LAKEPORT>>> Pilot Mike Pullman is old school when it comes to the type of fixed wing airplane he favors and became enamored over his vintage, all metal, amphibious sport aircraft when he finally acquired it about a year ago.
He first saw it several years ago sitting idle in a hanger near Austin, Texas. It had two recent owners, one who passed away shortly after it was purchased, and another who wanted to interest his son in learning to fly it. However, his son wanted to be a helicopter pilot. Pullman knew once he spotted the seaplane it was just the sort of aircraft for himself. “It’s a neat design and I like the idea it is a vintage model,” he said.
Pullman added, “The reason I bought it, the airplane had a complete overhaul 14 years ago and did not have much use since then.” The plane is a 1947 RC-3 Republic Seabee. “When I found out about it, I was told by Seabee experts it was one of the nicer Seabees around,” he said. “Since I retired my main hobby is flying. I flew for the U.S. Customs Service and then we became the Customs Border Protection after 911.” Just before summer 2024 Pullman bought the Seabee, and last summer became a perfect opportunity to get better acquainted with his new acquisition.
Then, while looking through a Seaplane Pilots Association magazine, Pullman was alerted to the Clear Lake Splash In mentioned in the magazine’s events section. So he got the idea of expanding on the prior summer’s cram session with his still new seaplane, that this summer would serve as a good test run to truly learn its capabilities. At first Pullman thought about flying across country to Florida, but his plane is not fast, typically hitting an average cruising speed of 115 MPH when not climbing for altitude, so the Florida gambit seemed too much of a long hall, yet when Pullman learned of the Clear Lake Splash In, the distance from his Scottsdale, Arizona home was just the perfect journey.
“We flew over yesterday (Friday),” recalled Pullman. “It was the better part of the day, a total flight time of 8.2 hours with two fuel stops, one in Apple Valley, California and the other in Madera. The weather was perfect, the winds favorable, my airplane worked flawlessly and it was a really great flight. It was the first time I really got to know the airplane.”
Now that Pullman has seen it can match the rigors of reaching Northern California without any glitches, he is eager to fly to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho and to the San Juan islands between Bellingham Bay and Vancouver Island, to visit friends. “This is one of my favorite places in the U.S.,” he said. “And it’s been a dream of mine flying to some beautiful lake. Hopefully we can go this summer. I just love that part of the country up in the northern panhandle of Idaho and Seattle area. But we’d also be escaping the heat.”
One of the first presenters at the Splash In seminars at the 5th St. Yacht Club was Bob Valdez, Ramp monitor/coordinator for Lake County Water Resources department He spoke about, “Quashing the Quagga” Mussel and Zebra Mussel as well. These invasive species reproduce explosively encrusting docks and boats, but seaplanes are required to get inspection stickers too. The mussels can devastate ecosystems and cost millions of dollars to clean up. Once they contaminate a body of water, extermination is almost impossible, and prevention of their spread is the only effective management strategy.
But seaplanes are different from boats, they’ll fly from one body of water to another. “All these pilots have taken their inspection courses, and I got to commend them,” he said. “They take care of their equipment like we take care of the lake. But where do we go from here. We cannot inspect something already soaked and then deem it OK. We have to haul it on land, clean and dry it in order to inspect it and it is hard to do that in standing water.”
Valdez advocated even more robust vigilance since in October word was passed on about how the Golden Mussel has arrived in South Bay. All vessels and trailers must display the proper mussel inspection ticket before launching in any body of water in the county. The nearest location for vessel screening can be found at public launch ramps or stopping at the closest bait and tackle shop. For further information phone:707 -263- 2344 or go online at www.nomussels.com.
Herb Lingl, pilot, aerial photographer, is the producer of the series of seminars on the Splash In at the 5th St. Yacht Club. He talked about a development for the city of Lakeport, to construct seaplane docks. “We probably have the most seaplane friendly city government; both our city manager and mayor are in accord with this,” said Lingl. “We’ll have presentations by Bellingham Marine, one of the largest marina builders in the world, they build in Tavares (Florida), they build in Vancouver, and I met them in Nashville, and they were interested in us.” Two other companies he noted showed interest in Lakeport, Seaflex, a Swedish company, and Blue Water Cay, which have elastic range of floating applications
To build the infrastructure into what it has potential to be, they will need a lot of volunteers and financial supporters he noted. Thanks to the Skylark Resort’s willingness to explore what they could do to support the Splash In, they agreed to be the main venue. “They went to some expense to make that possible, Lingl said. “They modified their gate on Clearlake Ave.to make it big enough (for the planes). And the mayor and city manager have been exceptional to make possible what we want to do this year.”
