What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

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pelmet
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What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by pelmet »

With very minimal float experience and all of it on a nice long river, I wonder what a pilot does once they have touched down and discovered that they landed too long. On pavement, one jumps on the brakes. Is there anything that can be done at all, or do you just sit there and wait for impact with the far shoreline.

"C-GYJX, a float-equipped Cessna A185F aircraft operated by Atleo River Air Service, was
conducting a flight from Tofino Harbour (CAB4), BC to Ahousat, BC with 1 pilot and 2 passengers
on board. During the landing at Ahousat in gusty wind conditions, the pilot landed long, and the
aircraft was unable to stop before running into shoreline rocks. There were no injuries. The aircraft
received substantial damage limited to the aircraft's floats."
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corethatthermal
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by corethatthermal »

Well obviously, every good float captain has an anchor! Open door, throw anchor out, wait, If that doesn't work, jump into lake after anchor ! :lol:
Ok seriously, digging the heel of the floats in or a sudden turn may do it, however, I am still in favour of an ejection seat !
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bobcaygeon
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by bobcaygeon »

Or dig the floats in. Ie nose down but careful not to flip it
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by C.W.E. »

How do you judge how much nose down you can induce before it digs in to far?
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by C.W.E. »

Not a floatplane pilot. Suspect "not very"
I have a fair amount of float plane flying but never received training in putting the nose down to shorten a landing.

So I am interested to find out if such training has been added to float plane handling.

For sure I never tried it because if I were about to run into the shoreline I would rather hit the rocks and damage the floats than flip the airplane over trying to stop it.
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shimmydampner
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by shimmydampner »

Works good in a twin otter.
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by C.W.E. »

Works good in a twin otter.
On which kind of floats?

My question is why would you need to use it on any airplane ?

Especially a Twin Otter.
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J31
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by J31 »

shimmydampner wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 6:48 pm Works good in a twin otter.
Not really necessary on the Twin Otter as you have reverse power. :wink:
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by shimmydampner »

C.W.E. wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:09 pm On which kind of floats?

My question is why would you need to use it on any airplane ?

Especially a Twin Otter.
J31 wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:42 pm Not really necessary on the Twin Otter as you have reverse power. :wink:
CAP floats. Sometimes you need to land really short. Perhaps your experience flying twins on floats differed from mine, but I always found stick forward and full reverse worked well for stopping really short.
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pelmet
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by pelmet »

I have heard that while digging the floats in is usually dangerous, the Twin Otter is different.
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by shimmydampner »

Indeed. There are a couple things about CAP twin flying technique that I found a bit different from other float planes I had flown.
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by C.W.E. »

CAP floats. Sometimes you need to land really short. Perhaps your experience flying twins on floats differed from mine, but I always found stick forward and full reverse worked well for stopping really short.
Yes CAP floats on the Twin Otter allowed a fair amount of nose down during the landing, however considering the availability of reverse to shorten the landing I tended to not use nose down because I just did not feel comfortable using that technique.

It was a personal choice. :)
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digits_
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by digits_ »

pelmet wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 5:31 pm With very minimal float experience and all of it on a nice long river, I wonder what a pilot does once they have touched down and discovered that they landed too long. On pavement, one jumps on the brakes. Is there anything that can be done at all, or do you just sit there and wait for impact with the far shoreline.
Shut down the engine and hope the damage will be minimal? Even on pavement, brakes can only do so much. The mistakes have already been made at that point, and -unfortunately- you can't fix every mistake at any time.
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by PilotDAR »

The mistakes have already been made at that point, and -unfortunately- you can't fix every mistake at any time.
This is key. This is why a good pilot stays a minute or so ahead of the plane - "from where I am now, where could this plane be one minute from now?". If the answer is bad, adjust something now, later may be too late.

Finding yourself hanging on to a sinking plane is very unpleasant - avoid! I would rather run up on shore, if that seemed to be a choice. The better choice is to avoid landing into places which exceed your skill. I have spent hundreds of water landings, including yesterday, refining my technique into areas of known dimension. I like to choose features in the body of water, which I can check later on Google earth, to see how much space I'd used. Underwater hazards notwithstanding, I find Google earth an excellent tool to assist in my decision making as to where I will operate on the water.

I was right seat decades back, when a step turn was used to prevent hitting shore in a 185. It worked, but scared the heck out of me! I asked the pilot owner: "If you lent me your plane, and though I would do that in it, would you lend it to me again?". His sheepish reply was that hitting that spot on shore was where he wrecked his previous 185. With a little skill and control, I was able to land into the same little bay with space to spare.
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altiplano
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by altiplano »

Is a go around out of the question?
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by valleyboy »

Absolutely digging the floats will stop you short - when I was doing it for a living it was taught and obviously you need to know the aircraft and the floats

beaver - works great
Norseman - also works well but a little caution on small floats
Cessna on EDO also works well but no aggressive moves
185 on whips - just push right to the stops
bch18 just ease it forward off the slippery point and keep it there.

Pick the largest gust and land in it and you won't land long in the first place.

Digging the heals is just wrong. I have watched so many guys skipping down the lake and even being lifted back into the air in a good gust.
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by CLguy »

First of all a go around would have prevented the need for this thread.

Digging the floats works well. Have used it many times to stop, not from hitting the shore but to stop quicker especially in rough water. Works great in a Twin Otter in heavy seas. Pick the spot, plant it, stick full forward and full reverse at the same time. It also works great in stopping a Beech 18 quicker.
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by BamajiAirInc. »

Push forward hard once its on the water it wont flip,but it will porpoise.
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digits_
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by digits_ »

BamajiAirInc. wrote: Fri Jun 14, 2019 7:27 am Push forward hard once its on the water it wont flip,but it will porpoise.
Say what now?

There's either some info missing or you're going to have a bad time really soon.
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Re: What do you do after landing long in a floatplane

Post by PilotDAR »

Push forward hard once its on the water it wont flip,but it will porpoise.
Ahhh..... that's not something I'd be trying 'cause I read it on the internet! :shock: Perhaps with competent instruction and supervision, but doing this can introduce huge risk if things aren't right. 'Ever found yourself trying to stay afloat next to a sinking plane?

Howabout just fly proper landings which do not require dramatic action to correct....
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