"zatatime" wrote in message
...
I didn't know they have instrument approaches to lakes.


If I recall correctly the Seattle area has some (a couple). Not sure
if its on the US or Canadian side though.

Sort of. There are no instrument approaches to waterways per se, but we
have several seaplane bases close enough to airports with instrument
approaches that for all intents and purposes, they might as well have
instrument approaches.

Non-precision, of course, but that's almost always good enough.

One is at Renton, WA where seaplanes can taxi right up to the airport and
get a dolly out of the water. Another is at Lake Union...an instrument
approach into Boeing Field will get you down low enough to "circle to land"
on Lake Union (which is adjacent to the north end of the Seattle downtown
area).

Heck, a really determined pilot could fly the approach to Renton, and then
taxi the entire length of the lake all the way up to Kenmore. I forget what
the width of the under-bridge passage is, so maybe they'd have to fly 100'
off the water, but that'd be no big deal in a seaplane.

Similar things apply in the Victoria and Vancouver area, as well as many
other major seaplane destinations in the PNW.

Same thing probably applies at at least one airport near a landable waterway
in the general vicinity of the reported accident in Maine.

Coincidentally, we just had a scud-running accident here in the Northwest,
not too far from Vancouver, WA (across the river from Portland). Amazingly
enough, three out of four survived.

Pete