Parks College has ordered five new airplanes to replace two types of its existing training airplanes.

The new airplanes are Piper Seminoles, twin-engine airplanes used for training. They will be replacing two of the current models, the Cessna 310 and the Mooney. The Tampico, a single-engine airplane, will continue to be used for primary training.

Parks previously used the Mooneys for training in “complex” airplanes and the Cessna 310s for training in multi-engine airplanes.

“The Seminoles will replace both of those different models into this one model. It will make training more efficient, and it will increase the students’ and instructors’ multi-engine time in training. Employers look for multi-engine time,” said Dean Charles Kirkpatrick of Parks College.

The Seminoles are scheduled to arrive on July 1. The Mooneys and Cessna 310s will be sold.

Matt Love, Parks College senator in the Student Government Association, said, “It was needed. Last semester some of our Mooneys went down because of a national recall. They were nine to ten years old. Everyone started realizing that we needed new planes.”

Also in fall 2001, a new lab fee of $275 per semester will be introduced. The money will be used to replace and upgrade the parts of the planes, including the periodic engine overhauls and propeller replacements that are mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“A lab plan needs to be in place to keep equipment modernized,” said Kirkpatrick.

Matt Love indicated that when the issue was brought to the Association of Parks College Students, the response was favorable.