Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group Re: Still unclear about amphibious landing sites

Here is why it is best to use the Seaplane Pilots Association guide:
When a seaplane is on the water it is a vessel with the rights and responsibilities of any other vessel. If commerce occurs on the water it is navigable water and under the interstate commerce clause a vessel has the right to use navigable water. Commerce means somebody in a vessel can go buy something i.e. diner at a restaurant, bate, fuel, dockage... Here is the rub, state and local governments have been fighting the interstate commerce clause since its inception. If you want to enforce your right, you have to have years and mega-bucks for the court battle.

Here is a practical example: The J3 seaplane (not amphibian) I flew didn't have the range to fly from South Dayton to Toledo, so we had to carry a 5 gal. can and refuel on Grand Lake St. Mary's. In the 1920s there was a seaplane factory on the shore of Grand Lake St. Mary's and today there is a seaplane base on the chart. There is lots of commerce on the lake and it is navigable water. However, in 1967 the park ranger in charge didn't want seaplanes landing on "his" lake and if he caught you, you had to take the wings off and truck the seaplane back to Dayton. You don't want to argue with a man who has a gun in the middle of a lake where there are no witnesses. So, we landed into the wind, of course, on the South East part of the lake. While the wind was blowing us back, we dumped the fuel into the tank. If everything went right we were lifting off when the park ranger had gotten in his boat and was on his way out to get us. By the time the third guy tried it during a season, the park ranger was real mad and highly motivated. Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.

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