Originally Posted by
Concours77
That's the way I've been approaching the water entry.
It makes a lot of sense to ship the floats over in the belly of a big rig.
Less drag, and safer ditch if needed...
I think your summary makes sense, keep the nose up as long as possible, hoping when it hit, submergence is in the "shallow angle enough such that it pops back up, instead of pitching the whole business over" domain.
Also, hoping for a tail low aspect, so when the gear enters fully, the Nose coming down will plop, rather than sink and trip the a/c over its nose....(then again, if sufficiently entry vertical, the floats are sturdy enough to absorb alot of energy. Keeping them on for the journey for that reason however, implies alot of defeatism at the outset)
something like that?
Yep, something like that, a vertical splash, with minimal horizontal speed, though this twin otter is reported to be without floats, only regular wheel stuff.
With sufficient vertical speed, the time it takes for the gears to get submerged is less. Once the airplane's belly is on the water, there is a big floating surface at the front, that will take care that the flip-over tilt point will be much further forward, and as such, the energy/impulse required to flip the airplane (IE rotate over its nose) is much higher. As well, the time for the airplane to start the rotation before something else hits the water is much shorter. Add to that, the nose will dig in significantly more shallowly, which will also make the flip-over more difficult.
Still nasty to stop in such a way, though.