After riding in the right seat of a Beaver quite a bit last summer, I have a new appreciation for this, and just how fast he went turtle.

This was a real crash that happened by accident on Lake Lovely Water near Squamish, BC (according to Wikipedia) during production of 1982’s “Mother Lode” starring Charleton Heston.

Float pilots should instantly see the poor technique that led to the upset. Gives me the willies. That recent video of the Caravan touching down too forward reminded me of this.

I think about that accident often, it was an instructional tool for pilots joining the line at Kenmore for years. Rumor I’ve heard several times was the original pilot hired for the film refused this maneuver as he thought there was inadequate room for landing, second pilot gave it a go. Guess the first pilot was right…

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/565325 This crash in Sri Lanka you alluded to looks to me to be the same poor landing technique followed by a complete lack of aircraft control. Should have been an easy recovery after the pilot sensed the initial “dig” of the floats, just had to pull back a little.

Great spincter exercise!

Halestorm wrote:I think about that accident often, it was an instructional tool for pilots joining the line at Kenmore for years. Rumor I’ve heard several times was the original pilot hired for the film refused this maneuver as he thought there was inadequate room for landing, second pilot gave it a go. Guess the first pilot was right…

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/565325 This crash in Sri Lanka you alluded to looks to me to be the same poor landing technique followed by a complete lack of aircraft control. Should have been an easy recovery after the pilot sensed the initial “dig” of the floats, just had to pull back a little.

I've landed on Lovely Water many times and there's lots of room for a 185 to land, let alone a Beaver. Could be that they wanted a certain angle that made it more difficult though. My AME here is friends with the local pilot who was supposed to fly the plane. My understanding is the local guy wanted to fly it but the Hollywood pilot they had brought along for the production wouldn't hear it, and made a big stink about the local pilot not being in the union or something like that (SAG card maybe). He also wouldn't take any advice and had minimal float experience. It is a fairly high lake but a Beaver into Lovely Water should be a cake walk.

I think I have a new life goal. Land Lake Lovely Water for the bragging rights (which only people born before 1979 will appreciate.)

Fraser Farmer wrote:

Halestorm wrote:I think about that accident often, it was an instructional tool for pilots joining the line at Kenmore for years. Rumor I’ve heard several times was the original pilot hired for the film refused this maneuver as he thought there was inadequate room for landing, second pilot gave it a go. Guess the first pilot was right…

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/565325 This crash in Sri Lanka you alluded to looks to me to be the same poor landing technique followed by a complete lack of aircraft control. Should have been an easy recovery after the pilot sensed the initial “dig” of the floats, just had to pull back a little.

I've landed on Lovely Water many times and there's lots of room for a 185 to land, let alone a Beaver. Could be that they wanted a certain angle that made it more difficult though. My AME here is friends with the local pilot who was supposed to fly the plane. My understanding is the local guy wanted to fly it but the Hollywood pilot they had brought along for the production wouldn't hear it, and made a big stink about the local pilot not being in the union or something like that (SAG card maybe). He also wouldn't take any advice and had minimal float experience. It is a fairly high lake but a Beaver into Lovely Water should be a cake walk.

Great to finally hear the real story!

Does anyone know the pilots name that wrecked the airplane?

Zzz wrote:I think I have a new life goal. Land Lake Lovely Water for the bragging rights (which only people born before 1979 will appreciate.)

I think we should make that happen.

If anyone is thinking of watching the whole film, I'd suggest putting it on while you work in your shop. Rebuild an outboard motor or clean some guns or something so you won't feel like it's been a complete waste of time when the movie ends.

"Never Cry Wolf" (Charles Martin Smith and Brian Dennehy) will not disappoint. Old raggedy Beaver, good actors, good plot, some good humor here and there, and most important, THEY DID NOT WRECK THE BEAVER!

TR

TR wrote:"Never Cry Wolf" (Charles Martin Smith and Brian Dennehy) will not disappoint. Old raggedy Beaver, good actors, good plot, some good humor here and there, and most important, THEY DID NOT WRECK THE BEAVER!

TR

They just made the DH2 look like a wreck. The canoe full of beer is a classic scene.

Ah yes, Never Cry Wolf. I've seen it many times, first time as a young child at the public library.

Gotta say, I loved the Porter he upgraded to.

Fraser Farmer wrote:

Halestorm wrote:I think about that accident often, it was an instructional tool for pilots joining the line at Kenmore for years. Rumor I’ve heard several times was the original pilot hired for the film refused this maneuver as he thought there was inadequate room for landing, second pilot gave it a go. Guess the first pilot was right…

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/565325 This crash in Sri Lanka you alluded to looks to me to be the same poor landing technique followed by a complete lack of aircraft control. Should have been an easy recovery after the pilot sensed the initial “dig” of the floats, just had to pull back a little.

I've landed on Lovely Water many times and there's lots of room for a 185 to land, let alone a Beaver. Could be that they wanted a certain angle that made it more difficult though. My AME here is friends with the local pilot who was supposed to fly the plane. My understanding is the local guy wanted to fly it but the Hollywood pilot they had brought along for the production wouldn't hear it, and made a big stink about the local pilot not being in the union or something like that (SAG card maybe). He also wouldn't take any advice and had minimal float experience. It is a fairly high lake but a Beaver into Lovely Water should be a cake walk.

That was the story I heard years ago from someone who was there......the SAG member pilot insisted that he do the flight, and it was glassy water. I can't remember if the guy was even float rated..... The other bit of the story was that right after the wreck, they re-wrote the script to incorporate the wreck. Hate to waste a good wreck in a scenic lake....

I sure hope it wasn’t insured. Why should all of us have to pay for their stupidity with higher insurance rates.

Experienced Beaver pilot right there willing to do the flying vs the fellow who actually did the flying and wrecked the airplane.

It did look close to glassy, based on the reflection of the background, and the floats themselves right before touching. I have little time, but trained in FL days after a hurricane passed, leaving under 5 kt of wind the whole time. I’m grateful to have had exposure to glass to know what it was like, after reading about the hazard. Which makes me wonder why the high rate of descent and quick flare, the opposite of what I was taught. It’s scary to see what little yaw it took to grab that float. The G-force must have been impressive, and it’s amazing the airframe stayed in one piece.

I had a float grab and yank me over pretty hard three different times, Tri Pacer on Edo 2000, in the twenty summers I flew her on floats.

First time it was my rookie summer, downwind and against the current on the Naknek River, I’m pretty sure as she yarded to the left I tapped the firewall with my right rider bar to get her lined back up and not heading into the trees on the bank. Funny thing is a friend of mine was back trolling with some clients and says, reel in this guys just learning to fly! I touched down about twentyfive yards past them. Ran into them that night at the old Quinot Landing lounge, guessing she had told the story about ten times by then had it perfected

Second time was a number of years later landing across the Kvechak down below Ron Hayes’ Lodge, was blowing about 45 gusting whatever, the wind was no big deal, but what I didn’t notice was the incoming tidal surge waves, my ground speed was pretty low but my airspeed plus gust factor was probably about 75 close to 80. The waves were moving up river fast, the first one hit the down river pontoon and dug in just a little bit and popped that side up, then in quick succession hit the opposite pontoon rocking The Batplane side to side pretty violently about three sets worth before settling down. Thinking if I hadn’t been carrying that extra airspeed gust component she would’ve been a lot uglier.
Pulled up to the beach, shut down, and as I was climbing out my girlfriend at the time asks, you let uncle Bruce land that one? I looked at my buddy Bruce and we just laughed…

Third time was taking off in the mighty Tri Pacer on a very low right tank which if you know is the number one PA-22 no-no. About two thirds down a 2,500 foot pond, no more than say fifty feet high, she started to cough on me. I had just passed VY and cleaned up. I slam the yolk to the stop, pull the throttle, round out and pulled full flaps. I wouldn’t call it a flair but with just a few hundred feet in front of me I knew I had to get her on the water rather then float into the trees on the shore. Guess I hit the water at about seventy. She got up on her nose and dug in hard to the left towards a 206 I had just parked on the bank to pull out for a hundred hour. Dug in the right float, then came back again to the left, She was riding pretty high on her bows ( spell check just wrote bowels and there was that too ) during this whole thing.

I recall the tail coming down and not really having a lot of speed at this point, basically kissing the beach at a walk and bouncing back.

I looked down at my knees because they were shaking so bad, wondering why, and there it was next to my left one, that fuel selector on the right tank…

I used to say they were 100 stupid things pilots could do, then figured after I’ve done 100 of them there might be a lot more. At some point I decided there was always going to be stupid things we could do and I keep that in mind every time I climb into the cockpit.

Rocket

I think the pilot was Joe Hughes, Art Scholl flew the camera plane. Director wanted the shot on a spot, which messed with the landing profile. Heard the same: union-card waving trumped (can we still use that word?) common sense to go with more experience for a difficult shot. Been there a few times on floats, many more flying tours in helicopters.

Where did those guys in the Caravan get trained?

Karmutzen wrote:Where did those guys in the Caravan get trained?

Who said they did??