About float planes....

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