Skylune (or family relation) takes to the water...

john smith wrote:
MORRIS -- A local boater who repeatedly swerved in front of a floatplane on
Bantam Lake to prevent it from taking off was arrested on a warrant Sunday,
authorities said."
Remainder of story can be found he
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc...923730.story?c
oll=hc-headlines-local
Could this be a relative of this group's "skylune"? ;-)

No medical, no license required.
Anyone can drive a boat.

But there are maritime right-of-way rules. Airplanes on the water must
obey these as well as boats. Seaplane bases are just like real airports
and are regulated by Federal law.

I used to fly on a river at 10AM on Saturday mornings. My only
conclusion is there are many drunks on their SkiDoos at that time. They
even try to become propellor-bait by trying to out run the plane or in
some cases, playing "chicken" with it. I haven't read about any
accidents involving these fools so we can't rely on Darwin to cull out
the weak ones.

Stubby wrote:

But there are maritime right-of-way rules. Airplanes on the water must
obey these as well as boats.

Doesn't an aircraft taking off have the right of way over a power boat?

Jules wrote:


Stubby wrote:

But there are maritime right-of-way rules. Airplanes on the water
must obey these as well as boats.

Doesn't an aircraft taking off have the right of way over a power boat?



Believe it or not, no, which is contrary to what you'd think. Check FAR
91.115. Airplanes are pretty low on the pecking order when on water.

However, the guy in CT, purposely and repeatedly messed with the aircraft.

On 25 Aug 2006 02:23:02 -0700, "cjcampbell"
wrote:
Funny how the highest traffic fatality rates were during the years of
the 55mph speed limit.

Perhaps from everyone trying to pass the slow ass drivers who insisted
on only doing 55 mph on the two lane roads?

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 11:30:35 GMT, B A R R Y
wrote:
I'm local and familiar with that lake. It's a relatively quiet lake,
with an engine limit for boats to keep speed and noise down. Some
reports stated that the man had to be subdued by police, so I wonder if
alcohol was a factor.

Alcohol involved with boating? SAY IT AIN'T SO !!!

burp

On 25 Aug 2006 05:08:03 -0700, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:
Cars in general are SO much better now. I remember my Dad trading his
Pontiacs at 50,000 miles, because they were about run out. People who
got 100,000 miles were in the local paper.

I can remember a '69 Pontiac that I had that actually got scary to
drive past around 85 mph or so... The front end felt like it was
wanting to become airborne... Hell, my '95 Jeep XJ feels better than
that Pontiac at that speed and it has the aerodynamics of a ****in'
brick...

Driver's education is another area that is radically improved. In the
1960s, the majority of drivers had received NO instruction at all. My
son just went through it and received his license two weeks ago, and it
was WORK to earn that piece of paper, for both he and us.

For Iowa ??? I figured with all the damn straight roads up there,
they weren't too concerned with driving ability... For the same reason
that they don't have inspection stickers on cars...

Drunk driving laws -- something that barely existed until the '80s --
are now strictly enforced. This reduces fatalities dramatically.

I don't agree with the current drunk driving laws... I know for a fact
that with a 12-pack in me, I drive better than Grace's younger sister
even if she is perfectly sober... I think they should have an alcohol
rating on the drivers licenses so that you can 'qualify' with various
blood alcohol levels... If you can still pass the test with a certain
percentage of alcohol in your bloodstream, you can't get a DWI at that
level... Hell, that should make getting your license so much more
interesting... burp

There are some downsides, however. Traffic engineers have gone off the
deep end to ensure safety, often (IMHO) at the expense of common sense
and efficiency. In my neck of the woods, for example, traffic is
deliberately engineered to stop often, so that people can't drive too
fast. Worse, NO ONE is allowed to turn left at stop lights anymore,
without a specific, dedicated green arrow. We are no longer trusted to
determine whether it's safe to turn or not, regardless of oncoming
traffic -- or the lack thereof.

Texas is that way also... It really irritates me when I'm on a
motorcycle and the sensor in the road does not register my vehicle
being there and won't give me the arrow... Louisiana, on the other
hand, still tends to have generic non-protected green lights that
allow you to use your own judgement on whether you can safely make the
turn...

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:27:34 -0400, Stubby
wrote:
I used to fly on a river at 10AM on Saturday mornings. My only
conclusion is there are many drunks on their SkiDoos at that time.

I always figured that if you drink before noon, you're treading on
being classified as an alcoholic... On the other hand, I'm not exactly
sure where the cutoff point is from the night before... I've kind of
suspected that daybreak was probably a good cutoff point though...

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:44:41 -0400, Jules
wrote:
Doesn't an aircraft taking off have the right of way over a power boat?

Let's make it a bit more interesting... What about a sailboat?

B A R R Y wrote:
Jules wrote:



Stubby wrote:

But there are maritime right-of-way rules. Airplanes on the water
must obey these as well as boats.


Doesn't an aircraft taking off have the right of way over a power boat?



Believe it or not, no, which is contrary to what you'd think. Check FAR
91.115. Airplanes are pretty low on the pecking order when on water.

However, the guy in CT, purposely and repeatedly messed with the aircraft.


He could have killed someone in the plane.


Hmm, I am in Canada, it may be different here. A landing aircraft has
the right of way over anything but a sailboat, I think. It's been 15
years and things change.....???

"Grumman-581" wrote in message
...
I always figured that if you drink before noon, you're treading on
being classified as an alcoholic...

And if you claim to be safe to drive after a 12-pack, you're not?