Just thinking on a what would I do basis, if conducting an ARA they would have been at 300ft and would have completed Finals checks, hence landing gear would be down.
Procedure for water landing would be gear up floats inflated. So if time was of the essence what would be the implications if any of firing the floats with gear down. Would it be imperitive to get gear up before firing the floats. Or would it be feasable to raise the gear once the floats have inflated.
Also what actually are the implications of landing on water with gear down, other than drag on the water.
Wow - way too much going through your head in a situation!!
If i remember correctly, and it was a little while ago now, on the Puma you could certainly fire the floats with the gear down, without any drama. In fact chances are that is exactly what you would do. When shuttling around our procedure is with the gear remaining down, so in the event of a ditching you are probably not going to take it up. I don't remember the procedure even involving raising the gear before ditching in the Puma, but I maybe wrong. Certainly in the S92 SOP's you leave the gear well alone. It states that operation of the gear (up or down) can damage the floats, although you are not supposed to inflate the floats until on the water, so leave well alone. So answer - probably not imperative to get the gear up. Raising gear while floats inflated - i would advise against it. Implications of landing on water, gear down - few. Yes a bit more drag, but probably not a huge amount, and the main wheels are aft of the CG (hopefully!), so shouldn't cause any pitch fwd issues. Actually may even stabilise things a bit.