Flight tours look to land in Guntersville

GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - With the rapid growth in the Guntersville area, new tourism attractions could be underway.

Brian Schanche is the owner and operator of Adventure Seaplanes in Minnesota with over 23 years of experience as a pilot. He and his teammates operate seaplane tours across the United States. After visiting Lake Guntersville, he thought it would be perfect to set up shop.

“If we could have the proper setup and make things work there, I think it would be a very nice draw for the area. Lake Guntersville. It’s such a beautiful country with the houses, all the lake homes and boat houses. It’s just very scenic,” Schanche said.

Airport Board Chairman Michael Kirkpatrick says the city’s airport is more than ready to support an attraction like plane tours.

“We have a lot of seaplanes that come through here, we have all the facilities to support them and flying seaplanes is FUN. It’s a wonderful experience and for people who have never flown in a plane or have flown in small planes, flying in a seaplane is very special, it’s a bucket list item,” Kirkpatrick said.

Sarah Tamar is a pilot for Adventure Seaplanes and says tours like these offer a different perspective for residents.

“I think having something like an air tour is a really good opportunity for people who are coming in as tourists or people who even live in this area of the world to see it from a completely different perspective. Seeing something from above just completely changes your view on that so an air tour situation could be amazing for this area,” Tamar said.

Plans for the attraction are still preliminary. Schanche plans to have talks with city leaders about introducing the tours. He also mentions reaching out to the developers at City Harbor, as he finds it to be the perfect venue.

“It’s true what they say...Guntersville is FUN-tersville,” Kirkpatrick said.

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