Amazing,I can't believe anyone could fly that accurately,but am obviously wrong. Surely if they dipped the wheels in any further they would have a nose-in, even a couple of inches would be enough? Lister
Many years ago I saw a documentary on the BBC about Europeans flying crop dusters in the Sudan spraying cotton fields. They used to do this as entertainment after sitting on a remote airstrip for months. L ooked scary then and looks scary now...
Would have thought that it would be nigh on impossible to get the wheels any deeper. The water would be like concrete at that speed.
I believe its quite a common sport round the world for tail draggers. I think there is a pic out of a DC3 doing it as well.
I would imagine though you would go from a looking dangerous and stupid but being OK. To really dangerous and stupid if you tried it in a tricycle gear aircraft.
I learnt to fly a Harvard on a farm strip in Texas many years ago, and my check pilot was a cropduster. We flew along Padre Island one day - largely uninhabited, just off the coast, stretching for miles along the Gulf of Mexico - and I took up his suggestion of doing some low flying. After a few miles along the deserted beach, through the headset came 'D'ya want me to show ya low flying?' (I thought I was.) I discovered our ideas of 'low' were very different. Wow! As we turned to head for home, 'D'ya wanna try it? I'll watch ya.'
'Yes, Sirreee!'
He took me up in a crop-duster before I left. (Single-seat, but a roomy cockpit - and many miles from any FAA eyes. ) His precision and low level handling skills were absolutely phenomenal. I'd always assumed cropdusters stayed above, or climbed over, any telephone lines/small power lines stretched across fields. Wrong! 'No way, wires can kill ya! Gotta stay under wire height in case ya don't see 'em. Anyways, if the farmers round here see daylight under your wheels they complain to the boss and won't pay.' The first wing-over from virtually ground level when doing a 180 at the end of a field took me a little by surprise (to say the least), but it was one of the most exhilarating and exciting flights I've had yet.
I was lost in admiration for his skill, but it was just another day's work for him. Every man to his job, as they say.
FL
Last edited by Flying Lawyer; 26th Feb 2006 at 13:58.
You would just pray the Wasp on the inside of the windshield doesnt move Flying Lawyer Awesome story !! They must know every inch of the aircrafts envelope ! EL
Would have thought that it would be nigh on impossible to get the wheels any deeper. The water would be like concrete at that speed.
I've seen this sort of thing (on vid) before and wondered if the above is true. I can well imagine that the wheel tends to ride on the surface, and it would take a really hard push to get it to dig in. The picture of the guy surfing along in the T6 while looking at his formation partner seems to confirm that moderate forward stick pressure will hold the wheels just on the surface and you don't need to be looking ahead while doing this. But that plume of water could do nasty things to the tail with some aircraft if it hit it, I'd think.
I think the pilot who used the Pawnee to do our farm was South African ,and remember his name as Noel Kimvik,based at Southend,this would be in the early 80's He was about 50 and when I asked about risks and fatalities he said,
"You see them either very young or my age,the ones in between are dead" He also said he does occassionally take passengers squeezed in with him,my eyes lit up,then he told me I was the wrong sex! Lister
Just come to this thread. As far as reality is concerned, I watched a programme on TV where Icelandic 'dragsters' ran across the surface of a (non-frozen) lake. The complete weight of the vehicle was supported by the surface of the water (provided they kept going and kept the power on). Programme was BBC Top Gear. Point is that the aircraft will be 'supported' by the water.
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I think the pictures are fake. The reason? see below, a zoomed in portion of one of the pictures. Notice how the pixels surrounding the actual aircraft don't look smooth and feathered like the rest of the picture.
I think the aircraft have been 'pasted' over any existing picture of, say, water skiers or something similar. Could be wrong though.
Pictures of aircraft water-skiing? Genuine or not?
ooked scary then and looks scary now...
