A young Saskatchewan pilot is the first Canadian recipient of the Ben Wiplinger Memorial Seaplane Rating Scholarship.
Colin Fink is just out of high school but is already building time on a Cessna 170 to become a bush pilot. The seaplane rating supplied by the scholarship will definitely help him achieve that goal.
Frank has worked for outfitter wrangling horses and raising show cattle to fund his aviation passion and he’s working on his commercial ticket.
The $1,500 scholarship is handed out annually in honour of Wipaire founder Ben Wiplinger.
“My dad wouldn’t have imagined what we have grown into,” said Bob Wiplinger, Ben’s son and CEO of Wipaire. “We started building floats in 1960 in order to get the quality of product we would want on our own airplanes, and that is how we still build products today. We’re proud to give back to the seaplane community and create the next generation of seaplane pilots.”
The two other winners were Dawn Cook, of Minnesota and Dr. Kimberly Kanapeckas, of South Carolina.
Chuck Wiplinger, Bob’s son and Ben’s grandson and President/COO of Wipaire, added, “Once again, we were humbled by the number and quality of the applicants we received. It’s rewarding to be able to grant some of these pilots the ability to achieve their dreams of seaplane flying. As always, it was a tremendous challenge to select the winners, and we encourage applicants to try again if they weren’t selected this year.”