Originally Posted by
Big Pistons Forever
I would answer your question in 2 parts
1) What was shown on the video had nothing to do with practicing watersking to assist landings as the pilot obviously added a whole bunch of power to maintain the waterski, or in other words "practiced" a skill that would never be used in an actual landing.
2) The youtube videos of guys touching down in the water short of a gravel bar all seem to be about the Yee Haw. None of the ones I have seen show a landing that had a purpose, other than to show off.
I suppose that there may be the odd situation where the only practical way to get on to the gravel bar is to touch a bit short, but I would argue that in almost all those cases simply going down the river a bit will find you a better gravel bar to use.
The bottom line on this is simple. Buddy in the video wants to practice short landings, why not use the runway that is right beside him
Finally when you screw up show boating, you don't just hurt yourself, you hurt everyone who flies a light aeroplane, by providing more ammunition to those who want to grounds us all
1) How do we know what the pilot was trying to achieve ?
2) Looked to me like a training flight.
"...going down the river a bit will find you a better gravel bar..."
Why not use the aircraft to its full potential and land at the place you want to and not have to pack your kit from some distant landing site.
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