This question may seem silly to some. I am new to float flying so maybe you seasoned water flyers can help.


Flying from a farm pond.

Will the fuel contaminate the water? I sure don't want to endanger any cows. Is this something to worry about? Has anyone encountered any problems?

I have flown from farm ponds and it is not a problem.
When I fuel my tank I run the overflow into a collection jar. This keeps all fuel from spilling onto the ground. I fuel up on land, then start the motor still on land.
After the motor is run up I put the airplane into the water to taxy and take off.
Most all the flying is done around the pond area with only the take off and landing on the pond.

There are a lot of flying fields out there that share run way space with cows. Its not a problem.

By the way, cows do not move for airplanes.

tonyc

Thanks Tony,

Sounds like you may have had a close call with a cow before. I was wondering if the would move out or hang around. lol

Charlie,
We have the site across from the Hamblen Boat dock approved for us to fly off of the lake. That might be a better place if its not too much trouble. I have flown off of ponds before and it is a blast if they are big enough!!!
Take care,
Jeff

I imagine that there might be slight contamination from the oil in the exhaust from taxiing and take-offs. I have no idea how much of an oil film the syn/bean oil would leave, but I suspect that it would be negligible.

Just nitpicking. I plan to approach the admins of Walker County Public Lake (a county-owned "fishing" lake) to gain permission to float-fly on the lake, so I've been looking a all aspects in detail. I imagine that their concerns might be that I could annoy fishermen or contaminate the lake.

The amount of exhaust/oil in the lake would be so small that wouldnt matter in the least. The percentage of oil and waste of the plane would be practically 0%.

Compared to the discharge from a 2 cyle outboard full size marine motor, I'm sure a model airplane's exhaust is mighty small.

Agreed, I'm sure that the impact from a model airplane engine will be negligible. But, then, we'll get a noise complaint from flying whereas your neighbor won't hear anything about his weedwhacker...

If they are running jet-skis or bass boats anywhere nearby, nobidy will even HEAR an airplane.

When I flew my plane in the river, traffic would stop to watch. Across the water you could hear words like "DAD! LOOK!" from the approching boats.

Although this is a public lake, I think that it is fishing-only with no motorized boats or jet-skis allowed. They do have rowboats to rent for retrievals. There are several smaller ponds closer to home, but until I get a good feel for landings I want to try a large lake.