Capt Doug
In the late 60's, a student of mine who bought a Lake Dealership had me
flying with him for his private certificate. We went to the factory
where I got a good checkout and gave my student a lot of dual in his
brand new LA-4. He had some problems landing on water and I told him he
needed to keep his wings level when he touched down on water. He didn't
pay that much attention apparently since one day he tried to do a
"short water" approach and touched down with his wing down. It tore off
the wing sponson, dug the wingtip into the water and cartwheeled the
airplane. After all was said and done, the engine pylon had buckled
over and the prop nearly cut the empanage in half. He survived the
crash with no more than a cut on his forehead and bruises. I
participated in the salvage of the aircraft at 40' depth in a lake in
Louisiana. After his impact, he called on 122.8...."Concordia Unicom
come in quick and I'm not kidding...." then the airplane sank. He was
able to walk off the wing onto a speedboat that had been pulling water
skiiers, tied a float onto the rear tiedown point just as the Lake
Amphibian rolled over and sank inverted. I'ved got photos around here
someplace....