Ditching

[killbilly]

I occasionally will spot some hammerheads swimming off the coast - pretty neat to see (from the air). But it's Florida, we'll find a way to kill them off, along with everything that's green, swimming, homeless, or walks on four legs.

When I was living in SRQ I had to fly out of TPA a lot on business. Sometimes I'd see dolphins/porpoises swimming along the Howard Frankland. That was always kinda cool.

Hammerheads can be aggressive, I'm told. I don't know.

As for ditching in the water....the way the Bay and close-in shores are, you might only ditch in 4 feet of water if the tide is out.

 

[BuzzAerodrome]

Well if you're getting advice like "jump out of the plane", you should probably be taking internet advice with a grain of salt. Including mine. But imagine for a second that the water is solid concrete (because that's what it will feel like when you hit it). What do you think your odds of staying conscious are? What about your like expectancy if you are face down unconscious in the water?

Like any landing, you want to avoid CARTWHEELING (one wingtip in the water will cause that). So you must keep wings LEVEL. Odds are that when you contact the water you will flip tail over nose. And at the least, be temporarily stunned by the impact. Most airplanes' fuselage/pilot's spines will not withstand the forces of a hard pancake landing - better off taking impact on the nose, and being ready to wake up upside down and disoriented.

But most importantly, accepting the dire situation and ditching is far preferable to being in denial, trying to stretch the glide impossibly, and falling out of the sky. Hopefully you and I will never have to know whether my advice is correct or not.
Buzz.

 

[Murdoughnut]

When I was living in SRQ I had to fly out of TPA a lot on business. Sometimes I'd see dolphins/porpoises swimming along the Howard Frankland. That was always kinda cool.

Hammerheads can be aggressive, I'm told. I don't know.

As for ditching in the water....the way the Bay and close-in shores are, you might only ditch in 4 feet of water if the tide is out.

I'll see a dolphin about once a week while driving over the Gandy Bridge on my way to work - I take the Howard Franklin on my way home, but am too busy trying not to get run over to notice anything in the bay.

I will say, the pelicans are perhaps the most awesome thing to watch here.