Hmmm! You touch on an interesting point here when you say "....landed wheel down trying to put them up the beach."
It seems quite obvious to me that just like paddock landings, no two water outlandings are exactly the same; every water landing has its own peculiarities, and hazards. Whilst it might seem obvious, let me definitively state here, that in the first instance, a water landing should be avoided at all costs! Here are a few scenarios to consider, and no doubt there are many more: Landing in open waters - the sea, or a very large lake - Here wind and wave action will be present, How are you going to deal with this? As far as I can determine, nobody has seriously looked at this scenario. YouTube has some fascinating footage of a T21? landing in relatively smooth seas. Quite obviously, this ship has a fixed wheel, so the gear-up, gear-down option does not apply. Also of interest here is the actual landing speed of the glider. I am prepared to take bets, but it is very obvious that this glider "lands" at a speed of about half the landing speed of a modern composite fibre glass glider. Great landing. A question of interest is "What happened next?"[Quite obviously it did not instantly sink.] Landing close to an ocean-facing ridge/cliff. There may or may not be a landing option. In the latter case this is generally defined as a crash if things go pear-shaped! Landing in a relatively small lake, without much wave action ie relatively smooth surface. Landing in a river/canal: Ditto the above. The last two scenarios seem to be the focus of the current thread, but as I have pointed out above, THERE IS MUCH MORE TO CONSIDER! Let me make a few comments, starting with the first line quote above. If there is a beach, why not land on it - you do not have to "head" towards it. Cath Conway has summarised the situation, regarding what the manufactures' recommend: Yes, it is very simple - land wheel down. Mike Borgelt has pointed you towards some theory to consider as to just why you should do this. In the lake scenario (without beaches), ALWAYS land parallel to the shore, with say about 2 m of water under your keel - if you can judge this. This will max out your chances if your glider decides to become a submarine. In your post there is another point, that I think needs further discussion - video evidence shows that the glider does not necessarily "RAPIDLY" sink as you stated. It seems to me that in the instance presented, the glider is happily floating along and is very far from sinking. Get your horse before the cart. When the electrics/electronics are submersed, kiss them goodbye. Here is another thought: After running the video of the water landing in question a few times, it is very apparent that the video quality is of such poor quality, that it is impossible to determine if the wheel is up or down. Most posts seem to assume the wheel is up. In my opinion, highly unlikely if we believe the theory ... which I do. Just why pilots get into the situation where they might experience one of these scenarios is I think endlessly fascinating, but any discussion on this is I think the possible start of a whole new (and possibly most interesting), thread. Who want to start it? Gary -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of DMcD Sent: Saturday, 30 August 2014 3:53 PM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Water Landing Sent to me in 2008: Tests were carried out on a lake in Germany by Walter Schneider and Wolf Lemke of LS fame. They ditched an LS1 prior to the World Championships in Finland because they were worried about the lack of land out options and the proliferation of lakes. They assumed that landing wheel up would be the preferred option, but discovered that the glider 'bounced' off the surface and dropped a wing as the fuselage entered the water because of it's shape. They tried it again with the wheel down, deliberately put the tail down first and discovered that the wheel acted as a gentle brake and controlled the whole process much better. I've seen the photographs, so they may be available on some German web site somewhere. During the Worlds in Borlenge Sweden, a couple of gliders were put into lakes and all came out okay. I'm pretty certain they landed wheel down trying to put them up the beach. The major issue with such landings is that the glider sinks VERY quickly (regardless of wheel position) and the electrics can cause problems as you'd expect. It's certainly not recommended! _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2014.0.4745 / Virus Database: 4015/8125 - Release Date: 08/29/14 _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
