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I have two perspectives on this issue.
First, is a single engine airplane designed to land on water? I think the
reason that so many engine-out events for singles over land have a happy
ending is that most single engine airplanes land pretty well on a dirt road,
pavement, or firm grass. Since many such surfaces exist over most land, and
since the airplane is designed to land on such surfaces, you more often than
not manage to land. I'm willing to bet that most fatalities in engine-out
accidents are probably related to pilots who panic and stall the airplane
and not to the landing itself.
To contrast, most single engine airplanes don't land well on water. Some
part of the airplane can catch in the water and send the airplane tumbling,
or it can just do a violent flop, and if the impact forces don't knock you
out, the disorientation of being upside down in a sinking plane will surely
test your abilities. And how exactly do you practice for such a landing?
You can't do it in a real airplane, and does anyone believe that FS2004 is
correctly simulating a water landing? NOT. It's probably very
aircraft-design specific on top of not being well simulated. If you can't
practice or plan for it, you probably won't do it well.
Second, do you know how to survive in a hostile marine environment and then
help searchers to find you? It is amazing to me that you read about
incredibly skilled pilots who do a perfect water landing, only to then die
within 30 minutes because of hypothermia. They planned perfectly to take
care of the airplane, but didn't have even a shallow understanding of what
it takes for a human being to sustain in such conditions. Do you have the
correct kind of wetsuit? Do you have a plan for putting it on in 10 foot
swell? Don't even talk to me about liferafts, because most of the ones you
can get into a small plane are a joke. You will be wet even inside the
raft, and exposure to wind and cold air will kill you. How will you get
fresh water? Do you have a speargun or method to fish? How are you going
to signal to search planes? As a windsurfer I was once involved in guiding
a rescue helicopter over a downed sailor. The Coast Guard literally
floated 100 feet above this guy for 10 minutes, and they could not see him.
And that was with me putting the helicopter right over him. The breaking
swell just hid everything around it. Now imagine instead an aircraft
trying to search a 10K square mile area flying over you at 150 kias.
Unless you know how to prepare for this, you are not going to be seen. (As
an aside here, the best $100 you will ever spend is on a coast-guard
approved waterproof (not water resistant) strobe light that you strap onto
the collar of your lifevest. Even with a blazing sun, the flash of
pulsating light from these can be clearly seen from peripheral vision of a
pilot, and it will guide him to your vicinity very effectively. I even
take this hiking with me...they have many uses.)
So, personally, I would not be wild about flying over anything with a single
engine piston airplane that I could not safely land and survive on, and that
includes vast expanses of mountains, wilderness, or water. If you have to
do it on a daily basis, then at very least invest very substantial time in
planning for the event so that you have at least some chance of surviving
it.
--
Will
Internet: westes AT earthbroadcast.com
"Dallas" <Cybnorm@spam_me_not.Hotmail.Com> wrote in message
news:Ga0we.167$8f7.79@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> I was curious as to what the real world pilot community thinks about the
> wisdom of flying single engine reciprocals large expanses of water on a
> regular basis. Is this one of those "get a hundred different answers"
> things or is there a common consensus?
>
> At first I thought, you're just asking to get killed... but then I began
to
> consider are you that much better off over land if you loose the engine?
If
> you are over a city with houses, trees and power lines, you might have
been
> better off over water where you could at least pancake it in.
>
> Is the final answer, "Flying is a risky business anyway, being over water
> can be just as dangerous as being over land so what's the difference."
>
>
> Dallas
>
>