Epic Seaplane Adventures request tabled

WEIRS BEACH — A request made by the owner of a seaplane charter company to beach his aircraft at the Weirs when weather conditions are hazardous was tabled by city councilors Monday night after several expressed concerns regarding environmental risks and the potential of complications with federal grant programs. 

Councilors voted 5-1 to table the matter until a future meeting, with Tony Felch (Ward 6) submitting the lone dissent. 

T.R. Wood, of Epic Seaplane Adventures, asked councilors during a public hearing to permit his use of a small section of Weirs Beach outside of the roped-off swimming section to park his airplane there when winds are high or the water is rough from boat wakes. His charter, generally parked off of the Winnipesaukee Pier owned by East Coast Flightcraft, can sustain damage and pose safety concerns for pilots and passengers when the weather is inclement. 

The charter company ferries tourists through the air all around Lake Winnipesaukee and makes use of another base at 19-Mile Bay in Tuftonboro, where they are able to refuel the aircraft. There is a fueling station available to them at the Winnipesaukee Pier as well. They’ve been operating for four seasons.

“This season I entered into a commercial agreement with the [Winnipesaukee Pier] and they provided us a dock to come in and do scenic air tours and basically airplane rides,” Wood said. “The only limitation that we found operating at that spot was sitting at the dock for a repeated amount of time.”

Wood said there would be no need for the city to fund or make improvements to the area of the beach where he could instruct his pilots to park aircraft and that doing so would protect all involved in the venture. 

“The airplane can get quite a beating at the dock,” Wood said. 

He noted that he’s parked there once before and that tourists came in droves to view his plane and ask him questions. He realized parking in a more visible location along the boardwalk would be good for business.

“One of my pilots took the airplane over there thinking that it was okay to do that during conditions,” Wood said. “Parks and Rec came over to talk to us — as a pilot, a commercial operator, we are all about following the statutes, the regulations, all of the rules.”

But several city councilors had various concerns including the risk of environmental contamination, being close to the swimming section of Weirs Beach, concerns that permitting his company to use that section of the beach may jeopardize federal Land and Water Conservation Fund grant monies and that it could displace paddlers who put kayaks and canoes into the lake from that section of the beach. 

“Would you be refueling planes?” Mayor Andrew Hosmer asked. 

“If there were repetitive tours off of the beach we would certainly need to consider some type of refueling,” Wood said. “If not, and it was just a one-time thing, then we can certainly accommodate two or three tours without refueling.”

Hosmer asked if Wood had a plan in place to address a spill of oil or gas, noting the proposed location's proximity to the swimming area at Weirs Beach. Wood said the protocol is the same for a seaplane as for any boat operating on the lake and that he’d be willing to put a remote refueling cell in place there or trailer in fuel for his airplane. He noted the docks are not far away and there are a number of environmental concerns related to boat operations as is.

“There’s a significant distance, looking at the map here, between the swimming area and where East Coast Flightcraft refuels boats,” Hosmer said. “That’s pretty close to the beach where, on a day like the Fourth of July, it’s packed with swimmers there.”

And Felch noted seaplanes are subject to the same rules and regulations as boats on the lake, adding he would not support permission to refuel planes at that location on the beach. Felch also said many people choose to put canoes and kayaks into the lake at that point and he wouldn’t want to see them lose access. 

“That is where they launch kayaks,” Felch said. “I would suggest that we could maybe put up a fence, 5, 10 feet, whatever it would take, to leave that extra room for canoes and kayaks to still launch there away from the beach, And there’d also be a fence to keep people from walking over into that area.”

City Manager Kirk Beattie told councilors if they were to approve that resolution allowing Epic Seaplane Adventures to park at that section of Weirs Beach, the city would have to be careful in following rules associated with federal grant funding used for construction projects at Weirs Beach. 

“This is Land and Water Conservation Fund-funded beach,” Beattie said. “If we’re going to operate a business off of it, even if it’s only part-time, that throws us into a really weird spot.”

Wood said that specific spot is steeped in history because Bob Fogg formerly operated a seaplane base there, and said he would like to work with councilors to develop and construct a proper seaplane dock at some place near the beach, perhaps on the rocky side. 

“I’m also interested in exploring ideas, whatever you guys have to come up with, to find a viable solution,” he said. “The public, at least the touchpoint that I’ve had compared to other places, the City of Laconia and the population here has been very warm and welcoming to the idea of the seaplane.”

Before the matter can be addressed, Hosmer said he’d like to see a detailed plan to mitigate environmental contamination and to ensure that allowing the business to beach its plane there would not jeopardize any federal funding received for work done at Weirs Beach.