Amphib Beaver flipped in River's Inlet

[180]

I read in the Vancouver Sun that an amphib Beaver owned by Pacific Eagle landed with the gear down in River's Inlet on Sunday morning. Happily, pilot plus three are all OK.

Pacific Eagle was one of a few operators on the coast spearheading the Mustang lifejacket initiative, but apparently the day before the accident, the pilot's Mustang floater snagged on something in the plane and inflated on him, so he decided it wasn't safe for them to be worn on board, and then in typical Murphy fashion, the following day, neither he nor his passengers were wearing their lifejackets when they flipped and went swimming.

Glad all are OK.


http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Commer ... story.html

[North Shore]

Glad to hear that all are OK!

the pilot's Mustang floater snagged on something in the plane and inflated on him, so he decided it wasn't safe for them to be worn on board, and then in typical Murphy fashion, the following day, neither he nor his passengers were wearing their lifejackets when they flipped and went swimming.

LOL!

[x-wind]

Remember the guy asking if he should take a job in Rivers Inlet this summer? He was nervous about being a passenger on a float plane.

viewtopic.php?f=54&t=65578

Looks like he wouldn't have been onboard. Perhaps he was waiting on the dock nervously for the plane ...

[xsbank]

So, you arrive at Rivers and you do a fly-over looking for logs and wind and swells and whatever and when you look down, you notice that there is no wheel lying on top of your float? Wouldn't this suggest something to you?

Or perhaps you do a long final approach into wind or along the shore without a flyover coz its been done 400 times and never looked out the side window - I'm glad nobody was hurt etc. etc. but WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

OK, I'm going to land:
Is the area clear?
Which is the best direction due to swells and logs and wind?
Am I configured with gas and correct tank, UNDERCARRIAGE (water rudders too), mixture, mags both, boost pump? prop lever, flaps?

GUMP CHECK!

Aaaarrgghhhhh!

[Blakey]

XS,

Have you ever been there?

I once came within inches of touching down on a runway with the skis down. I intended to land in the snow beside the runway until I did my field inspection, then decided that the snow banks were too high so I lined up for the runway. I did a GUMP check and ensured that the ski selector was in what I thought to be the correct position and gave a couple of pumps to make sure I had good pressure on the system. You can't check the ski position from the cockpit and there is no warning light but the control selector is clearly marked with UP and DOWN. I was actually in the flare before I got this tingly feeling and couldn`t quite remember whether I had put the skis up or not so I thought it better to go around and make certain. If there wasn't a good crosswind blowing, making me use a little power to hold off with the wing down, I would have touched down already. Once I was climbing away, I checked and sure enough, I had been about to touch down on pavement with the skis down.

You can't say anything nasty about this pilot that I didn't say to myself during that circuit and every time I've thought of it since. It can happen! I've since adopted a modified GUMP check where I don't just "check gear". I actually state to myself what surface I am landing on and what my gear configuration should be for this landing. Thanks Cat; great idea! I haven't caught myself being an idiot again but the next flight could be the one so I do it every time; even if I haven't moved the gear.

Blakey

[North Shore]

C'mon, Blakey.....landing with the skis down on tarmac is going to give you a red face, and perhaps need the replacement of the skis. Gear down on the water in an amphib gives you an instant capsize. I don't think that it's the same magnitude of screw-up.

[Blakey]

Definitely not but the error, and the lack of proper procedure, is the same. What about if it were landing with the skis up in 2' of snow? Same error, just in reverse. My point is that this guy most likely F'd up big time and he knows it. You can't be any harder on him than he will be on himself so let's learn from his mistake and not just stand around calling him names and telling him things he already knows like "You should have checked your gear". Do we really think he did this on purpose?

If I could have reached around far enough that day, I would have kicked my own ass all over the field for being such an idiot. I didn't need anyone to point it out to me; I was very aware!

[North Shore]

Blakey - correct you are! I guess I'm guilty of joining the AvCanada dogpile! My attempt at a gear-down water landing still gives me the shakes when I think of how easy it was..

[xsbank]

I know I sound harsh and uncompromising but the worst thing that happened here is that the owner's aircraft was badly damaged and is now unable to him to use it to earn a living; plus his insurance just took a huge leap.

Not bad, really, except many people die from this kind of goofy mistake and if I ridicule and trash this pilot maybe this will be the last gear-wrong accident? Right. Maybe all of you flying amphibs will stop being so glib about that complicated gear you have hanging down there and remember that IT CAN KILL YOU and worse, your passengers.

[Blakey]

XS,

You're right. The only thing that kills more float passengers is VFR flight into IMC. But, have you been there? If so, what saved you. If not, how did you prevent it? Cat gave me a simple modification to a check that would have saved this guy if he'd used it. You've got lots of hours under your belt, what have you got to share that could save the next guy?

Blakey

[Bulawrench]

Just another black mark on the float industry.Glad no one was hurt.
No lake and air adivisoy....flashing light and bitching betty ?
Maybe this will come up at the Floatplane operator's workshop next week.
Be carefull fellas

[X Driver]

XS I hope you have a lot of anphib time on the BC coast, and ski time as well. I have a lot of time on both, and have done a LOT of training on both and know in the right set of circumstances even with the warning systems on board just about any pilot can get it wrong.

[bawlsdeep]

Obviously no or limited amphib time to start making statements like this....

etc. etc. but WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
GUMP CHECK!

Aaaarrgghhhhh!

[goingmach_1]

Gentlemen, there is those who have and those who will.

As we all get older and more expierenced we learn that there is not enough time to possibly do it all. Nor is there time to know it all.

Unless you were in the seat at the time of the mishap you join a long line of speculators. Shoulda, coulda, woulda sums it up.

As someone who flies a amphip Beaver, I can only say from the seat I occupy that I must check umpteen dozen times that the gear is where it needs to be. "Killer" who gave my endorsement said, and I still use it, blue for water, green for grass. Hopefully this will keep me upright.

The line between Hero to Zero is very short.

As being a Chief Pilot in the past, it amazed me the complexity of each incident I had to deal with. Generally speaking nobody gets up in the morning to f'up. There is reason (s) for it.

Sorry to see any incident, or worse accident in aviation, but it is the nature of the beast. High speed machines controlled by humans who must filter through a mountain of information every minute to execute a result that must be just about perfect every time.

When you put high risk and high frequency together the odds are good that nobody will get hurt. When you put high risk and low frequency together those odds are not so good. Aviating has alot of variables each and every time. Some are not controlable. Weather for instance. Others compound and the collision of information does not allow for anyone to filter through it all to make the perfect desicsion.

Opinions are like a'holes, everyone has one.

[xsbank]

Do I have to have experience on floats/amphibs before I can be allowed to make a credible comment?

If the amphib gear on a Beav is so difficult to operate, maybe they should be banned and/or there should be a much harder test or we should find waaay smarter pilots to operate them.

Can you see the nosewheel in the 'UP' position? If not, then you have to be even more careful, no?

For the record, I have plenty of float time on the Wet Coast - does that matter?

[CaptainHaddock]

Landing gear up on the runway or gear down on the water is a big mistake, but it's certainly not a hard one to make. If you are doing multiple legs complacency and repetition can take you there in a heartbeat. Pasco had a good policy of pilots radioing in on marine radio "landing rivers inlet gear down" (on the River's runway) or 'landing Dawson's Landing Gear up' on short final.It's a good example as almost the whole sched is on water with just the one runway (other than hardy) at river's.
You have to be really on your guard for it (along with everything else on the coast) or it has or will bite you. I'm sure almost every amphib pilot has had that oh Feck moment where they realised they are configured for the wrong approach.

CH