What a day! Larry, Dan, and Clem showed up at Ski Lake for the big event—a LAFFS float fly. Since we all brought the same type airplane, Tidewater seaplanes, it was like an airshow. The lake had gained a lot of water from the recent rains, which moved the shoreline back about 20 feet on each side. This was a problem because there are now weeds standing in the water offshore. This would block our little foamie seaplanes’ access to open water. When the water was lower, you could walk down to the water’s edge anywhere on the ½ mile long lake. So we had to search for a place to launch. We found a place on one end near the boathouse and dock. The water at that end was a fairly small round part of the lake, but as we found out was plenty of room to take off as the Tidewater gets off the water in about 25 feet. The boathouse, offered shelter from the sun and had a nice big picnic table to set up on. But the boathouse was to haunt us later and end our fun.

For Dan and Clem, it was a maiden flight both of their new planes. Because we were forced by the weeds to the very end of the lake, we had to do these first flights with untrimmed airplanes in water with a short takeoff run and obstructions after takeoff. But we had come a long way and were not turning back. That should have been our first clue about what was to come.

Larry was first to fly. He had some trouble steering into the wind because it seemed the rudder did not have enough authority to overcome the wind pushing on the tail. But as Dan was to later discover, the problem was not that simple. But Larry taxied out into the lake to a big clear spot and blasted off. The Tidewater flies nicely after some trimming and will loop and do good aileron rolls. When Larry set up for landing, it was into a little stiff wind with a little cross and he did a perfect landing on the water right in the middle of a large patch of weeds about 20 feet from shore. The plane stopped immediately. Larry took the long walk around to the other side of the lake and attempted to toss a line with a tennis ball over the downed aircraft. That didn’t work. The plane was still hung up in the weeds. So the only choice was for Larry to wade out into the water to retrieve the plane. Fortunately, the shore is gently sloped and Larry survived , but for the wet sneakers.

Next up was Dan with a maiden flight. Initial taxi revealed a problem. Like Larry’s, Dan’s airplane would not turn well using the water rudder. Maybe it was the wind. But maybe it was something else. The plane seemed to be turning in the wrong direction from what Dan was commanding. After some careful analysis, we concluded that Dan was experiencing the old problem of low-speed hydrodynamic flow reversal (HFR). If you are not familiar with the dreaded HFR, here’s how it happens. As Dan added large amounts of rudder, the water on the lee side of the rudder cavitated causing a low pressure on the backside and a high hydrodynamic pressure on the front side of the rudder. This causes the rudder to pull the vessel in the direction opposite the commanded one. Effectively, this hydrodynamic flow reversal makes the seaplane go in the “wrong” direction. That could be what it was. Dan got that under control and launched. After some trimming maneuvers, he proceed to do some aerobatics. Surprisingly, the seaplane performed really well despite the big floats on the wingtips. With its short wingspan, it really rolls quickly and would have caught a lesser pilot off guard. But Dan vast experience mastered the bird and made a perfect water landing, then taxied through the break in the weeds and right up onto shore.

Clem flew next having learned from watching the other two guys. Fortunately, Clem was able to avoid the HFR problem. The takeoff run was looooong and there was barely enough up elevator to lift off and clear the shoreline. But it made it and Clem got the trim set. It took a lot of up elevator trim and some right aileron to get it right, but afterwards it was a joy to fly. Clem found that on high rate the aileron was super effective, which would later turn out to be a really really good thing. A few low passes for the camera and a couple practice approaches and Clem was ready for a landing. A beautiful steady approach and roundout about 5 feet over the water, slowing to landing speed, when suddenly the plane rolled nearly inverted and dropped the nose. Yea, for the high rate aileron! Slamming the stick to the side managed to get the plane nearly wings level in 5 feet of altitude and it plopped down onto the water safely. Lesson learned–keep the speed up when landing the Tidewater. Then it was simply a nice taxi-in to slide up onto the shore to a stop.

Remember that boathouse I mentioned earlier? Larry decided to fly “one more time” and launched from the shoreline taxiing out beautifully. Powering up and smoothly lifting off the water, he started a left turn climb out and turned downwind. This was shortly followed by Larry exclaiming, “Something’s wrong here!” The plane was nosing down when Larry was making a turn. Simultaneously, the plane went behind the sinister boathouse and Larry lost sight of it. While he was running to the side of the boathouse to regain sight, we heard the sound of the engine stop. Only the sound of the wind and the chirping of the birds filled the air. No airplane could be heard or seen. At that point the three of us went on a field trip, but could never find the stricken aircraft. We drove around neighborhoods, violated some property rights, even went to a little church hoping to find the Tidewater or at least inspiration. But, it was gone. Soon, escaping the giant mosquitoes in the woods became a higher priority than finding the plane. Larry said that he had a lot of experience chasing lost airplanes from his decades of free-flight, and it wasn’t a big deal. But, Dan and Clem felt bad anyway. Fortunately, Larry has another Tidewater in his hangar and will rebound from this tragedy.

Over all it was a really nice day and we had fun with our new adventure. The site is magnificent and will be great in a couple weeks after the weeds drown. If you’ve got a hankering to float fly or run a boat, we’ve got a great place to do it.

Until our next adventure begins,

Clem