wrote:
An old wives tail, Art. I've flown thousands of miles over water in
single-engine planes and each flight was a non-event (well, except
for one time when the nosegear malfuctioned while flying down in the
Keys). Anyway, flying over water is safe enough. Crashing into the
water gets a little tedious at times, though.


I've got a couple of hundred hours flying over water in single engines. My
theory has always been that the airplane doesn't know what it's over. Never
tried ditching, though I have managed to crash twice. And as I think about it,
I've had three engines quit over water (once at night). Luckily, I was able to
get a restart each time. No need for seatbelts; I had a cheeklock on the seat
that wouldn't quit.

As a matter of fact, I had a twin engine flameout in nighttime IFR conditions
over the Appalachian Mountains once. My fault, really... I fell asleep while I
was on the aux tanks. I woke up pretty damned quick after the first one quit.
Sad to say, the second one quit before I got the first one restarted. After I
got them both going again, I had time to marvel on how close I had them leaned.
You have to find the good wherever you can.

Now I work with HIV patients as a nurse, so I can be safe.


--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN


http://www.mortimerschnerd.com