The day I arrived at Twitchells Seaplane base in Turner, Maine, it was blowing a gale, with winds out of the north at 35 knots that churned the water into ominous whitecaps. Flying didn't look promising, but it would be a perfect opportunity to complete the ground school portion of my training and maybe try my hand at taxiing on the water in the strong, gusty winds.
I chose to do my training at Twitchells, located a few miles north of the twin cities of Lewiston and Auburn, on the recommendations of friends who'd been taught there as well as a long-held reputation the school has earned as the place to go to get a seaplane rating in Maine — not to mention one of the few spots in the country wher you can rent a seaplane and fly it solo.
Owned and operated by the Twitchell family since 1946, the school has a well-deserved regard for providing its students with a solid base of knowledge to begin a lifetime of floatplane adventures. I was excited to start mine.
Still, I was a little surprised when I was introduced by Dale Twitchell, owner of the school along with his brothers Mike and Chris, to my flight instructor, Nate Theriault, a fresh University of Maine graduate nearly half my age. I guess I just figured I'd be flying with some grizzled bush pilot with thousands of seaplane hours and a million stories. What I got instead was an enthusiastic flying companion who not only knew his stuff but who also had a knack for imparting his knowledge in easily digestible lessons to a floatplane newbie like me.
After a couple of hours of ground instruction during which we discussed everything from the federal aviation regulations to the effects of the wetted area of the float on hydrodynamic drag to proper seaplane operating techniques, as I scribbled copious notes, we jumped in Nate's truck and headed down to the seaplane base.
Set in a narrow inlet off the Androscoggin River, Maine's third largest, wher I would be doing most of my flight training, the seaplane base was home to about a half-dozen airplanes, with more on the way as summer approached. Tied to one of the docks was the airplane I'd be doing my training in, N734ME, a Cessna 172M on straight floats with a handsome blue and gray paint scheme. It looked a thousand times better than any flight school Skyhawk I've ever seen. Somehow I immediately knew I'd get along wonderfully with this airplane. Sitting high on its floats it just looked right.
