Originally published at: Seaplane Fly-In Cancelled After 40 Years - AVweb
Due to the county’s financial and legal concerns, a $5 million insurance policy and a $100,000 fee would be required for the event.
Hopefully, SPA - Seaplane Pilots Assoc. gets involved with this as the county seems very evasive in explaining their logic.
I wonder if all users of the park have this excessive fees attached to their use. With Forty years of use it certainly seems that this event was exactly what this park was built for. Shame another use for people to enjoy themselves has been removed by some bureaucrats. What is a park for now just homeless encampments. I certainly hope this will be looked into further as a form of discrimination. Taxes are spent for all groups to enjoy the facilities. Why exclude the very people who pay them.
What triggered the ghost meeting to impose sudden new insurance and financial fee requirements? Why did the Parks board require several weeks to pump out a letter cutting the event off with incredibly short notice? Surely the Parks board knew that the seaplane event required months of planning and financial investments for up front preparations.
Another triumph for the predatory tort bar.
The insurance industry needs to be brought to bare before it completely destroys General Aviation. My premiums have tripled since I bought my second plane in 2019, and I fly as a profession.
Too many government bodies use flash-mob meetings to enact policies they know will be unpopular. When they don’t announce, don’t engage in dialog, and don’t explain, they are imposing their will. A good government official at least tries to engage constructively with his/her constituents.
The Green New Deal commies don’t want gasoline engine airplanes on their lake, fishermen don’t want them there, or maybe democrats who hate everything. Who knows.
Too many forget the 2011 event in Reno at the air races there where Galloping Ghost became a ballistic missle into a crowd. While Reno and the airport had at least-50 million in liability coverage. there are most likely still a lot of claims from that which have not settled. The next year, their insurance cost nearly tripled and the city had to go to a lot of businesses in town to belly up to help pay the premium. All it takes is one catastrophe to bankrupt an entire town. The litigators are still licking their chops.
All lakes in the State of Michigan are owned by the State. The State of Michigan owns Otsego Lake, Otsego County does not own the lake. Therefore Otsego County has no jurisdiction preventing seaplane ops on Otsego Lake. The lake is not closed to seaplane operations. Otsego County can prevent the Splash-In event from taking place at the County owned campground on the lake (not a very pleasant campground anyway). But it can not prevent the event from happening on Otsego Lake. The State Of Michigan owns a State Park on the south end of the lake (a very nice campground). Many of the Splash-In participants already stay at the State Park.
The Board of Commissioners for Ostego County are all Republicans, so just a bunch of the rich elite. Board of Commissioners | Otsego County, MI
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