About float planes....

Hey folks......

Being a low time pilot (65 TT), I have a question about float operations,
and I suppose it may carry over to land planes as well.

Anyway, yesterday I took a fellow up on a scenic flight around Seattle.
What a perfect day for it too.....I never realized how pretty urban areas
are from the air. They seem so peaceful from altitude...LOL. Anyway, as I
flew from west to east north of Seattle, I was monitoring 122.9, and made a
few blind calls as to my altitude and location as Kenmore air has a lot of
float traffic coming in and out of Seattle. My plan was to fly east to Lake
Sammamish, and then turn south and head on back down to Puyallup. As I
neared Lake Sammamish, I heard a call that an aircraft was departing
Sammamish........I looked at my chart, and saw no airport, or anything there
indicating any airfield at the Lake, and thought that maybe I didn't hear
the call correctly. A few moments later, I heard the call that "float plane
XXXX is leaving the water eastbound, Sammamish". I looked down at the lake,
and sure enough, there was a floater climbing out. I was at 2000 ft, so no
issue, and I had made a blind call about 3 minutes earlier announcing my
position, altitude, and direction of flight, but I guess I didn't think that
there would be traffic landing or departing the lake.

I guess my point is, is that I learned something yesterday. It didn't occur
to me that there could be float traffic over or around many of the lakes in
our area, and to listen a bit closer to the radio. After seeing the plane
below me, it occurred to me that the aircraft had called his intentions, and
asked for any traffic any the vicinity to let him know, but when he called
out "Sammamish" and I looked at the chart and didn't see any airport or
seaport identification at Sammamish, I guessed I was hearing communication
from a more distant airport, and it didn't click.

It is important to know the names of lakes you are flying over or around, as
well as small towns that may have fields that pilots may use for landing
strips, even if they are not shown on the chart. I kind of felt that maybe
the pilot of the float plane should have said a bit more to clarify what he
was doing. That maybe something that they do there all the time, but not
flying that area very often, I wasn't aware of the "local calls" that might
be made for it, so it confused me slightly.

Anybody else ever had a similar experience?

Fred C.

Fred Choate wrote:

I kind of felt that maybe
the pilot of the float plane should have said a bit more to clarify what he
was doing.


I am familiar with the Seattle area, though I've never flown any kind of
plane there. Having at one time been a seaplane pilot, I find myself
looking up when one goes over, and that is a frequent occurence in
Seattle and environs. So I think any pilot there would be alert to
seaplane activity and be paying attention to the water as well as to
airstrips on sectionals (and the usual scan, etc.).

Right....which is something that I didn't really think about until
yesterday, and it is something that should be touched on my local
instructors.

Thanks...

Fred


"RomeoMike" wrote in message
...
Fred Choate wrote:

I kind of felt that maybe
the pilot of the float plane should have said a bit more to clarify what
he was doing.


I am familiar with the Seattle area, though I've never flown any kind of
plane there. Having at one time been a seaplane pilot, I find myself
looking up when one goes over, and that is a frequent occurence in Seattle
and environs. So I think any pilot there would be alert to seaplane
activity and be paying attention to the water as well as to airstrips on
sectionals (and the usual scan, etc.).

"Fred Choate" wrote:
Right....which is something that I didn't really think about until
yesterday, and it is something that should be touched on my local
instructors.

Isn't that "Situational Awareness"?
Some bodies of water may = seaplanes.

But I agree, never hurts to be reminded. Even though symbols appear on
sectionals for gliderports, I've been surprised to learn that many CFIs
don't realize that some glider operations do not use radios, so while
visual scanning anywhere is always a given, you can't always count on
them announcing their presence/positions.

Yes it is.......which is why it sort of bothered me. It is a "situation"
that I didn't consider, therefore wasn't really being "aware" of it....

Fred


wrote in message
...
"Fred Choate" wrote:
Right....which is something that I didn't really think about until
yesterday, and it is something that should be touched on my local
instructors.

Isn't that "Situational Awareness"?
Some bodies of water may = seaplanes.

But I agree, never hurts to be reminded. Even though symbols appear on
sectionals for gliderports, I've been surprised to learn that many CFIs
don't realize that some glider operations do not use radios, so while
visual scanning anywhere is always a given, you can't always count on
them announcing their presence/positions.

"Fred Choate" wrote in message
...
[...]
Anybody else ever had a similar experience?

Sure. I operate my seaplane from Lake Sammamish regularly. Every now and
then, there's another seaplane there at the same time I am. IMHO, you miss
the point when you write "I kind of felt that maybe the pilot of the float
plane should have said a bit more to clarify what he was doing". That there
was a radio call at all was unusual, and so was the coincidence that you
happened to be listening on that frequency. Worrying about WHAT was said on
the radio call is pointless.

I don't even bother with the radio. I didn't even realize that the Kenmore
traffic was in the habit of using their frequency for Lake Sammamish
operations, but a) it's not an authorized frequency for Lake Sammamish, and
b) the majority of traffic in the area won't be listening on that frequency
(assuming they are listening to any frequency at all).

As with every other area away from an airport, it's important to be aware of
the possibility for air traffic. Yes, over waterways you have the
additional possibility of seaplane traffic, but frankly I don't see this is
a significant difference from the usual "see and avoid" each pilot needs to
be using in the first place. If you are flying in a particular area, then
anyone else could be too. Lake Sammamish in particular is a reasonably
popular place for any airplane to be; the transient landplane traffic flying
over the lake far outnumbers the seaplane traffic, so one ought to be
looking out the window in any case.

Pete

Lesson learned for sure. I am more upset with myself for not thinking about
it than anything. You make a good point about the radios and that point is
taken....thank you. I expect that there will likely be little things
learned on many of my flights in the near and distant future....

Fred


"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Fred Choate" wrote in message
...
[...]
Anybody else ever had a similar experience?

Sure. I operate my seaplane from Lake Sammamish regularly. Every now and
then, there's another seaplane there at the same time I am. IMHO, you
miss the point when you write "I kind of felt that maybe the pilot of the
float plane should have said a bit more to clarify what he was doing".
That there was a radio call at all was unusual, and so was the coincidence
that you happened to be listening on that frequency. Worrying about WHAT
was said on the radio call is pointless.

I don't even bother with the radio. I didn't even realize that the
Kenmore traffic was in the habit of using their frequency for Lake
Sammamish operations, but a) it's not an authorized frequency for Lake
Sammamish, and b) the majority of traffic in the area won't be listening
on that frequency (assuming they are listening to any frequency at all).

As with every other area away from an airport, it's important to be aware
of the possibility for air traffic. Yes, over waterways you have the
additional possibility of seaplane traffic, but frankly I don't see this
is a significant difference from the usual "see and avoid" each pilot
needs to be using in the first place. If you are flying in a particular
area, then anyone else could be too. Lake Sammamish in particular is a
reasonably popular place for any airplane to be; the transient landplane
traffic flying over the lake far outnumbers the seaplane traffic, so one
ought to be looking out the window in any case.

Pete

Don't even get me started on pilots busting an active aerobatic box
because they didn't look at the charts or get current NOTAMs before they
went flying!

"Fred Choate" wrote in message ...
Lesson learned for sure. ... I expect that there will likely be little things learned on many of my flights in the
near and distant future....

Fred

Like they say...this is ticket to learn...

I got my float rating on Lake Washington, and we used Sammamish as the prime
training area. I should think you'll see a ton of floatplane traffic
popping back and forth between the two big lakes and Union. Most of this
traffic is at lower altitudes, and it's all VFR. It also moves slowly and
is easy to spot -- probably more easily seen than the average helicopter.

Almost all floatplanes are high-wingers, either Cessnas or Cubs or Beavers.
If you see one descending toward a lake, be sure that the pilot is staring
at the water surface and not looking for you: he or she is looking at boats,
at wave patterns, and for logs, waterfowl and especially for jet skis.

On Lake Washington, be alert for plenty of floatplanes near Kenmore at the
north end and near Wiley Post at the south end. These guys have their own
patterns that depend entirely on wind direction and on their oddball taxi
routes across the water surface, but there are some standard arrival routes.
If you fly into neighboring airports, especially Renton, ask a local about
them.

Union is where most of the scheduled and air taxi floatplane traffic lives,
mostly Twin Otters and Beavers.

Seth


"Fred Choate" wrote in message
...
Hey folks......

Being a low time pilot (65 TT), I have a question about float operations,
and I suppose it may carry over to land planes as well.

Anyway, yesterday I took a fellow up on a scenic flight around Seattle.
What a perfect day for it too.....I never realized how pretty urban areas
are from the air. They seem so peaceful from altitude...LOL. Anyway, as
I flew from west to east north of Seattle, I was monitoring 122.9, and
made a few blind calls as to my altitude and location as Kenmore air has a
lot of float traffic coming in and out of Seattle. My plan was to fly
east to Lake Sammamish, and then turn south and head on back down to
Puyallup. As I neared Lake Sammamish, I heard a call that an aircraft was
departing Sammamish........I looked at my chart, and saw no airport, or
anything there indicating any airfield at the Lake, and thought that maybe
I didn't hear the call correctly. A few moments later, I heard the call
that "float plane XXXX is leaving the water eastbound, Sammamish". I
looked down at the lake, and sure enough, there was a floater climbing
out. I was at 2000 ft, so no issue, and I had made a blind call about 3
minutes earlier announcing my position, altitude, and direction of flight,
but I guess I didn't think that there would be traffic landing or
departing the lake.

I guess my point is, is that I learned something yesterday. It didn't
occur to me that there could be float traffic over or around many of the
lakes in our area, and to listen a bit closer to the radio. After seeing
the plane below me, it occurred to me that the aircraft had called his
intentions, and asked for any traffic any the vicinity to let him know,
but when he called out "Sammamish" and I looked at the chart and didn't
see any airport or seaport identification at Sammamish, I guessed I was
hearing communication from a more distant airport, and it didn't click.

It is important to know the names of lakes you are flying over or around,
as well as small towns that may have fields that pilots may use for
landing strips, even if they are not shown on the chart. I kind of felt
that maybe the pilot of the float plane should have said a bit more to
clarify what he was doing. That maybe something that they do there all
the time, but not flying that area very often, I wasn't aware of the
"local calls" that might be made for it, so it confused me slightly.

Anybody else ever had a similar experience?

Fred C.