Ditching near Port Stephens

[mighty_kiowa]

I was at Zenith Beach at around 1300 today when I saw a white cessna type aircraft about 1 mile of Port Stephens heads at around 200'. A bit low I thought probably looking at dolphins. It then descended to 100' and then impacted to water slightly right wing low. Sat on the water for about 30 seconds before sinking. A boat was there about 4 minutes later.

Does anyone know if they made it out?

[Pseudonymn]

NBN News just reported that single person onboard, with around 70 hrs experience, climbed out ok, and sat on the top of the aircraft until rescued by a nearby pleasure boat. Police praised his 'textbook' ditching.

Good to see no-one was injured.

[GravityFeed]

Hi there Mighty_Kiowa, I would love to hear from you in more detail about what you saw on that day ?! I was the lucky pilot who managed to swim away from that little adventure and I have been curious to hear from anyone who may of witnessed the event. :bored: Look forward to hearing from you soon.

M

[Lasiorhinus]

Well done, GravityFeed, on successfully ditching an aircraft! As the saying goes, that definitely qualifies as a 'good' landing:ok:.

Glad to hear you made it OK.

[SmokingHole]

Likewise Gravity:D
Any landing you can walk away...or.... err.... swim away from:ok:

Well done.

[Chadzat]

I echo the above posts. Very well done! :ok:
I for one would be VERY interested to know second hand what the unfortunate experience is like. If you feel able to post or PM your thoughts it would make interesting reading. By the same token if this would be to uneasy I understand.

[Lasiorhinus]

Chazdat - I really, really hope you mean "second hand" or "from a first-hand source".... because the only way to know first-hand is to do it yourself... and I hope you don't ever have to do it yourself.

[PPRuNe Towers]

While nits are being picked Lasior you might want to check posing dates and edit post number 5.

Regards
Rob

[Lasiorhinus]

:{:{

Thanks.... but did you have to tell EVERYONE? :}

A fine time for you to pop into D&G :{:{:ok:

[MACH082]

Well done mate,

One thing i have always been scared of is ditching a single, or any aeroplane for that matter. I used to spend a fair portion of my flying overwater and the swells never looked nice!

Glad you are okay and good luck with your career!

[chode1984]

can I ask what your strategy was if there was one at all? Did the plane flip?

[bladesp2]

well done, scary stuff :D I hope you enlighten us at some stage to the circumstances :cool:

[Jabawocky]

Possibly a similar set of circumstances to other high wing incidents where a short period of time with a fuel pickup uncovered has led to a lack of fuel and the engine stopping.

When this happens at low level there is not enough time to discover the problem and restart and a forced landing is the only option.

If you are running on low fuel levels be very careful with the black ball, in particular in the circuit. Avoid side slip (check out ATSB report about the accident near Proserpine a few years ago) and keep it running with the fuel pump on if you have one at low reserves.

http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2004/AAIR/aair200402049.aspx

I know with my a/c we have a header tank which holds about 20 min of fuel so it is much harder to end up in this situation.

Not trying to do the ATSB job for them, just offer you some thoughts....

Cheers
J:ok:

[Cap'n Arrr]

Well done GravityFeed, hope I never find myself in that situation!