Mauleguy wrote:Sounds like he suffered from overload, crazy decision.

That's what I'm thinking.

wannabe wrote:My recollection is that the FAA only considers a gear up landing as an incident and not an accident.
Could be wrong - been wrong before!

Wannabe

It can be an accident. Just went through this. If you gear one up and let's say it damages some spars or bulkheads. That kind of damage is structural. Any structural damage and your gear up incident can become an accident. The ntsb makes the determination of its structural or not.

I agree that plane with some wing floats looks like a. Good seaplane. I wonder how a 337 with the baggage pod would have done.

Maybe he just preferred a 50% chance of drowning over a 2% chance of burning. Not the decision I would have made but it was his to make.

Anybody else notice these amazing new stealth technology floats?

I cringed watching that video, I was thinking no, no, NOOO... sheet.

I think it was Aviation Safety that had a article talking about how it's better to do a gear-up landing on a runway then in a field (no bumps, less damage). He may not have picked the water if ATC hadn't made it a option (do to the stress from the engine failure)... just my opinion on the mater.

Anyway, glad he's ok.

Y'all maybe missing the point….

Over insure a plane you couldn't sell if you wanted too, have a phony emergency ( is there any correlation between and dead front engine and the gear not coming down? ) Runway gear up = scraped metal. Ditch in Salt water = send me a check.

Im so cynical sometimes

I dont think this is any kind of guy that should be flying... waterlanding vs foamed runway? one wrong thing on a water landing could end up real bad. planes land all the time gear up with no injuries. what if he had passengers? I guess they better know how to swim and hope the plane doesnt flip and knock them out then pull them under.

Apparently we're all dumb. All the aviation experts say he did the right thing. But those same experts would probably say we're dumb for flying the way we do...

I seriously doubt that this guy decided to do this on purpose for an insurance claim (skymaster owners love these things). I don't think anyone in their right mind would purposely ditch in the water to collect, if that was the case, it would be a heck of a lot easier to just burn it in the hangar.

I've worked on skymasters quite a bit from the normally aspirated, turbo charged and pressurized models, and I know for a fact that these things are pigs... Great for us mechanics. I know they won't climb worth a damn on one engine and when I first watched the video I thought he lost the front engine and HAD to ditch in the water, and if that was the case, leaving the gear up would be your best bet.

What seems bazaar to me is the fact that the gear doors aren't even popped, it doesn't look like he even tried to pump the gear down. Even if he lost almost all the fluid, there is enough left in the system to start getting the gear out, especially opening the doors.

When it comes to gear up landings, I guess it can really come down to the fsdo. A couple years back a guy in a meridian decided to land gear up, did a bunch of damage. The local fisdo called me up and told me they were too busy to come and then asked me to take pictures and go ahead and removed the airplane from the runway. They showed up a couple days later and we went over things. It wasn't a big deal.

I believe it was a gear failure I believe the front engine was shut down to keep the prop from digging into the water and trying to flip the plane or atleast thats the only logical thing I can think of. still why land in the water? Also I believe it was a rental plane.

Any "expert" that said landing in the water was the right thing to do is a total d...a..

Trying to beat the insurance company by ditching which has a more than 50% chance of dying....really? The only time I'd consider water would be in vertical terrain like the local Sierra Nevada mountains. All granite and ginormous trees, MAYBE aim for the shore of a body of water try to skip in close. Anybody see Six Days Seven Nights?

I flew into PHNL for the first time (as pilot) and those are some big honking beautiful smooth runways.

I had a dual engine flameout ditching in the simulator, and that will make you sweat even in the box! I didn't get the red screen of death so we may have survived that part but God only knows how fast you'd sink or have sharks lining up at the buffet.

Cstol

"I believe ---"

The convenient thing about belief is that you do not need any evidence, therefore you can believe what ever makes you comfortable without the need or search for evidence.
Wannabe

actually, ditching is a quite survivable event... it appears to be the temperature of the water that kills you if you are one of the few that do manage to kill themselves in a ditching.

http://www.equipped.com/ditchingmyths.htm

Here in Hawaii it's usually the passengers who die ditching. I.e. Cessna Caravan (Kalaupapa), Piper Navajo (Hilo).

I personally know several pilots who ditched in the Pacific some were injured but are OK. But, that does not imply or make any explicit analogy that it is safe.

Warm water certainly helps. I knew a guy who floated 31NM from a sunken boat in 35 hours over night and was OK. He was walking around after a night in the hospital. Amazing Dude!

Insurance! That's all I see there...

New thread "After the splash" ...analysis and comments.

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/community/forum/latest/ditched-cessna-337-hawaii-removal-and-analysis-pictures-18704

Raw pictures here...

https://www.backcountrypilot.org/me/my-photos/2165-8gcbc/photo?albumid=4898&photoid=35333

Ultralights wrote:actually, ditching is a quite survivable event... it appears to be the temperature of the water that kills you if you are one of the few that do manage to kill themselves in a ditching.

http://www.equipped.com/ditchingmyths.htm

It's like falling off the top of a skyscraper. The fall is totally survivable. It's the sudden stop at the bottom that gets you.

It appears that only 12% of ditching resulted in fatalities, I will say with confidence that gear up landings have a much higher survival rate, especially landing at an airport with the emergency equipment on hand that PHNL has.

I fly big stuff for a living, and only one ditching ever has been successful.

If you're ditching in front of rescue boats it probably helps.

My CFI gave me good advice for flying over water:

If you're going to ditch in the water, skip the big freighters and ditch close to a boat 60' or shorter.

They're more likely to have beer.

Bagarre wrote:My CFI gave me good advice for flying over water:

If you're going to ditch in the water, skip the big freighters and ditch close to a boat 60' or shorter.

They're more likely to have beer.

Best advice yet!

wannabe wrote:Cstol

"I believe ---"

The convenient thing about belief is that you do not need any evidence, therefore you can believe what ever makes you comfortable without the need or search for evidence.
Wannabe

Well you know how the internet is just cause you read it don't mean its true! also I read the article in like 10 secs and thats what I got out of it but 10 sec is a pretty quick scan.