Amphib landing with one wheel down. On water!

[Blakey]

Apparently happened at the Greenville fly in this year. Anyone know details like "Did he know it was down"?

Sequence starts at #36.

http://teamneidhardt.smugmug.com/Airpla ... &k=22vGfT9

[pointyendforward]

Don't know any of the details but I would hope the pilot did not know the wheel was down as the landing looked quite flat.... Having seen this exact situation happen twice it seems it makes more sense to land on one float, keeping the wheel down float off the water as long as possible, slowing your speed and therefore minimizing the drag effect of the wheel when it does touch..... Wow, lucky guy...

[Cat Driver]

It is quite easy to determine if the gear is up or down.

I find it difficult to believe that anyone would choose to land an amphibian on the water with a gear down.

[pointyendforward]

Interesting Cat.... You would still land on land with only 1 main down?? I have had this conversation with a handful of amphib guys and the conclusion we came to was, 1 main down you take the water, any other combo go for the runway... We figured if you went for the runway with 1 main down its guaranteed damage, complete loss of control and possible fire to name a few, whereas as was seen in the photos (and twice in my time on amphibs) the water landing although a little rough, has a much better outcome...
Always open to hear other pilots opinions on this topic...
"Wheels up for water landing"
PEF

[Cat Driver]

Interesting Cat.... You would still land on land with only 1 main down??

Yes, as long as I could find a suitable place to land.

The chance of being killed on contact or drowning on the water is way, way more likely than burning on land. Not to mention the deceleration on land is far less than on water with the gear down.

And I have been flying amphibs since 1954.

[Redneck_pilot86]

I have witnessed two amphib aircraft land on runways with the gear retracted, other than a bit of damage to the ego it is basically a non event. Jack it up, inspect the gear, put it down and taxi off. I would think that with one wheel down it would be essentially the same, as the float is going to come to contact the ground as well and slow the aircraft. Also, its very possible in this scenario that the other gear would lower just fine, if it was tried. My vote goes to the pilot not knowing the gear was down and getting lucky on the landing, due to some combination of being quick to react and the slow touchdown speed of the cub.

[floatpilot]

You don't need to land on a runway, people land floatplanes on grass all the time. I'm with cat, hard to drown on land!

[cloudrunner]

hard to drown on land!

+1

[Old Dog Flying]

I witnessed a SeaBee land wheels up at ZBB and other tha n a string of sparks and a worn keel, it was off of the runway in short order.

By the way this was after Manops said that controllers did not have to say "Check gear down and locked" and the controller defended his position by quoting the MANUAL(bible) even though he knew it was going to happen.

[PilotDAR]

I have twice had to land Cessna amphibs on land (ice once) with one main down, and the other not down (and not up either). You just have to be very gentle, and avoid abrasive surfaces. Unfortunately in both cases the gear failed so I could not get all the wheels in any one position. A water landing would have been a very poor decision. Neither landing resulted in damage or difficulty. I watched as a friend landed his 185 amphib on my grass runway wheels up, it was a beautiful landing. I asked him when was the first point in the landing that he realized the wheels were not down. He replied when he pushed on a brake to steer, and it did not. It did not leave the runway though. It did take a few hours to jack it up so he could put the wheels down!

The fellow in the PA-18 did an admirable job of keeping control on the plane, and I suspect not going over. This would be in large part due to the nosewheels both being retracted. Were they to have been down, the outcome would have been very different.

The EDO amphibious Cessna 180 manual suggests that a nose high landing can be made on the water "without upset", but the "margin... is very small". Yes, I believe that the margin of landing an amphibious floatplane wheels down in the water, and not going over must be incredibly small!