The Clear Lake Flying Club is based at Lampson Field (1O2) near Clear Lake in Lakeport, California. Additional details about Lampson Field are available at:
Please join the Clear Lake Flying Club at its next event, the Clear Lake Aviation Gathering which takes place on April 22-23, 2023. Clear Lake Flying Club is producing the conference with the Professional Aerial Photographers Association. The Clear Lake Aviation Gathering features a weekend of aviation and aerial photography seminars and events including presentations about flying seaplanes, the AOPA High School STEM Curriculum, a youth flight training program and future aviation activities at Clear Lake. The program includes an aerial photography exhibit entitled Aerial Visions of Seaplanes, from Seaplanes and Over Water, a raffle and silent auction benefiting a the Clear Lake Flying Club Youth Aviation Scholarship, a wine tasting and catered hangar dinner and a seaplane fly out from Clear Lake to Lake Berryessa. The conference program is available at: Clear Lake Aviation Gathering Program To register for the Clear Lake Aviation Gathering, please visit: Clear Lake Aviation Gathering Registration. A curated aerial photography exhibition entitled Aerial Visions of Seaplanes, From Seaplanes and Over Water will open at the Clear Lake Aviation Gathering on April 22. The work of exhibited photographers will be highlighted at one of the conference sessions, and the conference attendees will select photographs which will win a total of up to $800 worth of Lake County wine in prizes. Exhibited work may at the photographer's option be included in follow up exhibitions and projected programs. Anyone creating photographs which are the subject of the exhibition is entitled to submit work for consideration. The invitation to submit work is at Invitation to submit Aerial Photography for the Exhibition. If you would like to serve as a volunteer to help with the production of the Clear Lake Aviation Gathering or with any other activities of the Clear Lake Flying Club, please visit: If you'd like to help promote the conference, please help us distribute a poster which can be printed out and posted. The poster is available at: Clear Lake Aviation Gathering Poster
|
The Clear Lake Flying Club's mission is to provide resources for members to continue developing their flying skills, host seminars and social activities which will provide opportunities for members to deepen their relationships with each other and share flying knowledge, and provide access to aircraft at a lower cost than other options that are available. The club also provides resources for individuals who'd like to learn to fly to realize that dream, and is developing a program to enable young people to learn about careers in aviation, and if they choose to do so, learn to fly. To learn more about the Clear Lake Flying Club's work to help young people become involved in aviation, please visit aviation opportunities for young people.
|
One of the Clear Lake Flying Club's objectives is to obtain access to one or more seaplanes, which will be available to members for training and rental, in addition to any other aircraft members determine would be useful to the membership. Clear Lake provides an exceptional climate and many opportunities for flying and flight training. For more information about Clear Lake, California's largest fresh water lake, please visit, Clear Lake. To learn more about Lake County, please check out the Lake County Visitor's Guide.
|
Because there are no opportunities to rent seaplanes in the San Francisco Bay Area at the moment, the Clear Lake Flying Club is establishing a special membership structure for individuals residing outside of Lake County, and is actively seeking members residing in the greater San Francisco Bay Area including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and other parts of Silicon Valley. The club will assist Bay Area pilots interested in joining club activities to participate in meetings by providing online access to presentations to those individuals who can't make a meeting and by arranging ride shares (in aircraft and other vehicles) for individuals interested in traveling to Lampson Field for club activities. Because Clear Lake is an outstanding place to fly seaplanes, Lakeport, California has been the venue for the Clear Lake Splash In, the largest fly in of seaplanes west of the Mississippi river, for 40 years. You can see a few photographs of previous Splash In events at: photographs of the Clear Lake Splash In. Because it is so well suited for seaplane operations, Clear Lake has an extensive history of seaplanes using the lake for commercial operations.
|
Because of its relatively reliable weather, Clear Lake served as a back up landing location for the China Clipper transcontinental flying boat flights when the seaplane base at Treasure Island in San Francisco was unusable because of fog. Numerous other individuals and organizations have used Clear Lake for their seaplane operations.
The Clear Lake Flying Club intends to function as a non-equity flying club, meaning that, unless the membership decides it would be wise to invest in an aircraft or aircraft project, it will not purchase aircraft, but will lease them from owners who have decided to purchase aircraft as an investment, for tax benefits or to reduce their cost of owning an aircraft. If you have an airplane that you would like to consider leasing to the club, please contact us. The club is particularly interested in making available to members basic training aircraft, aircraft suitable for tailwheel training and seaplanes. The Clear Lake Flying Club will assist you in evaluating whether the lease of your aircraft makes financial sense for your particular situation, and can provide you with access to professionals who can provide accounting or legal advice should you need that before making a decision on purchasing and aircraft or leasing it to the club. The Clear Lake Flying Club is actively working on forming partnerships to acquire aircraft that will be made available to club members for rental or instruction. Significant tax benefits are available to individuals who purchase a share in an aircraft that is leased to the club. If you are interested in learning more about partnership investment opportunities in aircraft, please contact the club. If you have an aircraft that you'd like to sell, please contact the club, so that we can evaluate whether it should be presented to potential purchasers as an aircraft to be made available to club members. The club will consider aircraft in any location.
|
At the moment the club is working on identifying investors in an ICON A5 amphibian aircraft that would be made available to qualified pilots who are club members. You can see more details about this opportunity and this particular aircraft at: The club is also evaluating other seaplane options including one of the SeaRey models, a Republic Seabee, a Lake Buccaneer, a Super Cub on floats, and a Stinson on floats. More information is available about the Super Cub is available on the Seaplane Pilot Association's web site at Piper PA-18 Super Cub. Dave Hirschman, AOPA's pilot editor at large has written an excellent description of the performance of the Super Cub on floats in his article comparing the performance of the Super Cub with the Aeroprakt A-22 at WaterWar: Traditional Super Cub versus new Light Sport. For a brief synopsis of some of the tax benefits which may be available to investors who purchase an aircraft or a share in an aircraft and lease it to the club, please visit Tax Benefits of Investing in Aircraft. To join the Clear Lake Flying Club, volunteer, make a donation, or learn more about leasing an aircraft to the club, please contact the club or call 415.771.2555.
To receive the club's newsletter please request the newsletter
© Copyright 2023 by Clear Lake Flying Club
|