light planes collide over Seattle?

Agreed. A full stall landing isn't a good idea on floats, because it means
you come down on the tail of the floats -- and this could mean pitching
sharply forward and possibly going up and over. Instead, you want to settle
at minimum sink rate on the step, regardless of whether it's water, grass,
snow, plowed field or pavement, and come to as gradual a stop as possible
using the keels as your brakes. Which is exactly what happened in this
case. Bravo.

Seth


"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Flyingmonk" wrote in message
oups.com...
Maybe the floats were damaged, but remained in corrrect
position/alignment until the weight was applied on touchdown and it
gave way?

The report I saw said that the floatplane pilot noted the floats at an
angle before touchdown.

As far as the "hung it on a prop and 'three-pointed' it" goes...witness
accounts say that the floatplane bounced several times before coming to a
rest. It sounds to me like a classic example of the pilot continuing to
fly the airplane until it came to a stop, no matter what happened. This
is, of course, the text-book example of what one SHOULD do when landing,
in an emergency or otherwise.

I think it likely that the successful landing had less to do with a
particular choice of technique, and more to do with a pilot who kept his
wits about him and maintained control of the airplane as best he could,
even in an extremely difficult situation.

Pete

Instead, you want to settle
at minimum sink rate on the step, regardless of whether it's water, grass...

What does "on the step" mean outside of a water landing?

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

It means the first point of contact with the earth's surface should be the
strongest part of the keel: that is, the step. Touch down anywhere else
and you risk a flip-over. Deceleration is going to rock you forward onto
the forward keel, and you want that pitch-over to happen as slowly and
gently as possible. So if I were doing it I'd probably apply gentle
up-elevator as soon as the step made contact.

In fact this process should be a lot like a soft-field landing in a plane
with wheels.

Any float CFIs out there feel differently?

Seth


"Jose" wrote in message
...
Instead, you want to settle at minimum sink rate on the step, regardless
of whether it's water, grass...

What does "on the step" mean outside of a water landing?

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no
universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Seth Masia wrote:
Agreed. A full stall landing isn't a good idea on floats, because it means
you come down on the tail of the floats -- and this could mean pitching
sharply forward and possibly going up and over. Instead, you want to settle
at minimum sink rate on the step, regardless of whether it's water, grass,
snow, plowed field or pavement, and come to as gradual a stop as possible
using the keels as your brakes. Which is exactly what happened in this
case. Bravo.

Have you *seen* the photos? There's no way you could bring that plane down on
the tail of the floats. The miracle is that the noses didn't dig into the grass.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

No, I didn't see the photos. I'm just talking about floatplanes in
general -- stalling at low altitude is the last thing I'd want to do in a
floatplane, for exactly this reason. Do you have a link to the pix?

Seth

"George Patterson" wrote in message
newsEcJe.4152$eR.3067@trndny04...
Seth Masia wrote:
Agreed. A full stall landing isn't a good idea on floats, because it
means you come down on the tail of the floats -- and this could mean
pitching sharply forward and possibly going up and over. Instead, you
want to settle at minimum sink rate on the step, regardless of whether
it's water, grass, snow, plowed field or pavement, and come to as gradual
a stop as possible using the keels as your brakes. Which is exactly what
happened in this case. Bravo.

Have you *seen* the photos? There's no way you could bring that plane down
on the tail of the floats. The miracle is that the noses didn't dig into
the grass.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

Seth Masia wrote:
No, I didn't see the photos. I'm just talking about floatplanes in
general -- stalling at low altitude is the last thing I'd want to do in a
floatplane, for exactly this reason. Do you have a link to the pix?

Try http://images.ibsys.com/2005/0805/4812340_400X300.jpg

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.