About float planes....

"Fred Choate" wrote in message
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[...]
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