Hello; I smile at your ecological concerns, Isn't castor oil water soluble?, Isn't synthetic oil water soluble? I think so. When people think "oil" they think dino oil, which does leave a rainbow remainder on water. But I don't think any of us use 'dino oil' in our planes, I know that I don't. So I don't think you have any thng to worry about.

We have been flying from our lake for 30 years and there hasn't been any problems in all that time. We once had a problem with one guy that ranted and raved about the birds, he was so crazy that someone called the cops, who took him away and had him "evaluated" and we have never seen him since. I heard he was committed to the local loony bin. I suppose we even have the odd crazy fellow in Canada.

My Seamaster used to take about 50 feet before lifting off the water with a Surpass 70. One fellow has a Rossi in his Seamaster it lifts off after 20 feet or so. The electric ones I have seen here seem to take forever to lift off, a hundred feet or so. I always try for a scale take off, so 50 feet or so looks just about right.