage Room in Portland, Maine, Developing ‘Scream Room’ Addition
For a lot of people throughout Maine, there’s some built up frustration that they’ve just been keeping inside.
That frustration can come in a lot of different forms. From finances to relationships to the world around you.
So it makes plenty of sense that a rage room opened in Portland, Maine, where people can let some of that frustration out.
It’s called Mayhem and people have been piling in to smash, crush and do dastardly things to inanimate objects that had no idea what was coming.
But Mayhem has realized not everyone is down with swinging a sledgehammer. So they’ve decided to cook up something new.
Mayhem Creating ‘Scream Room’ at Their Space in Portland, Maine
Perhaps the thought of swinging a baseball bat and destroying a glass vase brings you joy. The thought of how sore your body will be after that moment makes you less excited.
Mayhem Portland has heard you loud and clear and is developing a new way to get the rage out. By just screaming.
Mayhem is working on opening their very first scream room. It’s exactly what you think it is, a safe place to spend some time just screaming all of the frustration out.
There isn’t an official opening date set yet but it’s coming soon along with pricing.
Mayhem in Portland, Maine, Will Still Offer Rage Rooms and Paint Splatter
While a scream room is on the way, you can still experience a good time at Mayhem with one of their rage rooms or a paint splatter room.
Both can be experienced in either 20-minute or 30-minute sessions.
All the details including some age and attire requirements can be found here.
TripAdvisor’s Top 10 Things to do in Portland, Maine
Looking for fun things to do in Portland, ME? Here is what the reviewers on TripAdvisor say are the 10 best attractions.
This list was updated in March of 2026
Gallery Credit: Chris Sedenka
Top 15 of The Most Powerful People in Maine
Ever wonder who the most powerful players are in Maine? I’ve got a list!
Gallery Credit: Getty Images
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