Originally Posted by
Centaurus
Select VREF 40 (my note: not minimum speed just above the stall)
I can appreciate what the airlines/manufacturers sprout. They have to to protect their butts.
Please remember that the main problem in a ditching is impact forces.
So doesn't the old equation E=mv2 come into play. If you double the speed at impact then you have four time the impact forces.
The airlines say approach at Vref (1.3 Vs), so as my mathematics is not that good, hypothetically if you came back to Vs (which you wouldn't) aren't you nearly halving the impact forces. (Donning flame jacket now).
Also, in my opening thread, I referred to aircraft that had a significant uncontrollable fire onboard. I know I'd be doing some lateral thinking in these circumstances, like the RAF pilot of the Nimrod, mentioned above. And he had the runway in sight. Good decision!