Random Youtube vid. It caught my eye because of what appears to be a pretty shallow wetland/creek area. It made me want to ask the more experienced float pilots around here: What's the shallowest water you've landed?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GAo3DUwBPI

3 to 6 inches. It's a muddy bottom lake so it slides ok, but takes some power to get moving again. There's no steering unless you're really moving since the water rudders don't work in mud, and if you run it aground it takes a lot of work to get it back in the water where it can slide again. It takes off fairly quickly though since it's pretty much on step when it's sitting still, and it really corners like it's on rails when step taxiing.

Way better pilot than I am.

Looks all the world as if he landed in a very long beaver pond. next to a stream.

TD

Zane,

It's a beaver pond. Beavers need enough water depth such that they have water UNDER the ice all winter, because they don't ever come above the ice in winter, they stash their food in the bottom of their ponds, and swim out of their houses through a tunnel that goes from their living area in the house to the water below the ice. In the north, that means five or six feet of water, at least. So, that's clue one.

Bear in mind that there ARE dumb beavers, who build a dam and house, only to freeze out the first winter...... .

Next clue is those lily pads along both sides of the pond/landing area. Those lilies will only grow in water that is between about 18 inches and three feet deep. So, you'll note as he approached that the pond was SURROUNDED by lilies, which implies that between the lilies is deeper than about 3 feet, hence deep enough for that airplane.

Finally, those lilies grow in muddy bottom lakes.....Not to say there won't be a stray rock there, but.....the likelihood in that kind of country is pretty low. So, if he did touch bottom, all he'd do is slide through the muck.

That could well be the country I worked for twenty years in interior Alaska, classic boreal forest, probably near the Arctic Circle. You learn to look at the vegetation, and understand the physics. As borntofly noted, you can land on mud easily.....steering sucks--variable to non existent.

I've landed in lakes (and I use the term loosely) where I couldn't turn around because the "lake" was muck. And, I couldn't wade to shore, because there was almost no bottom. So, power close to shore, grab a line off the tail, slosh to shore, and tug the bugger around so you can unload and then launch. Then, disrobe to pick the leeches off before the next leg.

Lotsa fun. That Otter driver had lots of help turning around and getting going, which can be the toughest task in those places.

MTV

I'd be very willing to bet that's not the first time he's landed on that pond !!!!

Mapleflt

Similar to landing shallow snow on skis I'd imagine, you'll know when it's too shallow

As for snow, if there is any white at all, even mixed in with a fair bit of brown, it doesn't seem to be a problem for me. Yet. Grass with frost on it even worked once for landing, but I couldn't get the needed speed to take off, so we had to import a 40' dual track of snow using scoop shovels and a pickup, that got me up to speed enough to keep accelerating once out of the snow and on the grass. LOT's of similarities between float flying and ski flying, no brakes being the big one.

Long ago on my first year of flying floats I was patrolling the Tanana river,down stream from FAI, saw a gill net out after the season closed, I swung around to land and a boat came out to pull the net. Half way to the net I taxied right up on a sand bar, nearly got the floats out of water. They got to the net first, pulled it and left. I stepped down carefully on the sand bar but it wouldn't hold me. Thought about it for awhile, then I got the paddle off the float, tied a rope to the handle,and the other end to the float. I put the paddle down in the water and stood on the blade to lift the float and move the plane just a bit. Took two hours to get that plane floated free. I bet those guys thought that was funny. Kinda was. In some of those rivers there is no viability. Looked at that sand bar several times after that. There was no visible difference between sand bar and channel until water went down.

Mapleflt wrote:I'd be very willing to bet that's not the first time he's landed on that pond !!!!

Mapleflt

They operate in that area pretty much everyday of the summer through hunting season.

Mud is good....Sand is bad

This is in the same spirit.

DonC wrote:Mud is good....Sand is bad

Damn, does that bring back memories. I used to land in a huge lake regularly on the Yukon Flats. ALL the lakes there are mud bottomed....as in sloppy, leech infested mud bottomed.

This big lake has an island in the middle. So, one summer, I thought I’d explore that island as a camp site. I got within about 100 yards of that island, knowing I was in shallow water, but assuming the bottom was mud.

Wrong! Slid up on that sand bottom and big time stuck. Took a couple hours to get unstuck. In twenty years of operating on the Flats, that was the only sand bottom I ever found.

MTV

A few summers in the early '80's I worked a C-185 off of shallow lakes in northern Alaska next to the Arctic Ocean between Barrow and Deadhorse. Had a fathometer in the float step to quick check depth at touchdown as the winds there made everything brown water. I liked 3' if I could get it so we could turn, but sometimes less was ok. When the water rudders refused to lower it was time to leave. Lake bottoms varied from sand to mud to gravel so care was essential. Shallow bars were frequent near inlets. I guess looking back it was dumb duty but they wanted fish data and the experience outweighed the pay (under $15/hr).

Gary