• Welcome to Jetboaters.net!

    We are delighted you have found your way to the best Jet Boaters Forum on the internet! Please consider Signing Up so that you can enjoy all the features and offers on the forum. We have members with boats from all the major manufacturers including Yamaha, Seadoo, Scarab and Chaparral. We don't email you SPAM, and the site is totally non-commercial. So what's to lose? IT IS FREE!

    Membership allows you to ask questions (no matter how mundane), meet up with other jet boaters, see full images (not just thumbnails), browse the member map and qualifies you for members only discounts offered by vendors who run specials for our members only! (It also gets rid of this banner!)

    free hit counter

Float Plane - Danger?!

GTBRMC

Jetboaters Admiral
Messages
2,429
Reaction score
2,314
Points
327
Location
Waukesha, WI
Boat Make
Boatless
Year
2008
Boat Model
SX
Boat Length
23
Question: My understanding is the Coast Guard has jurisdiction over only the Great Lakes, the Atantic and Pacific coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, and certain other designated waterways (US side of St Lawrence comes to mind)... so, do they have any real say in this particular incident? Local inland lakes are typically the responsibility of local law enforcement, no?

Which, of course, further complicates this one. Gut tells me that barking up the FAA's tree + direct contact with and feedback to the flight school is best bet to change behavior moving forward. Good luck!
 

tracerrx

Jetboaters Lieutenant
Messages
120
Reaction score
74
Points
152
Location
Boca Raton / Sebring, FL
Boat Make
Yamaha
Year
2013
Boat Model
SS
Boat Length
21
What ive been able to learn so far is that
  1. When on water, a plane is considered a vessel, and is governed exactly as we are, although there are several additional rules for them on giving way to other traffic
  2. Float Planes are relatively light compared to boats
  3. When a float plane is landing, as a boater your supposed to give way (even though you may not be able to see or hear him until its too late - i had 4 adults and 2 teens onboard and noone saw or heard him until he was 20-30 seconds from water)
  4. There is no legal requirement for a float plane to first perform a fly by (although all the private pilots i have spoken too ensure me they would)
  5. While most planes are equiped with VHF, they apparently arent capable of tuning marine VHF frequencies which seems to contradict USCG rules (see #1)
  6. Its not easy to contact the USCG off water (had to resort to twitter), no links on thier website
  7. Its easy to contact the FAA , but the hotline just directs you to website or email, so far no response
  8. The guy/gal flying this particular plane was a jack$$$
 
Top