Found this interesting video. You need Apple Quicktime to play it.

http://www.backcountrypilot.org/videos/floatsonthegrass.mov (2.3 MB)

The guys makes a nice landing, holds a lot of up elevator, then tries to taxi with full power and rocks it a little to get it to budge, but no luck. Get out the Wesson vegetable oil...

Z

Good flying.

It's hard to be sure (because of the quality of the video), but the grass doesn't look very long or very wet. In fact, in one view (after the plane has passed the photographer) the grass looks yellow, as if it's dry.

One day I'll get a float rating (and if I win the lottery I'll be able to buy some floats, too), but I doubt the instruction will include landing on grass. There probably aren't that many who are qualified to teach that technique.

I'm not a float pilot, but from what I understand that landing on grass is pretty much the accepted way to fly your floatplane into a regular (non-water) airport, like for maintenance or whatever. The preferred method does involve *wet* grass, though. Takeoff the same way (maybe with a tow from a car to get the initial forward motion happening), or use a big wheeled dolly under the floats on a runway. Limited directional control until you get some control authority (castoring wheels on the dolly). The dolly just careens & clatters to a halt after the floatplane lifts off it.
I saw a video once of a Norduyn Norseman ( a big Otter sized airplane built in canada & used extensively for freighting & bush-flying in the old days) on straight floats taking off from a non-too-smooth grassy slope--looked like a pretty damn rough ride to me!

Eric

Yeah, I agree. I've heard of float pilots landing on grass, but WET grass. You can hear the sound of the floats hitting the grass, and from the sound of it, it's drier than a bucket of sand. Good skill to have I guess if you are on floats and you have an emergency, and need to land 'er on non-water without bending it too bad.

Z

Do you have the link where you got this?
I would like to downlaod it.
I have been looking for one flying off the dolly.
I will post when I find them.
Ki in Fl

I found it at airviolence.com but it looks like the site has since been disabled. You can save this video to your hard drive by right mouse clicking on the link and selecting Save Target As.

Z

What, they didn't pay the rent? That little banner looked pretty permanent.
I found some really neat videos on that site that I wish now I had saved.

zero.one.victor wrote:I'm not a float pilot, but from what I understand that landing on grass is pretty much the accepted way to fly your floatplane into a regular (non-water) airport, like for maintenance or whatever. The preferred method does involve *wet* grass, though.

Eric

The floats are tough, and for the most part don't care if you land on wet/dry grass, dirt, or even pavement.

Gump

The floats are tough, and for the most part don't care if you land on wet/dry grass, dirt, or even pavement. For years I brought mine in on dirt for engine changes and the like, then just flew off a towed trailer to get back home. Kind of a non-event.

Gump

My float instructor went so far as to say your better off doing a dead stick landing to grass than glassy water...

For those that are not aware, glassy water landings require a shallow and controlled rate of descent (due to lack of depth of field over glassy water) that would be pretty hard to achieve while engine out...

Mark

We brought everything from Cubs to Otters in on grass and dirt (grass is best) and tried the dolly (it's not a big deal, but is alot of messing around) and settled on just hooking a small loop of a rope over the back side of a nose cleat and the other end oiver the ball on a pickup and giving them a pull...works great!!! I've got VHS of us doing it with a Beaver.... sure makes some people's eyes open wide!
JH

Here is a video of a Beaver on floats taking off from a trailer behind a pick up.

Beaver on Floats

hooznext wrote:Here is a video of a Beaver on floats taking off from a trailer behind a pick up.

Beaver on Floats

Yeah, the trick on the trailer is to keep enough RPM so as not to fall off the back of the trailer as the truck accelerates, and not too much RPM, so ya don't slide forward and whack into the truck.

I screwed up one time in a Super Cub, and smacked the nose of the floats into the taillights of my pickup (my buddy was towing) as I lifted off. Luckily I was able to haul back on the stick and clear the roof of the truck by a few inches. Woulda been ugly if I had gotten the whole train wreck tangled up.

But, my buddy and I got good bragging rights. How many guys can say they've been driving down the road and been hit by an airplane. And how many pilots can say they've hit a truck while taking off?

Gump

I figure there must be more stories similar to that out there. It seems to be a situation that offers plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong very quickly without the right people involved.

hooznext wrote:I figure there must be more stories similar to that out there. It seems to be a situation that offers plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong very quickly without the right people involved.

I'm sure there are. In this case we used the trailer we built for our T-Cart on Edo 1320's, and put the Super Cub up on it. Trailer was too small (narrow) so we had to use beams to block up the floats on the PA-18.

Problem was, we had the rear of the floats blocked up too high, and when we towed down the runway at speed, I didn't have enough elevator authority to rotate off the trailer. Faster we went, the harder the Cub pushed down on the trailer. As the end of the runway came up we were at 70 MPH, and I had to get off the trailer. Once R**** hit the brakes on the truck I was gonna be right in the bed of the pickup.

I tried elevator, no luck. Throttle, no luck. The only handle or knob I had left was the flap handle, so I pulled it. Man oh man... Once those flaps came down, all that weight unloaded, that Cub shot forward like it was in a slingshot. I went forward, punched out my taillights with the floats, and as the airplane lurched back from the impact I hauled back and she lifted off.

Always wanted to LAND on the trailer, but I let fear and common sense stop me. Damn. Now, I wish I would have.

Gump

Gump, I love those stories, they are funny because no one got hurt and no real damage was done.

Fear and common sense, fortunately, have prevented me from appearing really stupid in a few cases, not all but most.

Like they say, hind sight is 20-20, I bet that was the last time you launched from a trailer with the tail too high.

Gump,

Ever hear of somebody launching from a cart without being towed? Supposedly (that phrase usually proceeds a story of questionable origin) there was / is a cart that was built using heavy duty casters for big machinery. They would lock the rear caster so they would stay straight and aligned with the floats an allow the forward casters to turn. They would taxi into position while tied down to the cart, remove the restraints, start the take off roll stick forward to maintain position on the cart (I think they also said they had blocks or some method of not inadvertently sliding forward on the cart) rotate at the proper speed, then go retrieve the cart, which would usually run off the runway to one side or another.

I guess I should add, "I never seen it, but I hear tell"

BTW, the mystic of floatplanes lends itself well to all types of outlandish tales, most of which are usually based in truth but have grown "character" through the process of retelling the tale. IMHO

Mark

N6EA wrote:Gump,

Ever hear of somebody launching from a cart without being towed? Supposedly (that phrase usually proceeds a story of questionable origin) there was / is a cart that was built using heavy duty casters for big machinery. They would lock the rear caster so they would stay straight and aligned with the floats an allow the forward casters to turn. They would taxi into position while tied down to the cart, remove the restraints, start the take off roll stick forward to maintain position on the cart (I think they also said they had blocks or some method of not inadvertently sliding forward on the cart) rotate at the proper speed, then go retrieve the cart, which would usually run off the runway to one side or another.

I guess I should add, "I never seen it, but I hear tell"

BTW, the mystic of floatplanes lends itself well to all types of outlandish tales, most of which are usually based in truth but have grown "character" through the process of retelling the tale. IMHO

Mark

Read Hardtailjohn's note above, re: using a dolly. A lot of places that do float work that are landlocked use them. Some have a spring-loaded brake that stops the dolly once the weight of the airplane is off it. Without brakes, you got a heavy cart careening down the runway at 60 MPH, breaking runway lights and the like. Doesn't make airport managers happy

I've never flown off one, but I hear it's hard to keep directional control the first few seconds until you have rudder authority. I'm sure there's guys on the forum that have experience with the things.

Dolly and trailers outlandish??? No, that's the everyday world of floats, and just business as usual. Most fun, and easiest rating to add, but I think of all the flying I ever did, it was without a doubt the hardest work, and most risk. Not risk of dying, but risk of breaking airplanes. No brakes, poor steering, everything moving, and nothing but real expensive stuff to run in to.

Gump

I personally know a guy that was delivering a plane for someone and landed on grass with NEW amphib floats. As a matter of fact, he was picking it up from the factory where the floasts had just been installed. The gear hadn't extended ( not sure if it was mechanical or the pilots fault) and when he landed he did fine until where the grass runway intersected with the asphalt. The keel (?) was nearly totally worn off. The poor guy who had bought the plane was told that something minor had to be fixed before he could come get his plane. Not sure if he was ever told what happened to his NEW floats.
Keith

WWhunter wrote:I personally know a guy that was delivering a plane for someone and landed on grass with NEW amphib floats. As a matter of fact, he was picking it up from the factory where the floasts had just been installed. The gear hadn't extended ( not sure if it was mechanical or the pilots fault) and when he landed he did fine until where the grass runway intersected with the asphalt. The keel (?) was nearly totally worn off. The poor guy who had bought the plane was told that something minor had to be fixed before he could come get his plane. Not sure if he was ever told what happened to his NEW floats.
Keith

Ouch!!!!! I bet there was a lip or curb where the asphalt met the grass, and acted like a can opener. That would hurt. A smooth surface shouldn't damage the keel.

Gump

I had got an email about this video and thought it was cool and figured that it had already been talked about on here, and it was, but the link above is broken so here is the youtube video of that same take off i'm guessing.