Ocean Ditching

[Duane Jefts]

Perhaps I should have been more clear about all the high wing airplanes I have seen land in the water. They were all upside down. I have not seen a plane with a parachute deployed land in the water but I should imagine it will end up right side up.

[Doug G.]

The original post said, "pull the BRS, and land in the ocean."

[Adam]

Here is a recent Cirrus ditching in water using the BRS. No injuries other than minor bumps and bruises, the Cirrus floated long enough for passengers to egress and for rescue choppers to come film it.

 

http://www.flyingmag.com/news/father-and-daughter-haiti-after-sr22-ditching

 

I too fly over water, not as far as most but I'm routinely going to Catalina which is about 26 miles off the coast. I have had engine trouble over water, (have a YouTube of it posted) it can be a very eye opening experience. After takeoff I'm usually heading for about 6000 ft AGL. Given the gliding performance there is a window where I would not be able to make land. When in this window I'm mindful of my instruments a bit more than usual and I'm cruising as fast as my little bugger will go.

 

Anytime I am flying over water I am wearing an inflatable life belt and require any passenger to wear one too. When I land in Catalina I'm the only guy I ever see who has one on and is removing it. I guess most people just think that if they can see land they don't need one. I'm a little more pessimistic (and I guess not quite the Olympic class swimmer everyone else must be). I do also keep a floating rescue beacon attached to the belt just in case.

 

If I ever need to ditch, I'll be pulling the chute and opening my door (not just unlocking it) prior to impact. I'm a rat and I'm going to want off that sinking ship. I'm guessing the CT will float for a good long time in calm seas, perhaps not as long in any heavy swell but still well long enough to get out.

 

I hesitate to post this with all you armchair "experts" out there to critique my low hour flying skills but in the interests of demonstrating things can happen I'll post it here again. Please note the music playing in the background is loud in the video, it wasn't in the cockpit in my ears. It sounds loud because of where my audio feed was fed to the camera. In my ears its low, background, ambient. This was a "new plane" and it had no issues prior to this incident and none since.

 

http://youtu.be/uF8MyB73570

[FlyingMonkey]

Thanks for posting Adam, I don't see anything to critique in that video. You had a problem and took immediate conservative action to mitigate it. If the problem had stopped for 8 minutes and I was five minutes from my home airport, I'd probably have done exactly what you did.

 

But then, I'm a low time pilot too.

[S3flyer]

I haven't flown extensively over large bodies of water but I have noticed that whenever I am outside of gliding distance to shore my engine (Rotax, Lycoming and Continental) ALWAYS appears to run rough. Engine instruments read normal and, amazingly, the engine begins to operate normally once I'm over land I believe this is feature is called 'auto rough'

[FastEddieB]

Adam,

 

Very nicely done.

 

Was that music playing in your headsets? If so, and it was me, that would be the first thing to go in an emergency - I would find it very distracting.

 

That said, I though it was funny when the lyrics were, "Something's wrong in the world today..."

 

When something like that happens to Karen and me, we say, "How do it know?" - the punchline to the old joke about the Thermos bottle!

[sandpiper]

I haven't flown extensively over large bodies of water but I have noticed that whenever I am outside of gliding distance to shore my engine (Rotax, Lycoming and Continental) ALWAYS appears to run rough. Engine instruments read normal and, amazingly, the engine begins to operate normally once I'm over land I believe this is feature is called 'auto rough'

 

It's even worse at night.

[Tip]

Adam, could you post a link for the inflatable life belt. Someday, I hope to fly to the Bahammas.

[Anticept]

Flight Design does not have testing data for floatation.

[WmInce]

I hesitate to post this with all you armchair "experts" out there to critique my low hour flying skills but in the interests of demonstrating things can happen I'll post it here again.

 

Thanks for posting that Adam, it was interesting and I am glad it all turned out good for you, your passenger and the CT.

No critique here, but I do have a question.

 

At what point would you have declared an "emergency" with ATC?

[Adam]

Adam, could you post a link for the inflatable life belt. Someday, I hope to fly to the Bahammas.

 

One of many available belt packs. Best place to find is in boating supply stores but here is a link to one on Aircraft Spruce. I like the belt pack because it doesn't interfere with my shoulder harness like a normal life vest does. I like that its attached to me because when I ditch, I don't want to be hunting around an aircraft looking for a vest stored under the seat. I think a vest or belt needs to be worn. When I am in the plane I usually wear the pack high, then let it drop over the seat belt once I secure my seat belt. In the water, it has a pull tab. You pull the tab, it self inflates into a normal life vest that you then need to poke your head through.

 

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pspages/revere_belt_pack_navy.php?clickkey=5759

[Adam]

Thanks for posting that Adam, it was interesting and I am glad it all turned out good for you, your passenger and the CT.

No critique here, but I do have a question.

 

At what point would you have declared an "emergency" with ATC?

 

This is a very good question and I'd like to have some of our CFI's weigh in on this for educational purposes. IN my case I never declared an emergency as the engine continued to run. Had the engine stopped running or started to run rough or sputter I would have certainly declared an emergency. If the engine CHT was in the red and I was delayed by ATC in landing (i.e., join the pattern, you are number 3, or extend your downwind kind of thing) I would have asked for ATC to "expedite" my landing due to engine difficulty. If they didn't allow the expedited landing I would have had no choice but to declare had I felt a need to land immediately. In my case the engine kept running, the over temp condition was coming and going and as I approached Hawthorne there was no one in the pattern and I was told to enter on the base leg (due to my position) rather than downwind which was as direct an approach as I could have made coming from my position.

[Adam]

Adam,

 

Very nicely done.

 

Was that music playing in your headsets? If so, and it was me, that would be the first thing to go in an emergency - I would find it very distracting.

 

That said, I though it was funny when the lyrics were, "Something's wrong in the world today..."

 

When something like that happens to Karen and me, we say, "How do it know?" - the punchline to the old joke about the Thermos bottle!

 

It was playing in my headsets, it was at a very low level in our ears. I accept after the fact I should have "cut the music" but my noise canceling brain immediately seemed to filter it out and 100% of my attention went to assessing my situation and determining how to best get back to dry land and then safely on the ground. I realize had the engine been making a strange noise it would have been easier to detect without any music.

 

My personal lessons learned -

 

1.) Whenever over water fly as high as is reasonable given the length of the trip, extra altitude can only help (unless of course its a fire)

2.) When in doubt, land at the nearest airport to inspect on the ground rather than extend the flight (as in my case, the error came back between airports).

3.) Ditch the music at the first sign of trouble

4.) Remove both cowlings and inspect hoses more frequently (especially on a new engine in the first 25 hours)

[GravityKnight]

It was playing in my headsets, it was at a very low level in our ears. I accept after the fact I should have "cut the music" but my noise canceling brain immediately seemed to filter it out and 100% of my attention went to assessing my situation and determining how to best get back to dry land and then safely on the ground. I realize had the engine been making a strange noise it would have been easier to detect without any music.

 

My personal lessons learned -

 

1.) Whenever over water fly as high as is reasonable given the length of the trip, extra altitude can only help (unless of course its a fire)

2.) When in doubt, land at the nearest airport to inspect on the ground rather than extend the flight (as in my case, the error came back between airports).

3.) Ditch the music at the first sign of trouble

4.) Remove both cowlings and inspect hoses more frequently (especially on a new engine in the first 25 hours)

 

Thanks for sharing. We are all here to learn. I have learned a lot by listening to others stories, watching footage caught of emergencies etc (saw your s a while back). It's valuable stuff.

 

I had the alternator (regulator to be exact) quit in the CTSW I fly. Started losing voltage. Thankfully I was in the pattern at the time. And the voltage wasn't dropping very fast so I didn't declare an emergency or even notify ATC. I was turning crosswind when it happened, I called them immediately and told them I wanted to make a full stop, got clearance to land and that was that. Thankful I wasn't further out when that happened.... I probably should have notified them that I could lose the radio, looking back that wouldn't have hurt to at least make them aware... but judging by the voltage I was pretty confident I still had plenty of time and didn't use anything electrical I didn't need (landing light for example).

[anselm]

Although being more of an Alpine guy I do fly over longer stretches of water in my CTLS every year (Adriatic, Aegean,, North and Irish Sea ,Baltic). For me It is the survivability of ditching that bothered my mind. After retrieving Information also from your Coast Guard and NTSB I feel more confident and focus on good mental preparation, communication with my wife or pilot partner, wearing a life jacket ( no automatic), PLB, have a small liferaft and, when crossing longer distances of cold water, wear my kayak dry suit.

An AOPA Magazine article from July 1999 also was of some interest (Ditching Myths, Old Wives`Tales etc)