VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

During a much needed rest at the beach at Pat Bay today, I was visited by an RCMP officer AND an Airport Commissionaire. They were concerned that the sailors, (3 or 4 kiters, plus myself, the lone windsurfer ) were venturing to far south into the float planes flight path. Truly, I don't believe anyone came that close, but the cop mentioned that a complaint had come in from a pilot. As it turned out, a float plane did in fact take off while we were having this conversation. It was agreed upon that as long as we stayed north of the staircase ( at the pottery shop) that should be sufficient clearance for all aircraft.
Pat Bay is my new favorite spot as it suits my big gear really well and I would hate to lose access to this bay. I thought everyone should know.

I've windsurfed for decades @ I.V. BUT never kited there out of respect for Pilots. We never had any problems.

A kiter should update the wiki with this info.

Good idea ... Done. (of course)

You would need to be boosting around 200' to interfere with the glide-path. There are some good kiters around but in the 20kt wind yesterday i dont think Ruben Lenten would pull that off...Mind you in a fight with the Victoria Airport Authority i'm pretty sure the kite community would lose.
The bigger problem i'd think would be the float base. Right of way rules apply and float-planes have it over kites and wind-surfers.
Best for all if we stay to the north end of the bay. It is after all a very large bay with room for all on those sweet rare westerly/low tide days.

I used to windsurf Pat Bay alot in the late 80's. Especially liked summer SE at 15-20 knots near the end of the IOS docks. Great flat water speed sailing. No problem with the jets approaching from NW.
But then in the early 90's more commuter float planes started using the Pat Bay airport docks. Once on a SE day one approached right over me, with engine very quiet for landing into 20 knot wind and
dropped down on the water between me and the dock less than 100m upwind. Too close for me. From then on I kept a look out for approaching floatplanes and stayed the hell out of their way.

Here is a useful link for pat bay users :
http://www.islandnet.com/~jor/patbay/

Thanks. When I was learning to water start (windsurfing 25+ years ago) The pottery store would have panicking people come in demanding they call 911 for the drowning windsurfer. It was just JL learning