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

[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?

 

[A Squared]

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

How do you do a runup?

Same way you do in a landplane .... except the plane is moving. Same with flying on skis. Point the airplane away from anything you don't want to hit.

What do you do if tower tells you to "hold short" (yes there are tower controlled seaplane bases"

 

[Tram]

360's?

 

[A Squared]

360's?

Bingo! See this float flying really isn't that hard once you start thinking about it. It's a lot of fun, you should try it some day.

 

[Diesel]

Put the flaps down and idle into the wind.

Our dock was a pain and sometimes you had to back the seaplane into the spot. Or inbetween two seaplanes.

That was a pain.

 

[erj-145mech]

I saw a Lake Renegade once that had a reversing prop back into the dock once. I thought that it was a cool idea. Guess it was too expensive to maintain or buy because that was the only time that I saw one.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

Row, row, row your plane,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

 

[Tram]

Bingo! See this float flying really isn't that hard once you start thinking about it. It's a lot of fun, you should try it some day.

I plan on it.. I would love to get some float time.. Been thinking about going to Brown's or really considering Kenmore Air, just because I've never seen that part of the country...

 

[9GClub]

That was freaking hilarious. The only thing cooler would be landing on floats on a concrete runway at night.

Those guys got thrown around pretty hard though, I'll bet it didn't feel too good.