But he still seems to have engine power…
A very non-classy landing on a lake in Russia (Baikal) the other day. Terribly executed but all 4 passengers alive.
Cops were right there waiting. Either lucky/unlucky or in response to a Mayday?
Didn’t this seem to take a long time to slow down, or was he looking for a good parking place? Note the engine still running.
In what way was the Baikal landing so terrible? The big thing to my mind is the flaps not being down. I got the impression the pilot may have been aiming to ditch near the big yacht but didn’t have enough height to arrive there. There was no flare but arguably that might be no bad idea if you’re landing on calmish water.
kwlf wrote:
In what way was the Baikal landing so terrible?
No flaps and no attempt to flare. In my textbook, ditchings are to be made at the minimum possible airspeed, especially with fixed gear planes which are prone to overturn on first contact with the water (as we can see in the video). In that video I can see no attempt to reduce the speed at all.
I’d wondered whether the pilot was trying to avoid a stall – it can be hard to judge your height above water so I believe seaplane pilots usually come in with a bit of power and a slow ROD and wait for the floats to meet the water. Conversely it could be that he thought he was higher than he was and so it was too early to flare. Perhaps one of our resident seaplane pilots could comment?
It looks a bit that he actually stalled and he recovered from the early stall – there is a wing drop followed by an increased rate of descent. But vey hard to tell. Might be him avoiding the u suitable land. Glad that somebody can ask the people on board withot having to use an ouija board.
It also looks like he got his nose wheel stuck in the deep grass.
The Russian plane appears to hit the pontoons. That causes sudden deceleration, which loses the only advantage of a ditching. Not a good ditching for a sober pilot, but very lucky not to have had more speed when they hit the mooring.