I finally got to start my Sea Plane Rating for ultralights this summer. I have always wanted to combine my airplane hobby together with my wildlife and fishing interests. It must be wonderful to be able to fly out to a lake where nobody gets access to and just land, slowly taxie to the perfect fishing spot, throw out the anchor and pull out the telescope fishing rod.  A child’s dream! 

Anyway, I am doing it! I have now taken 7 hours seaplane flight lessons and it’s a blast! I need about 3 to 5 hours more to extend my Ultralight license with a Sea rating. I also need to take the written exam. My teachers Per and Hasse is great and really wonderful to be around. They love what they are doing and it’s a thrill to learn from them. 

My first Seaplane lesson ever  was with Per in his Piper Cub on Full Lotus floats on the lake Ivö in Kristianstad. I was hooked and I decided to pursue my dream sooner or later. I just needed to finish the automation education I had started first. Now it’s time to get started! 

So this summer Per and Hasse had put together a nice seaplane camp in Ekestad at Råbelövssjön and at Bäckaskog Castle. We flew in several days and the weather was perfect. 

Hasse have many many hours as a heavy aircraft Captain and also a very experienced Seaplane pilot, both commercial and private. He has a lot of exciting stories from when he worked as a Seaplane taxi Pilot. This admirable man is the perfect teacher not only because of his great knowledge and skills, but also his calm, nice and secure way of being.

Per is the wonderful passionated doctor who’s wide range of experience in different types of aviation areas, makes him a query interesting teacher to learn from. His excitement is really contagious and it makes the hard work while learning easy. 

Yesterday I spent the day with Per at his home base in Ekestad flying the seaplane SE-YJA that our club SjöflygSyd own. We used a lot of time just talking, hanging out, refueling on one of his friends unstable floating beach bridge before we got in the air. We did 3 normal landings, 2 power off landings, 2 glassy-water landings and one side wind landing. We plowed around and we did bridge docking and beach docking. Everything went great and it was a blast! I wanna do it again!!
YJA is an Zenair CH701 STOL on floats. It’s a very special aircraft with nice short take of and landing performance. On floats you need to really fly it al the way down to the water surface, meaning you need about 50% power to be able to do a nice and soft landing. 

More to come and yet to see!

• Ultralights