The Mother Lode

[Driving Rain]

1) ..I think any good seaplane pilot would agree, glassy water conditions like in the clip is the wrong time to be preforming that stunt. Glassy water is very sticky because of surface tension.

2) From the way that Beaver came to a rest that egress would be successful.

[X Driver]

I believe it may actually have been Joe C Hughs flying the Beaver. Landing on Lake Lovely Water from that direction makes it incredibly short. In the tape I have you can see the Beaver has a high sink rate still as it touches the water.

[fogghorn]

I saw this movie at the theatre when it came out - around '82 I believe and have posted on it. It was rather humorous, their mispronunciation of "going up the Stikine for gold" they pronounced Stikine, Stick - ine . At any case, if memory serves there was a scene at the start where the guys were flying around the lower mainland in a 2x6 on wheels. This airplane was apparently rented for the scenes and when the movie came out the owner saw them doing barrel rolls with it which was obviously not part of the rental agreement - . If anyone can confirm this part - it's been a while..

[PT6-114A]

If X driver was a littler better with computers im sure he would put the hole flying bit from that movie with the 206 doing the roles and all. But he not. I watched it many times as a kid as X driver used it to teach people what could happen when landing on short glassy water if not done right.

[HS-748 2A]

I don't rember barrel rolls but there was some fairly vigorous flying though, maybe a turn 'past the vertical' , or some tricky camera angles anyhow.

He took the guy out for a ride to 'shake him up a little', if I recall the plot.

I think it was a 182.. Then again, it's been 20+ years since I saw it too. I do remember the Stick-ine though.

'48

[albertdesalvo]

I believe it may actually have been Joe C Hughs flying the Beaver.

Scholl was pretty famous and if he'd crashed a Beaver while making that movie, it would surely have made the news. That's why I don't think he was driving.

[HS-748 2A]

Just got this from an inside source; Uncle Inside Source, to be exact.

Hi Nephew. Art Scholl was flying. John Hill asked me to do the flying for the movie but the director said he had a professional pilot to do the shoot. Art had a new low time float endorsement and had never flown a Beaver. The rest is history. Oh bye the way,yes I flew HCT when TPA had it. Love, Uncle ______


'48

[albertdesalvo]

Well, that sure settles that! Amazing! Thanks HS-748 2A.

[fogghorn]

It was Art Scholl flying the beav. He got in a flat spin at an airshow not long after that, seems that he was on a bad roll after the movie crash.

[Driving Rain]

It was Art Scholl flying the beav. He got in a flat spin at an airshow not long after that, seems that he was on a bad roll after the movie crash.

Art lost his life during the making of Top Gun. His aircraft had a camera mounted and he was to do an inverted spin. Unfortunately the camera moved the C of G to far aft and he couldn't recover.

[HS-748 2A]

So, what conclusions can be drawn watching this accident?

- I think he hit too nose-low.
- I think in combination with being too nose low, his high sink rate caused the right float to dig and start to swing the airplane.
- He was probably intending that his high sink rate would cause a bounce. Likely the effect the movie producers asked for.
- Maybe he misjudged his height due to the glassy water.

Anybody else?

[Driving Rain]

I'll bet if the water had some ripples or small waves he would have bounced. You'll notice the tremendous yaw takes place caused by the huge surface tension that glassy water imparts. The yaw couldn't be counteracted by full opposite rudder input. Also some head wind would have slowed forward speed further and allowed greater directional control.

[Niteflyer]

Amazing that the spreaders and structure for the floats stayed intact while the wing broke. Very strong stuff.

[HS-748 2A]

Amazing that the spreaders and structure for the floats stayed intact while the wing broke. Very strong stuff.

Yeah; big time - that's what I was getting at earlier in this post.

'48

[jeta1]

Here's another YouTube clip of same, not as good as the earlier one but with short, additional footage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ5D0Qa0PBk

[HS-748 2A]

Fogghorn - Check your PMs

'48

[HORUNNER]

I think the fact that the purpose of the filming at the time of shit storm was to get a rough landing shot and on film and that led to what is seen.

He was landing with the intent of making it look bad

[HS-748 2A]

I think the fact that the purpose of the filming at the time of shit storm was to get a rough landing shot and on film and that led to what is seen.

He was landing with the intent of making it look bad

Granted. For sure. And a smashing success it was.

[Chairborne]

Does anybody remember the 1982 movie, "The Mother Lode" with Charlton Heston? Art Scholl at the helm, landed too nose-low. It was suposed to be a just a 'rough' landing. It turned into quite the cock-up.

Art Scholl was not flying the floatplane when it crashed. Scholl was flying the camera plane for the aerial photography per IMDB. The rumour that he was flying the plane at the time of the accident is precisely that: rumour.

- Does anybody know which Beaver that was in Mother Lode? (Registration and who it belonged to)

C-GHCT is a 1952 ex-Canadian-military veteran which was owned by Tradewinds Aviation at the time of the crash. The plane was salvaged, restored and conversions added and now lives a fully-restored, pampered life in Cape Girardeau, Missouri as N323RS.

[black hole]

It looked to me: that that Beaver had lots of help.The light is just poor enough, not to see the control deflections.


BH