Fly With Us is a small, family-run company founded by Anke and Guido Scheidt. Both were working for Eurowings at the time, Guido as a captain and Anke as cabin crew. A trip to Costa Rica changed everything: they fell in love with its wild nature and slower, more relaxed way of life, and decided to leave the fast pace of Germany behind. Using their savings from the airline as seed money, they opened a small hotel called The Flying Crocodile near the beach in Samara, almost 40 years ago.
It was more than a hotel. Alongside classic rooms, they offered scenic flights in trikes. As the business grew, and with their first child, Saray, and later their second child, Lionel, they expanded both the hotel and the flying operation. They eventually moved from trikes to autogyros, which are safer and far more durable in high winds, making it possible to fly safely all year round, even in the windy summer season.
Later, they sold the hotel and split the business into two branches: flying and real estate. Guido focused on growing the flying side, building a hangar, an airstrip and a small fleet of autogyros at our home base in Samara (Buena Vista). Anke put her talent for architecture and interior design to work, building apartments and houses in Samara and Tamarindo and renting them out online. As tourism in Tamarindo grew, Anke, Guido and other shareholders built a second airstrip there.
Meanwhile, Saray moved to Europe, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology and a master’s in Marine Biology. Lionel earned his commercial and instructor licenses for autogyros after high school and worked as a pilot for the company for a few years before moving to Europe to study Business and Economics. Saray later started her own family, welcomed her daughter Yara, and returned to Costa Rica to begin managing the business. Lionel followed after graduating, and today the two are the next generation of Fly With Us, bringing fresh ideas and new energy to the company.
What We Offer
- Scenic flights: 20, 30 and 60-minute flights in both Samara and Tamarindo. In Samara you can also fly simultaneously with a friend or partner, or add our camera package, where we capture professional photos and videos and send them to you afterwards.
- Day tours: we fly you to one of seven destinations, such as Santa Teresa or Arenal, or to a location of your choice. You spend the day exploring, and we fly you back.
- Multi-day tours: travel across Costa Rica with friends or family in several aircraft, staying at some of the country’s most beautiful hotels and reaching places that would otherwise take months to visit.
- Flight school: earn your gyro PPL in Costa Rica.
- Auto Gyro sales, rentals and maintenance: as the Auto Gyro franchise for Central America.
- Short-term rentals: a selection of apartments in Samara and Tamarindo.
