"Plane Hits Ullswater"
 

Has this been done already?
Video: Plane hits Ullswater - Cumbria Crack: News for Penrith, Appleby, Eden Valley, Keswick, Workington, Whitehaven, Maryport, Barrow, Kendal, Carlisle, Lake District & Cumbria24
Was the sensational headline and it sparked a major SAR operation. However this video shows it was actually just doing a bit of water skiing style touch and go's!

Have seen big wheel bush planes land on streams etc but not sure why anyone would want to do that in the middle of a deep cold lake? Incredibly reckless but great skills and as the registration is now all over the internet this pilot is going to have some serious explaining to do to the CAA I think.

Or maybe they had special permission to do this but the rescue teams and emergency services may see it differently!

Don't for Gods sake let anyone have a bit of fun.

Crikey Heliusac, if you think a bit of harmless water skiing is reckless then you'll do your nut when you find out what the RAF get up to in those valleys!

Yeah, yeah people.

Blah, blah, blah, RAF, blah, blah, blah. They don't do touch an go's in a fixed wing on Ullswater. I know all about what the RAF do in those valleys cheers and doing touch and goes in a wheeled fixed wing in the middle of a cold deep lake is well reckless.
Don't get me wrong I am impressed by their skills and all up for a bit of airborne fun but I am struggling to see what the point really was? Demonstrating skill, demonstrating the aircraft's capability or showing off? As a former member of the Ullswater lake rescue team that has attended some truly unpleasant incidents on the lake I can tell you that a flipped plane and a dive search for remains is not as much fun as you might think.

That said the main point I am making is that through the misconception of the public this was reported as a crash and set in motion a needless SAR operation that cost a lot of man hours and money. So someone somewhere forgot to notify the authorities what their intention were on that day or as I stated in my OP maybe they had permission (highly unlikely) and it didn't get passed on.

Given that folk that have sea planes that can land safely on water cannot under any circumstances (except for special occasions on Windermere) get permission to land on any of the Lakes in this part of the world.
It is likely that this was no approved by anyone!

Don't buy that. You just wouldn't do that in the middle of a deep cold lake. Landing in the last part of a stream before dry land or a small beach is a normal manouvre but that has zero to do with what they were doing there.

Won't do light aviation in the Lakes any good at all that.

It's clear he was doing a forced landing but managed to recover the plane in time and take off again :hmm:

Perhaps he had been out beach hopping where its best to land on the wet sand and couldnt be arsed washing the salt water off the gear and belly when he got home so decided to automate the process.

Listening to the voices on the video, this was the 2nd time round, so he must have not been happy with the first attempt;)

YES, WE DO!!!! :E

Generally better on-floats though... ;)

ASES

Two observations:

1. It's a good job piperboy84 is in California playing with his other Maule or I would be suspicious. ;)

2. It's better in formation:

I don't wish to be accused of Jesuitical nit-picking (any more than I would speculate as to what, if anything, goes though the mind of the average Maule driver), but the 1978 Byelaws for the control of power driven vessels on Lake Ullswater apply to aircraft other than flying boats only to the extent that they are "designed to manoeuvre on water".

As for Paragraph 137 of the ANO, I am far from convinced that any activity with a 100% safety record could be portrayed beyond reasonable doubt as being difficult, let alone dangerous.

Fly safely,
Jacko.

Seriously? You do touch and go's in a wheeled fixed wing in the middle of a deep cold lake? Doesn't sound like there is much future in that.

That's The Harvard Flying Lions Aerobatic Team and it's not The lake District.

Still, when all said and done that aircraft looks well nice, I think it's an Aviat Husky and would be ideal for my local farm strip! Maybe the owner will lend me it while they are re-doing their license after the court case.:ok:

A totally dumb thing to do.

What a great epitaph. I killed myself when I lost control water skiing my land plane :rolleyes:

N registered as well

heliusac,

That Husky is a Maule. ;)

Apparently "water skiing" is not difficult if you are above aquaplaning speed.

Two things that surprise me about this stunt. One, the water is a bit rough, compared to the Harvard video. Two, trying it on a lake that has a speed limit is inviting prosecution. A loch in Scotland would have been a better bet.

I am guilty more than once of accepting a needless risk in a plane. So is this pilot. I've been working on smartening up as I get old - I want to be older, and insurable.

I see a very disproportionate risk to benefit in this kind of flying. If you're going to fly in a very risky way, at least have a good benefit to balance the risk.

And... it sets a poor example, and image for our industry. It make the public wary and suspicious of our responsibility, and lures fools into attempting it. I recall a silly fellow tried it in an English river a few years back, not putting any though into the fact that this is characteristically impossible in a tricycle aircraft.

If you're going to do this where you can't be seen, then you're probably too far from the help you may suddenly need very badly!

Totally agree about the N reg. thing. It looks as if this "non-dom" Maule doesn't pay CAA taxes, so it clearly has no more right to occupy English airspace than any other alien-registered airplane. :ugh:

Seriously though, can someone with relevant experience explain which of the laws of physics has been repealed in the vicinity of Lake Ullswater so as to make flight in low ground effect anything but rock stable?

As for Ullswater's speed limit, it has been specifically framed so as not to apply to land- and ski-planes. That said, if the Lake District National Park Authority were to ask politely I'm sure that the pilot in question would be willing to avail himself of their hospitality even more sparingly than heretofore.

Fly safely,
Peter.

What does flying in ground effect have to do with the stability, or rather lack thereof, involved in the act of riding on hydroplaning tyres ?

I know of one pilot who was killed doing this stupid stunt :ugh:

It may seem a "stupid stunt" to you on the basis of your personal experience, but it's a very safe, stable and essential part of a bushplane's flight envelope on the basis of mine.

Incidentally, small ripples and wavelets are no problem, but squally conditions are best avoided. Small tires would steepen part of the lift/drag curve appreciably, perhaps uncontrollably. Glassy lakes demand a degree of care, especially after lifting off the water.

I'd be interested to read the official report on the accident to which you refer.