Upward Trajectory
Chris Doyle
Fabricator and Prototype Engineer
Q : How did you end up working at BETA Technologies ?
A : When I first moved to Vermont in 1981 , I worked at a restaurant in Waitsfield . While I was there , I met a bartender who was also the manager of a ski repair shop at Sugarbush Resort . I ended up working with him for the next 13 winters . During that time , I also worked occasionally for a low-level airshow pilot . He taught me how to fix and fly planes when I was working for him . In 1988 , Sugarbush began to allow snowboarders on the mountain . Soon afterwards , I started traveling around the country , teaching ski tuning and ski binding maintenance at ski mechanics workshops . Most of the techs who showed up for the ski classes I taught didn ’ t know how to tune snowboards , so I had to teach them using ski tuning equipment . In 1992 , I got the opportunity to play an integral role in the founding of a company called , ” Grindrite .” We made grinding machines that were specifically designed and built for snowboards . I worked closely with the talented Burlington-based designer , Michael Jager , on developing the brand . Soon after , I got to meet Jake Burton for the first time at the Burton U . S . Open at Stratton Mountain in 1993 . I eventually took an offer from him to work at Burton in 1996 , and I came on board there as their Assistant Binding Product Manager . I left Burlington in 1998 to fly a small propeller plane across the country . It was a 1947 Luscombe with an 85-horsepower engine . I flew it out to Oceanside , California , and I spent the next few years living in New Mexico . I stayed in contact with Burton the entire time , and I continued to work with their riders . I flew my plane back to Vermont in 2001 , and I worked at Burton for the next 19 years . In my last few years at Burton , I led senior engineering teams
from the University of Vermont . One day , an engineering student that I worked with told me about a company that was building electric aircraft in Burlington . I started hearing more and more about BETA Technologies from that point on . When Jake Burton died , everything changed for me . It was a real personal loss . Around the same time , I went to see Kyle Clark speak at Generator Makerspace in Burlington . I met Kyle that night , and we started talking about flying . I gave him my card before I left , and we started communicating through e-mail . I came to visit him at the BETA campus one day , and he asked me to help him solve a technical issue . I started working on a project for him at my home workshop , and he eventually offered me a job at BETA . He flew down to my house in a little red helicopter on the day he made the offer , and I made the decision to come on board as a team member at BETA Technologies in May 2020 .
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