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Ok you guys!
Here is the scoop!
My Partners & I in the Ercoupe decided, after a few
fly in fishing trips into northern Saskatchewan that we
needed to learn to fly floats to broaden our options.
We got a tripacer 150 hp that was in owner maintanence catagory
& got a tripacer guru in our area to put it on a set of full lotus
floats.
It performed quite well but it got a lot better when we put a borer prop
on it.
We had some trouble getting off the water in a cross wind as the nose
would turn
away from the windward side once on the step.
We spent all of June working on our check outs. Transport Canada
requires
a 5 hour check out but our insurance required 15 hrs. The other two guys
finished
their solos leaving only me to do mine.
The day of my solo we had nice conditions. The instructor had me fly
to a lake
about an hour north of the lake we were practicing at , land , then
back.
When I got docked again he said OK go for it, jumped out & pushed me
off.
I am the lightest of the bunch at 155lb & there was only about 45
minutes of fuel
but that was plenty to do a couple of circuits. So every thing went well
on takeoff
& I got off very fast being so light. Came around on final , was a
little hot (bout 5 mph)
& not dropping quite as fast as I wanted so I powered down a bit more
than usual
but was very light so it made sense. I flared to land still a bit hot &
dropped the power
to idle, I bounced just a little but just held the controles back & let
it settle. When it
touched the second time, it began to slowly turn the nose to the left. I
countered
right rudder & right aileron but it wouldnt straighten out . From then
on I was a
passenger! The plane kept turning left hydroplaning across the lake
untill I was almost
facing back the way I had come from & the steps or the back of the
floats dug in & the plane
made a quick yaw to the right. I didn't realize it at the time but the
right wing hit the water & broke
outside of the strut. then the plane slowly started to tip over the
right float.Water was coming up the
door window on the right side. I chucked the head set & pulled the seat
belt off. The water against
the door prevented me from getting out so I went over the seat & out the
rear passenger door on the
left side instead which was now almost straight up. When I got, out the
left wing was just in the water
so I stood on the under side of it as I reached in through the rear door
to get the life vest & what ever
else was handy. Got one of the headsets then the wing went under & I had
to climb up on the left float.
There I sat on the float in the middle of this small lake about 100 yds
from shore. I calmed down
& realized that there were no boats coming so I pulled the cartridge on
the vest, pulled off my shoes &
swam to shore.
We tried quite a few things to tip the plane upright but what
finally worked was we
filled the cockpit with inner tubes, slashed the wings so they would
drain & tied a number of floatation tanks
(70 liter plastic barrels) to get it up high enough to get it close to
shore. If any one of you guys has
been involved in this kind of operation then you know how difficult it
is. Once we had the plane with
the nose toward the shore, we tied a cable to the tail & used a pickup
with a winch to pull it over.
We had weights tied to the fronts of the floats & a boat on each side
pulling as needed to keep the tail
from veering left or right. The nose dug into the mud & over she went.
The right wing had folded right under the plane & filled with mud as it
dragged on the bottom. this made it difficult to tip . Then we dug our
stuff out of the plane.
The GPS was sitting on the dash against the windsheild. I also had a
Avcom headset that
I dried out & it still works but the volume controles on it are
scratchy.
Oh ya, did you spot my mistake???
It may be hard to see if all you have flown is Ercoupes but Tail dragger
guys will know right off.
This should bring out some interesting theorys.
Anyone????
Darwin
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