On Jan 29, 5:27*pm, "Robert M. Gary" wrote:
On Jan 29, 12:04*pm, Mike Flying 8 wrote:

Out of my pure ignorance, what does glassy water have to do with
TO/Landing distance? *I have been searching on the internet trying to
find something educational, but not having much luck. *

I would think the Landing would be longer because the lack of *ripples
would result in less resistance in the water, but I would think the TO
would be shorter for the same reason. *What am I missing?

I'm just a pilot and not a hyrodynamic engineer so I'll try my best.
The reason landing is longer is because you have no idea how high
above the water you are. So you try to cross over the shore around
5-10 feet and then just set up a slow decent until you feel the slash.
That tends to take up more space since you're waitng for the water.

The take off is longer because the floats stick to the water. I'm not
sure how to better explain it but you can certainly feel it. When the
water is choppy the floats come right off the water but when its
smooth you can actually feel the water pulling on the floats as they
try to pull away. Once the floats break free of the smooth water its
feels like you just got released and you feel a noticable speed
increase in ground affect.

-robert

Is this what they mean by "getting on the steps"?

Wil