Doug Smith of the Vermont Flight Academy talks with students about the school's donated Twin Seabee amphibious airplane Wednesday Sept. 10, 2014 in South Burlington, Vt. The academy, affiliated with the Vermont Technical College, will use the plane to help its students get a rare multi-engine seaplane rating. They expect to land and take off from Lake Champlain and other bodies of water in the region.
(AP Photo/Wilson Ring) The Associated Press
SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Within a few months, some pilots in training at Vermont Flight Academy at Burlington International Airport will land a rare, twin-engine sea plane on Lake Champlain and other bodies of water in Vermont and upstate New York.
The nonprofit academy, affiliated with the Vermont Technical College, recently received a donated 1980 Twin Seabee, which will help students in training qualify for three pilot ratings.
"It performs delightfully," said Doug Smith, academy co-founder, commercial pilot and instructor, who flew the plane from Florida to Vermont and has flown the model in the past. "It's a training airplane. It's not going anywhere. You won't set any speed records at all. But it's safe and that's what I like about it."
Officials from Vermont Tech and the academy, at Burlington International Airport, showed off the plane Wednesday as a way to tout the four-year college program that will give students a bachelor's degree and a host of pilot ratings.
"What I love about the program is it reinforces things about Vermont Tech that we do really, really well, and that is the applied teaching, the applied learning and the hands-on student experience," said Vermont Tech interim President Dan Smith, who is not related to Doug. "These students in the professional pilot program are learning by flying planes in college."
The Seabee has an egg-shaped passenger compartment with a boat-shaped bottom and narrow rear fuselage. The original version had a rear-facing single propeller. Doug Smith said the twin-engine version was created by expanding the size of plane and mounting the engines forward on the wings.
Only about a dozen of the twin Seabees exist, he said, and the academy's plane donated by a California couple, Roger and Jeannette Glazer, enjoyed some fame in its own right. The plane was featured in the 1980 movie "Caddyshack."
The training program for the Seabee calls for students to fly it during their senior year. Since the Vermont Tech program started only three years ago, none of the 36 students is a senior. But next spring, seniors should begin flying the plane.
They will be able to land on Lake Champlain and the larger lakes and ponds across the region, Doug Smith said.
Joe Kolk, of Williston, is a second-year student who got interested in flying by taking a discovery flight at the academy. He hopes to become an airline pilot, and he's eager to fly the Seabee.
"I'm looking forward to riding around Lake Champlain with all the boats looking at you with a weird look," Kolk said.
Story and Photos: http://www.utsandiego.com
A Twin Seabee amphibious airplane, that was donated to the Vermont Flight Academy, sits off the tarmac at the Burlington International Airport on Wednesday Sept. 10, 2014 in South Burlington, Vt. The academy, affiliated with the Vermont Technical College, will use the plane to help its students get a rare multi-engine sea plane rating. They expect to land and take off from Lake Champlain and other bodies of water in the region.
(AP Photo/Wilson Ring)The Associated Press
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