The trip was planned a few weeks in advance. Arild Jan and Ingwil called me up to find out weather I could organize a trip to Sun Blas in Panama to visit the Cunas.

Cunas are an Indian Tribe located at the southern Caribbean part of Panama. My inquiries at the Panamanian aviation authorities were responded quicklz and the paperwork looked to be easy.

After filling the forms and sending them back we encountered a small problem — they wanted a copy of the airworthiness certificate which doesn’t exist for Ultralights but the authorities denied it as well as to give us a permit without it.

I called Houakin a very helpful Panamanian gyro pilot who copied us the part of the law which gave exemption for Ultralights. After we provided the authorities with the informations (about their law) we received two hours later our permissions and were now ready to go.

Mucki — a German lady, part time residing in Tambor, listened to our planes and after experiencing the fun of Gyro Flying on an ordinary round trip she spontaneously decided to join us on our Trip. And not only that she was joining us — she decided as well to sit up front and use the journey to start learning how to fly the Gyro by herself.

Our trip started in Samara and because we were traveling international we had to fly first to San Jose — pass immigration over there and then continue to David — the first international airport behind the border. To get it done in one day we left early heading with three gyros towards the Central Valley.

After 40 minutes of flying on a beautiful fresh morning air we crossed the Tempísque Delta on the way to Puntarenas.

I was doing the communication with the San Jose radar controller for all three planes when Arild called me and informed me about a technical problem, his trim did not work and to compensate the missing trim you have to use constant power which is exhausting for a long time.

So, we landed in Puntarenas and found a failed relay in the electrical system. Meanwhile locals surrounded us an offered to help and 15 minutes later someone returned with a new relay and 15 minutes more and we were in the air again heading towards the capital.

Immigration and customs were done quickly and then we decided to enjoy San Jose and leave early the next morning.

Blue skies woke us up and we had our breakfast before we headed toward the airport… 30 minutes later we were packed up again ready to take off towards the south. We overflew Escazu in our climb to 6,500ft to be able to cross the mountains to Quepos.

We continued along the coast passing Golfito on the way to the border. Radio communication with the radar controller worked perfect and 5 miles before the border we were handed over to Panama control which welcomed us and gave permission to fly direct to David.

After 30 minites we touched down in David and after a big pile of paperwork and $150 for each plane we were leaving David toward Las Lajas — a beautiful beach resort at the Pacific.

With a cocktail in our hand we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and reviewed our impressive flight of the day. The next morning we started early because we wanted to reach Panama City.

Weather conditions were perfect so we headed south passing the coastline viewing tons of impressive beaches. Panama showed us that there is still some money around because we could see lots of high class investment projects in progress. To refuel we had to stop in Santiago — a small town located inland. We filled our stomachs as well as the plane and a few hours later we took off towards the capital.

It took us nearly two hours with a strong wind on our nose to reach Panama City — already the skyline was breathtaking. The controller allowed us to fly over ex Howard Airbase precisley at the moment four huge helicopters took off from the ground.

The next highlight was the “Pointe de America” a very impressive building at the entrance of Panama City. From there we were guided over the harbor — through the skyscrapers on a long final of Marcos A Gelabert airport which is located in the center of town. When you approach a big airport like this one you really feel huge as well in an ultralight.

At the airport we were the attraction of the day, nearly everybody tried to pass our parking spot to get some pictures of our great machines.

Next morning we continued our trip to San Blas our final destination. We applied for a scenic flight around the amazing city and from there to join along the Panama Canal to Colon.

The Canal is something great to see, to understand what mankind is capable of creating. It looks impressive to see the huge ships sailling on the channel — entering huge locks lifting these boats to level them, 21 meters difference between the Caribbean and the Pacific. Flying real low over Llake Gatun gave us some incredible view above these huge cargo ships.

One hour later we arrived in Colon — a huge airport which is serving the more richer businessmen traveling to work between Panama City and Colon.

We organized a taxi pick up to help us fill our stored jerry-cans to the fuel station and gave us the possibilities to find a nice restaurant in Colon. This town is actually one big storeroom to deposit goods arriving from all over the world.

At noon we took off again towards San Blas and enjoyed the Caribbean landscape with it’s turquoise water. We passed Portobelo, a small town hosting a statue of a black Jesus and as well a huge important Spanish Fort.

Fifty meters above sea-level we flew along the coast enjoying the precious landscape. Hundreds of yachts hosted along the coast as well enjoying the waters of the Caribbean. When we passed Porvenir we suddenly saw hundreds of islands in our vicinity and we were astonished with the great view.

Our destination was a small island called Corazon de Jesus where we decided to stay a few days. We found a small hotel near the water and were blessed with a beautiful combination of seafood in a small restaurant.

Next morning we hired a boat and headed towards Isla Tigre — a small island ruled by the Cunas. When we arrived at the small pier we were greeted by Cuna girls who guided us to the restaurant and prepared a delicious fish meal for us.

Mucki, connected with the Cuna girls and she provided us with lots of interesting informations about their culture and habits. Furthermore, she received the cuna dressing jewelry which were large pearl necklaces wrapped around arms and legs which made here look very similar to our hosts.

We had another two relaxing days on the island — eating great food — snorkeling in the Atlantic — exploring the Cuna culture and witnessing some amazing dances in the night.

Being impressed and delighted we took off the following morning towards Las Tablas which is a small village hosting one of the most popular Carnivals in Panama. A beautiful brand new airport accommodated our Gyros and we headed toward the town.

Already at the exit gate from the airfield we saw hundreds of cars heading towards the town. It was incredible — It was like a chicken factory — thousands of people in a small tiny town — dressed with huge masks and dancing on impressive carnival cars.

We partied the whole night. Unfortunately, my cellphone was stolen in the crowd. This incident really upset me; however, I should have known better, this could have happened anywhere. Bad guys are all around the world!

We needed to sleep a little bit longer the following day but still managed to head out to David to finish our trip. From David it took us another day back to the Flying Crocodile in Samara. Always accompanied by the great view of the mountains on the right and the see on the left.

Coming back to the Flying Crocodile in Samara we were still a little overwhelmed with all the experience we had enjoyed in this relatively short time. We had seen so many incredible things during these ten days and everybody was full of new impressions and memories to keep.

Luckily, with exception of the small failure at the beginning of our trip, we did not encounter any technical problems. We were 25 hours in the air and Mucki got a lot of experience of how to manage cross country flights. Everybody received a huge practical course in handling weather information — official requirements and planning a unique trip through Central America.

Ultralight tour took place: February 2012

Duration: 10 days

Organizer: Flying Crocodile — Ultra Light Tour S.A

Pilots: Guido Scheidt and charter guests

Aircraft: MTO Sport – Auto Gyro Germany

German born Guido Scheidt and his wife Anke are the owners of the Flying Crocodile Hotel North of Samara in Costa Rica. They have two children and have been living in Costa Rica since 1994. Guido has been a commercial pilot since 1986 and has the only flight school for light sport aircraft in Costa Rica, he is a qualified Instructor for fixed wing – weight shift and auto gyro.

Prices for a fun 20 minute ultralight tour start at $99 and obviously much more for a full day tour. You can see the full AutoGyro price list here.

For more information about these exciting ultra light flying tours in Costa Rica please visit AutoGyroAmerica.com. Please note that Guido does not respond to emails while flying.

PS. Note From Scott Oliver – Founder of WeLoveCostaRica.com – In 2005 my children and I stayed at the Flying Crocodile Hotel and booked an ultralight flying tour, as you’ll see from the beaming smile on my daughter’s face at Costa Rica Flying Ultralights, we had a fantastic time!

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.