• If you log in, the ads disappear in the forum and gallery. If you need help logging in or getting registered, send request to: webmaster@southernairboat.com

New Orange Flag Law

Southern Airboat Gallery Archives

Right behind
Reed Marshâ„¢ and the amazing Swamp Skimmerâ„¢
bubba_004
IMG_5061
My early days in Offshore Racing as a throttle man
547985_10151417205283709_1031442256_n
D

Daddy Dave

Well-known member
On another thread, Rich Andrews just asked where the law came from..This is the story as I know it:

FAA wrote a piece of legislation that would keep counties from singling out airboats for local ordinances. Once written, that legislation required sponsors in the Florida House and Senate. Rep. Charlie Dean of Citrus County agreed to sponsor our bill in the House - Dean is also X-Sherriff of Citrus and IS AN AIRBOATER.

He added the orange flag wording without consulting FAA or our lobbiest Bonnie Basham. He also changed the wording from a Super Majority to a simple majority vote required to pass an airboat discriminatory ordinance - no explanation.

There were great concerns on FAA's part and a feeling that maybe it was time to kill the bill. Bonnie went to work as did SwampJet and the wording on the required majority vote was put back in. Up until this law passed, all that was required was a simple majority vote of any county commission to enact a law that effected airboats. We were facing plenty of counties that wanted to enact restrictive laws on hours of operation, waters closed all together and maximum sounds levels for airboats. This act has, so-far, changed all that.

The orange flag issue was untouchable and we'll likely never know exactly why. Citrus County airboat trails often have high foliage on both sides and maybe Dean saw this as purely a safety issue - maybe there was influence that wanted a running airboat to show its position from a distance - who knows?? This was a "baby or bath water" deal.

As the legislation moved through the various required committee hearings, the 2/3 majority / Super Majority vote requirement wording was reinstated and stayed in as did the orange flag wording. This legislation passed with a unanimous vote in both chambers and it is now the law of the land.

Future developments will tell the tale of whether this was worth the effort or not.
 
BD, as I've explained in other threads I was at the FAA meeting in the Glades where the up or down vote for the flags came up, and I voted for them.

I won't re-state all of that again here. Anyone interested can find it with a Search on here. So y'all can partially blame me for them if you want. I have broad shoulders.

It was a long and winding road to the super majority rule that we have now, and a lot of folks had to work very hard to get that.
Would we have preferred an non-discrimination Bill ? You bet, but we got the best we could. Next session, with the unified support of Florida's airboaters, the FAA will be right back in the fight.

olf
 
APPRECIATE the explanation on it. It's not the orange flag I am worried about(we run em all the time down south). Just the fact 1 person has the ability to get such a bill passed the way it did. This could work in our favor next time(should we get a bill passed in our favor). Luckily it's only a flag, but we have done nothing but give, and need someting given back! Maybe they lift a curfew law somewhere, open a closed area back up again...Like the ole sayin goes, you give them an inch and they take a mile. If I were a lobbyist, or someone with political ties who works for airboaters or has airboaters in mind, the first person I would lobby is the guy who was able to pass the flag rule. He airboats and has lots of power apparently! :lol:
 
Orange flags are a badge of humiliation, not unlike the Star of David the Nazis made the Jews wear. Only for airboats, to single us out and make us different from other boats.

If you think that is radical thinking, then please explain to me why a boat that already has something sticking 8 feet above the water and makes more sound than most other boats needs a small orange flag up another 2 feet to let someone know it is coming? Around here, we are lucky if vegetation is 2 feet above the water, not above our cage.

Mufflers make sense, flags don't.
 
I wish they would make it a law that any boater that is hunting and using camo to hide and shoot ducks to have a flag, no matter what type of boat it is. I understand the ducks would see this flag and not come near enough for the hunter to shoot it. But it would also let us airboaters see it and not run over them. Also fishermen that troll up into the bullrushes and fish we could also see them and not run them over. Of course that is just my openion.
 
This site is for information ! Dont worry about what alreally done ! Lets worry about what we can do in the future ! Things been heated for a while around here !l Its time for all of us to learn how to know when to move on ! I would like to hear about your boat Red ! This is not week end for dont or whys ! Unless we are taking about beer !I know two guys already on thier third recycle bin now ! :D There is going to a beer shortage after this week end !
 
Good idea on the duck hunters...darn near got one a few years back.... didn't
have any idea he was there until i started hitting hitting decoys. ...Have to run the glades to fully understand the orange flag....definatley good idea.... but I still object to the law singling out airboats!

Grant
 
grant":2n4fbcwf said:
. ...Have to run the glades to fully understand the orange flag....definatley good idea.... but I still object to the law singling out airboats!
Click to expand...

If you have to run the Glades to understand the orange flag, then why do the rest of us around the state have to have them?!?

I can only come to one conclusion.
 
RED DWARF WROTE..-
If you have to run the Glades to understand the orange flag, then why do the rest of us around the state have to have them?!?



PROBLY THE SAME REASON ALL US AIRCRAFT GUY'S IN SOUTH FLORIDA HAVE TO RUN MUFFLERS NOW , BECAUSE OF ALL THE CARMOTOR BOAT'S THAT RUN THE LAKES UP IN CENTRAL FLORIDA . :shock:


DOSENT SOUND SO NICE PASSING THE BLAME DOES IT ? EVEN IF YOU DIDNT MEAN IT THAT WAY , THATS THE WAY SOME PEOPLE WILL TAKE IT....

IMO THE ORANGE FLAG IS NO BIG DEAL AND DOES WORK ,ITS THE 1ST THING YOU SEE THAT CATCHES YOUR EYE AND LETS YOU KNOW TO PAY ATTENTION FOR OTHER BOATS IN THE GRASS OR WOODS.. IM SURE IT HAS STOPPED ALOT OF COLLISION'S , I KNOW IT HAS IN THE TALL GRASS OF THE GLADES..

AS FAR AS THE MUFFLERS AND FLAGS ITS STUPID TO POINT FINGERS AND PASS BLAME , WHATS DONE IS DONE WE HAVE TO HAVE THEM NOW..

THE AIRBOATERS ARE HANGING ON BY A THIN THREAD AS IT IS , IF WE START FIGHTING AMONGST EACH OTHER OVER THESE PETTY THINGS AND DIVIDE , IT WILL BE A CAKE WALK FOR THE ANTI'S TO BEAT US...


NOTHING PERSONAL RED DWARF , JUST TRYING TO BRING TO ATTENTION THE WAY SOME POST HAVE BEEN SOUNDING LATELY AND HAVE ALL US FIGHTING AMONGST EACH OTHER ....

TOGETHER WE KEEP OUR PASTIME DIVIDED WE VISIT OUR FAVORITE MARSH'S ON BOARD WALKS , THINK ABOUT IT GUY'S.... :shock:
 
I wasn't suggesting anyone should run a flag...just pointing out that it is a good idea down south. Run the glades with out one many times myself. But now I guess I have matured and see the necessity in letting someone know where I'm at. Make no difference to me I stay out of the trail anyway. Don't want no one to see me without my mufflers :lol:

Grant
 
I have never wanted a boat without mufflers and I see no advantage to not having them. Whether you want to admit it, your boat is louder without them. Maybe not when you are running full speed, but when you're idling around the boat ramp and just above idle, mufflers do help. My boat even runs better with them on.


However, I see no advantage to having to mount a flag on top of my boat. We don't have tall grass here, but we do go under bridges and tree limbs. I can see the flag being a danger and a constant source of maintenence/replacement.
 
I understand your point...not trying to argue or talk you into doing anything ...you are right about being louder at idle speed, however I don't think this dislike of loud airboats, or airboats in general started because of boats at idle. I will run mufflers and a flag on public property, don't like it, but I will do it. I know some people may disagree, but I have considerable heat problems
working a 0540 with pipes and mufflers. Just put a new 0540 to work this year, broke it in with headers....put stacks on it before leaving for Louisiana...dropped 15 degrees oil temp. Just trying to explain my point of view.

Grant
 
I CANT SEE THE POINT OF ME HAVIN TO HAVE A LIFE VEST AND A PADDLE ON MY BOAT WHEN THE WATER IN THE GLADES IS USALLY A FOOT OR SO... BUT IF I WAS AT THE LAKE OR RIVER I CAN SEE THE POINT....


THERE GENRAL BOATING REGULATIONS



I DONT WANT TO BE TOLD THAT I HAVE TO DO ANYTHING, JUST AS IM SURE NO ONE ELSE DOES.... BUT I PUT 2 LIFE VEST IN MY DRY BOX WITH A PADDLE AND A DUMB ASS WHISTLE SO I DONT HAVE TO GIVE A GAMEWARDEN A REASON ... AND NOW I GUESS I GOTTA RUN A FLAG AND MUFFLERS, EVEN THO I KNOW DAMN WELL ON AIRCRAFT BOATS THE PROP IS MAKIN MOST OF THE NOISE..

BUT I KNOW ONE THING FOR SURE I WOULD DAMN SURE RATHER FOLLOW THOSE REG.'S AND BE ABLE TO STILL AIRBOAT THEM AREA'S.. RATHER THEN LOOSE THEM OVER A 5 DOLLAR ORANGE FLAG OR ME NOT WANTING TO PUT A MUFFLER ON MY BOAT ..
 
Well put...I know the life vest makes a good cushion and the paddle can be used as a shovel if you're stuck in the mud....somebody tell me what the heck that whistle is for?

Grant
 
A wise man once told me "the size of a man's character is best shown by the size of that which makes him mad".
With some it's a little dimmpled ball, and seems others it's a $5.00 flag.

Some people are complaining about the wieght of mufflers but they don't grip about having to carry an anchor as required by law.
 
Ain't seen anybody bi**hin about havin to carry 20 pounds of ice for 10 pounds of beer either. Oh, plus the 7 pound cooler. Don't let me catch ya without cold beer......... LOL

Scotty
 
I know what is giving you guys the red ass, and it aint the flag and it aint the muffler. Hell it aint even that little whistle! It's the fact that with every consession you make, you're freedoms erode a little more! Find a way to send the snow birds back up north and your troubles will go with them. I found out that I must also run a flag here in Alabama, so my boat can be seen above the mill foil, and ocasional lilly pad. I was told I didn't need a kill switch? Some things I just don't understand :?
 
One of the things about something like a flag, and it's interesting .....

Nobody wants a flag, and especially because none of the other watercraft are also required to run them. I firmly believe that kayaks should have to have them but I quess that would hinder them rolling over or whatever.

Anyway, here's what I think is interesting. If running a flag on an airboat saves a life, or over the course of a year several lives, or at least a couple of accidents, we'll never hear about it.

People never report it whan something works as it should. They only report something when it doesn't work, so we won't hear about the good running one might accomplish.

olf
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top