EAA Sport Aviation - April 2012

DAVE MATHENY COMMENTARY / LIGHT FLIGHT

Ditch!

Contemplating a world of water from an altitude of 1 foot
FEW THINGS STRIKE AS MUCH HORROR into the heart of an aviator as
the prospect of ditching, or making an unintended “water land-
ing,” to use its formal name; an oxymoron if ever there was one.
There are worse things—fire, catastrophic structural failure such
as losing a wing, and total loss of controls. Having to ditch would
come in very close behind those, because it means a forced landing
followed by the possibility of drowning or dying of hypothermia.

Or maybe the horror is all in the eye of this beholder. Maybe it’s just the result of my having had more forced landings than most pilots, largely because of the unreliable nature of ultralight engines and powertrains in the early ultralight days. Those experiences have produced in me an unwillingness to trust my engine. I have also spent a lot of time on the water in boats— sometimes looking over the side and contemplating what it would be like in the water without a boat, even though I’m a strong swimmer.

Well, I’m a worrier. I don’t fly over big bodies of water; I go
around them or cut the corner slightly so I can glide to land in
the unlikely event—yes, I know it’s a lot less likely these days—
of losing the engine.

If I seem to be going into a defensive crouch here, it’s because I have known this viewpoint to beget angry words. By contrast, no pilot I know of has a problem with acknowledging that taking off without enough fuel to reach your destination is a bad idea, nor that flying in a thunderstorm is also a bad idea.

But when you mention taking the long way around to avoid crossing a big stretch of water in a single-engine airplane, there are some pilots who will get right in your face and say, “Your engine is not going to quit just because it’s over water any more than it will over land. Just shut up and fly.”