Which do you think is the best-safest way of doing it?
The way the flight manual says to do it...
More helpfully, if the flight manual doesn't say, you can look up the manual of an aircraft of similar design. The usual phrasing is to land at minimum speed with some amount of flap down, along the primary swell, only into wind if the wind is so strong that a crosswind (along-swell) landing cannot be contemplated... etc. There are variations on this theme.
I have heard many pilots express concern about the aircraft flipping over. However, the accident record of recent years suggests that this is unlikely. Springing to mind in my part of the world are ditchings of a Piper Warrior near Kaikoura NZ, a Cessna 172 near Auckland NZ, and a PAC750XL between Hawaii & SFO. All fixed gear, none flipped on landing. Other ditchings have occurred but I can't positively recall whether they flipped. I think not though. The most common outcome seems to be either swimming a short distance to shore, or death by drowning / hypothermia if not close to shore. The PAC750 is the exception to this - death in the cockpit of a floating aeroplane.
PS - there was that Cessna in a sewage pond, if that counts... No flipping either, thank goodness for the pilot! I wonder if the increased viscosity of sewage more than compensates for the decreased speed on entry from a runway overrun?
