It's all about the definition of the term 'over water'. It is generally accepted that 'over water' does not mean geographically over water - i.e. there is water directly beneath the aircraft. If that was the case, you couldn't even fly across a river or a lake without life jackets! 'Over water' is taken to mean that, from your present height, you would be unable to glide to land in the event of an engine failure. So if you were at 5000 feet and 2 nautical miles from the coast, you would not be considered to be over water.

This should not be confused with a direction from ATC to 'remain over water'. In that case, the controller is using the coast line for the purpose of separation and 'over water' means geographically over water.

Bob

Great, thank you very much Bob!

Also Bob, further to that, one of the review questions also has as an option "location beacon" to be carried always in a single engine aircraft when flying over water.

Am I correct to assume that, since ELT is not always required as per CAR 252A (e.g., during maintenance flights), this also applies to the question above?

Thanks 🙂

According to ENR 1.1 para 62.6, a VFR aircraft must carry a locator (survival) beacon if two-way radio communication with ATS will not be available for the over water section of a flight. However, the 50nm requirement in CAR 252A still applies so, even if you had two-way radio communication available, the flight would also have to be no more than 50nm. The dispensation for a flight for the purpose of having the ELT repaired or replaced always applies.

Bob