Best Emergency Water Lander - Low Wing or High Wing

He had me until the "planes don't flip" part.

I present as a counter argument....


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This in no way represents the behavior of ditching a land plane. The CG and center of thrust are much higher than the point of contact. This is a landing mishap with amphibious floats, not a ditching.
 
Most of the way there you are in glide distance, leaving not so much. I fly a high wing and expect to be on my back if I ditch. The good thing is on weekends you can almost walk accross the boats from the mainland to the island so help is close.
 
Most of the way there you are in glide distance, leaving not so much. I fly a high wing and expect to be on my back if I ditch. The good thing is on weekends you can almost walk accross the boats from the mainland to the island so help is close.

I expect the same, I figure if I am expecting to end up on my lid and I don't fine, but if I'm expecting to remain upright and I flip...
 
Just an FYI. If you have an onshore wind and you lose it going to Catalina, go direct to LAX while yelling for help. CGAS LA is based there and there is a good chance they'll be an HH65 flying formation with you before you touch the water. :yes:
 
How about flying a high wing taildragger, bring it down just above the water, staying between the waves which would probably give you a cross wind. Hold it to just above stall, give it full rudder and aileron dropping the wing tip and turning the plane forcing the wing tip to drag in the water and basically hit the water somewhat sideways making it impossible to flip upside down.
Just a thought.
Other wise I think the taildragger will flip over. Maybe dragging the tailwheel
in the water to quickly bleed off some speed. Mine stalls at maybe 32 mph or so.
Dale
 
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