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Water Ditching in a trike with speed of 70 mph !!
I found this from the discussion on the F/B. The trike pilot is Steve Turnbull in Scotland. He said he got a prop hit and he lost 2 blades and one big hole in his wing. The water was very deep. But his trike floats due to the half empty fuel tank and empty jerry can. He survived the crash. He also said his control bar went front and took the compression tube and worked as huge air brake. I never heard that happened to crashed trikes. Can we apply this scenario to any other water ditching crash ?
Comments
Wow, that's pretty amazing video. The terrain there is really hard to judge. Rocks, moss; it may look smooth but I’ve hiked a lot of it and it is darn sure NOT smooth at all! This topic is very close to my thoughts. I understand how everyone is very much against water ditching due to the #1 flip over, #2 drowning and #3 bar swinging into your chest but there are also some positives. Water absorbs impact forces very well. It also helps retard spark and fire issues. I have a great deal of shallow (6 feet or less) water around me in the Chesapeake Bay and I’ve gone over this scenario but I’m still not convinced on best action. I do have a BRS (expired) but I’m really not sure which one of these plans is least risky. Obviously a farmer’s field with no freaking tall corn is great but I often have a LOT of water around me mixed with swamp and marsh. Those 100ft scraggly Pine trees do NOT look like a good option. Their Pine canopy is one thin layer and then a whole lot of space to the ground. If I’m high and over trees I will most likely pull the BRS. The alt lets the BRS canopy fully open, decelerate and transition to float down mode. If I’m below 500ft AGL… I’m mixed but I think a water entry in shallow, close to land conditions is less risky than #1 pine trees I have here, #2 marsh. Alright, go ahead, I know there are a lot of smart people who advise against water ditching. I’ll just add that we do have a few examples of actual ditching and the outcomes are not as catastrophic as the FAA WSC book says. Mid Atlantic in a storm,,, not so much. Small, shallow river or lake,, not sure. Maybe it’s just very dependent on terrain and conditions.
One of my worst nightmares.
From the subject title "Water Ditching in a trike with speed of 70 mph !!", I knew this was gonna end badly. I kept hoping he would make it and set down on land, but he was too fast and to high. The hole in the in wing (right wing tip) is freaky to look at. I saw comments were disabled on the YouTube. It would be great if he would comment here on alltrikes.com
Happy Triker, what does "F/B" stand for? Clueless here.
Right at about 2:45 I thought he was going to straighten out and have a happy ending. I guess that wing was pulling him way to hard to the right. Just tragic.
Jeff,
F/B stands for Facebook. Many of us are on there and share the same stuff we share here.