Originally Posted by
PiperCameron
Interesting reading here (thanks Clare Prop!).. it's good to know that 'no flaps' for ditching is the way to go. Ditching isn't something I was taught, doing my training so far away from water!
On the subject of re-use: I'd imagine this aircraft would be a write-off since any magnesium alloy components will have started fizzing almost straight away.
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You are right about the fizzing. Also the electrics, avionics etc would be gone, engine at the very least would require a major, but more likely also scrap. The cost to replace these alone would probably exceed the insurance value.
Don’t take the “no flaps for ditching “ to apply to all types. It depends on aircraft type. In this, the POH or AFM should be your guide. Failing specific advice from the manufacturer about landing configuration, slow is good, by whatever means achievable, but not so slow as to stall it in. I have no idea whether flap does much for Cherokee stall speed or whether it is primarily a drag device that only changes stall speed by a few knots, so possibly that is why Piper say it’s not recommended for that airframe? It would be interesting to know if any water tank model testing to determine ditching characteristics was ever done by Piper. It’s certainly part of certification for larger aircraft.
Here is a true tale told to me by an American ferry pilot who acted as my co pilot on a F27 delivery. He reckoned I was in good hands because he had already ditched three times, and no one ditched four times!
Aircraft were: high wing Cessna (not sure which model), Navajo and BN2 Islander.
The Navajo had a crew door. He said that the aircraft couldn’t maintain flight after an engine failure, due to the ferry fuel overload; sea was rough when he went in. He described the landing as not all that bad. He had time to grab the life raft on the seat beside him, exit through the crew door and inflate the raft. By the time he had boarded the raft and looked around, the aircraft had sunk. He was rescued by a ship and got a free ride to Vladivostok.
The Cessna single was interesting, because he ditched a bit short of Hawaii, using full flap. It pitched nose down on impact. As he exited under the wing, his life jacket prematurely inflated, trapping him between the wing and the flap. Somehow he got out of that one and was picked up by the Coast Guard.
The BN2 was somewhere in the North Sea not far offshore. Although the touchdown speed should have been low (as you’d expect in a Bongo), as the nose gear dug in the nose section crumpled badly - and probably the deceleration contributed - so he suffered quite severe leg injuries. It’s just possible the touchdown speed was not as low as he thought (if it was night, in those pre GPS days, groundspeed was often the great unknown).