How "gear down and locked" can ruin your day...

[Tram]

Poor guy...

http://media.putfile.com/Wheels-down

 

[FN FAL]

maybe that should be on the "David Letterman Show" segment, "will it float?"

 

[Way2Broke]

Dude, when he is sitting on the float paddling it in I laughed so hard. Why is it that other people's misfortune is so funny?

Will it float? Not for long!

 

[minitour]

That's gotta suck...

-mini

 

[Geronimo4497]

So much for 'Where am I landing, and where are my wheels'

 

[MFRskyknight]

So much for 'Where am I landing, and where are my wheels'

This is kind of a stupid question, but..... having the wheels sticking down from the floats is what caused him to somersault? That would make sense, but I wanna be sure. Seaplane people?MFR

 

[blingair]

Do floats come with gear indicators? Anyone? Buehler, Buehler

 

[Spooky 1]

Do floats come with gear indicators? Anyone? Buehler, Buehler

We have a system on our Twin Otter that says "wheels up, for water landing" or "wheels down for runway landing". Not fool proof but certainly helps. I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to say, gear down when I first started to fly on the water. Some habits are very hard to break. Ughly! And yes, we do have gear light indicators.

 

[sbn340mech]

Yes they can and will flip when water landing with the gear down. My grandfather is living proof of that as he did it some 15 years ago in a 180H

He wasn't hurt and the plane only sustained minor damage. He did have visual indicators out on the floats but they were hard to see. Soon after they were painted BRIGHT red!!

 

[dseagrav]

Submerging the airplane is an instant total loss, right?

 

[A Squared]

Submerging the airplane is an instant total loss, right?

No. Many planes have been pulled out of fresh water and repaired. depends on how long it's been in.

 

[dseagrav]

No. Many planes have been pulled out of fresh water and repaired. depends on how long it's been in.

Oh, OK. Either way, it can't have been cheap.

 

[A Squared]

Oh, OK. Either way, it can't have been cheap.

No, and the one in the video went over fairly hard. there may have been significant damage from the collision with the water ... so that particular one might have been totalled out. I don't know. It happened up in Fairbanks at a airport called Chena Marina.

 

[BLing]

Sucks to be him!

 

[avbug]

I always repeat the amphib mantra when landing:

"This is a land landing, gear down."

"This is a water landing, gear up."

Good thing he wasn't in a Catalina.

 

[Diesel]

The company I worked at had our seaplane flip. Probably a good thing it gave it a good wash. The biggest way to damage it is flipping it back over.

 

[minitour]

Do floats come with gear indicators? Anyone? Buehler, Buehler

If you've got retractable gear you've gotta have the indicator(s).

-mini

 

[TrafficInSight]

man it hurt to watch that.

 

[avbug]

You'll notice that the underfloat wheels were what precipated the pitching motion, acting as a pivot of sorts over which the inertia of the aircraft toppled as the drag increased on the wheels. You can drop the gear in the water during water taxi, while "plowing," and taxi onto dry land. At those speeds with all the mass of the aircraft on top of the mains, the effect is somewhat like a dynamic rollover in a helicopter, amplified by an order of magnitude or two.

 

[Tram]

Here's a question for you float flyers...

How do you do a runup?