BlogGAR – Rob Edgcumbe – Kenmore Air float-planes at Lake Union, Seattle

Lake Union in Seattle WA is a popular base of operations for Kenmore Air and its float-planes. Rob Edgcumbe stopped by while visiting Seattle to see what traffic there was.

© Rob Edgcumbe - Global Aviation Resource 2013

Just north of downtown Seattle is Lake Union. It is a popular lake for boating activities and there is plenty of commercial shipping to be seen at the yards around the lake. However, my interest was to see whether Kenmore Air was operating. They have a float-plane base at the south end of the lake that has previously been covered in a feature for Global Aviation Magazine by Paul Dunn. While it was early in the year for there to be too many tourist pleasure flights, there is still a regular schedule of services in operation, so I hoped to see some activity.

I didn’t have long to hang around and things looked pretty quiet when I arrived so I wasn’t optimistic but, since it is always nice sitting by the lake on a sunny day, I decided to hang around for a few more minutes. I then got lucky with a Turbine Otter coming in to view, landing a little way out on the lake and then taxiing in. While I was glad to have this bit of luck, I was even more pleased when, instead of tying up, it deposited its passengers and started back up to depart.

I thought that would be it but then a second Otter came into view. This was the one painted in a special livery representing the local news station. It landed (watered?) and taxied in.