In the event of a forced landing, wood or water?

[Rupester]

Originally Posted by bjconst

I have been in the beans & the corn, there is no water around us. Corn every time if you have a choice. The beans flipped me over in a hurry.

In addition to the corn preference, my original flight instructor insisted that if you must make a choice, always go parallel to the crop rows and forget the wind.

[aerhed]

The airport manager at U25 Dubois hit some turbulence going down a canyon at pretty high speed in a 6A. Knocked them both out and they went into the lodgepoles. They survived, but the airplane certainly didn't. The little RV actually clipped through 8 inch tree trunks and had half circle dents right to the spars. The airplane had to come out of the wilderness area in pieces by horse and backpack. Tim built a new one out of the pieces and is still flying it fifteen years later. How about this: skim it on the water a few yards out parallel to shore. Then, a graceful wet loop onto the beach right next to one of those cantinas made from palm fronds. Some chick in a sarong walks over and hands you an umbrella drink and all your problems just fade away.

[rocketbob]

Anywhere there are farm fields there are roads, and they are always wide enough to drive a combine on. Go for the roads!

About 15 years ago I was first on scene when a RV-8 had a forced landing in a freshly plowed field. The gear sheared off and it stopped in 75 feet. Every step I took I sunk into the dirt and that was when it was dry.

Go for the farm fields in winter when they're nice and frozen.

I've also had the experience of digging a friend out of a flipped over RV. Based on that experience my tool of choice is one of these mounted in a the floor storage compartment in my Rocket: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JQ5YJ6/..._M3T1_ST1_dp_1

[eisnerrv4]

I'm going for the trees. I don't like my chances in water. Afraid of flipping upside down and drowning before I can get out, if I can at all.

Good thread Paul. Hope to see you this weekend.

[CSJohnson]

Having been in a car that hydroplaned off I-95 into a tree, I'll go for the water. The trees down the embankment sure looked small and like they would cushion the impact, but they were rock solid. I'm thankful for air bags.

I'd probably go for just offshore, close enough that I could swim, but far enough that if the plane did flip, hopefully there'd be enough depth that I wouldn't be pinned.

Where there are fields there are farms, and where there are farms there are roads, and where there are fields, farms, and roads, there often power lines!

Hope I can just keep her in the air and maintain the equation that the number of safe landings = the number of takeoffs!

Chris

[JDanno]

I've known four pilots that had to ditch:

C-182 crossing the channel from Catalina Island towards Riverside. Landed parallel to the waves after picking out a large boat to land next to. Everybody got out okay but plane sank rapidly in 4000 feet of water.

C-150 landed in tall pines just south of Atlanta. Pilot got scratched up in briars trying to get to the road. Hitched a ride back around to the airport to get his car. Parked and hiked in to wreck and removed several radios that he had just installed for instrument flying. Was arrested and put in back of cop car for looting. (Really!)

V-tailed Bonanza landed in bean field in Orange County, CA. Hit the only rock in the field and was D.O.A.

TriPacer landed in a muddy field and when it hit the tree line it got a "carrier arrested" type landing. Wings sheared off and pilot and passenger squeezed out of wreck underneath a shower of gasoline. This was half my plane which I had never gotten to fly before the wreck. No injuries. Plane wreckage was sold to a guy on our field and he rebuilt it and went to Oshkosh and got Reserve Grand Champion Classic

[Hack]

I know for a fact that if you manage to get flipped over on your back and the canopy is against the dirt or some other solid object that is where you are going to stay until help arrives. If you are under water i.e. the shallows of a body of water, help will probably come after you really care anymore. Same holds true if you catch fire on dry land. I think you could get out on dry land if the canopy/sill was off because the a/c will probaly be laying over on one wing giving you enough room on the opposite side to squeeze through. Given the amount of adrenaline I would have I think I can get down right skinny. I also carry a canopy breaker tool beside me now. Don't know that I could whack out enough canopy and get out with the sill still there but it is worth a try.

I have a -4 tipper and I have wondered about how I am going to get the canopy out of the way. I think I am going to try and get it off early at 83kts (my engine out speed). Maybe even yaw for a second to try and get it to catch the wind and blow off. I'd be curious about that idea from anyone reading.
I also try to remember to go through my off field landing checklist while taxxiing out by touching the components. That way I am a little distracted by taxiing and cannot look at the whereabouts of the component (master, fuel control etc.) easily. I know this, if I do get it on the ground without dying I don't want to fry b/c I left the master on and the fuel flowing.

All said and done, I think this blog has changed me from water to land. I just think being upside down close to shore is not a good scenario. I thank you all for your sage and thoughtful responses in this post. Go for the beach, it might be the best of both worlds!

[gorbak]

As with other pilot postings, I took the Offshore Water Survival Class which included HUET Helicopter Underwater Egress Training. Training was required to fly offshore in the Gulf any time Civil Air Patrol aircraft venture out past the glide ratio of land. Since our location is in Houston, some of the flying CAP is tasked with takes us beyond the glide path to land. Great training and I hope I never have to use it. With this information, and assuming there was an actual choice between only those two, I would choose trees over water.

Pat Garboden
Katy, TX
RV9A N942PT

[jjconstant]

I watched the MythBusters episode on getting out of a car after it became submerged. For me, the amazing thing was that it was no problem upright, but no matter how many times they tried it, even knowing it was coming, the "victim" couldn't get out without help when it was inverted. I once heard the argument for avoiding ditching when faced with a choice as this: when you choose to crash into trees you have to survive a crash. When you choose to ditch in the water, you have to survive both a crash and a shipwreck! Not to be glib but I have no idea which is "right", under which circumstances, even after thinking about it on numerous occasions. I know hope is not a plan, but I still hope I don't have to test either scenario.

[aerhed]

Another plus for the RV-10. Just blow the doors on final and go for the shallows.