From this months NASA Callback... Sounds like a good excuse to fly under a bridge!
“A Cigarette Boat…Was Upon Us”
An instructor pilot and student aboard a float-equipped PA18 became airborne prematurely when they encountered unexpected high-speed boat traffic on a river.
“A Cigarette Boat…Was Upon Us”
An instructor pilot and student aboard a float-equipped PA18 became airborne prematurely when they encountered unexpected high-speed boat traffic on a river.
- We had just departed the sea plane base and back ‘water’ taxied approximately 500-600 yards down river towards downtown in order to have plenty of room to execute a normal water takeoff up river and into the wind. It was a beautiful day and there was moderate boat traffic on the river.
We cleared the area around and behind us, completed our takeoff checklist, and executed a turn into the wind and up river. It seemed that as we maneuvered into position and after we turned all of our lights on, that all the boats in the general area pretty much motored towards the sides of the river. We began our takeoff run and for a split second our nose was high as we were coming onto our ‘step.’ Once the nose of the aircraft leveled out, we accelerated relatively quickly. As we were nearing flying speed a cigarette boat, traveling at a very high rate of speed, came around the corner under the bridge and was upon us. I believe the boat operator noticed us just in time, but because of the speed he was carrying, he could only alter his course slightly. However, in doing so, he cut right in front of us. We were traveling too fast to chop the throttle and maneuver[so] as not to create a hazard to the other boat operators or ourselves, yet too slow to fly. When we hit his wake, we became airborne. We grabbed a hand full of flaps so [as] not to slam back into the water. Once in ground effect, we accelerated to a speed…too slow to climb above the bridge beginning to fill our windscreen. We were left with only one safe option…Fly under the bridge. We were approximately 5-10 feet above the water, 40-50 feet under the bridge. When we cleared the bridge it was…an uneventful climb to 1,500 feet heading up river. That was without a doubt too close for comfort…I believe we made the safest decision for the situation which dictated split-second thinking.
