IFR Water Landing?

[Wild Man]

G'day Guys

As I have just moved my virtual base to AAS Trading Post.

I flew from Merrill with the Porter Float Plane and
did my first landing there at night.

It was the toughest landing I have ever done!

99 % guess work as to my height above the water and how much lake I had left to land on.

I used the GPS for location and on final the lights on the jetty.

But it was really, really hard.

Question for ya'll

Do real Bush pilots land on water at night?

If yes how?

If no what do you do with a float only aircraft if you get caught out at night ?

(aside from hand in your license for not landing at dusk somewhere)

I would appreciate some feedback.

Cheers
Wild Man

[valmee]

Hi Wild Man!

As far as I know, they don't. I should have read about somewhere/some time. One of the main reasons would be obstacles on water brought by flow, and very difficult to be viewed from the plane.

Cheers!

[Frank Seigler-KE5ETD]

Well, I am sure that it has been done before and I am sure it will be done again but in reality, landing on water at night is not something that you want to do. That is an extremely dangerous task. Landing on water during the day is tough enough. It is not like landing on a hard runway, the surface of the water is constantly changing, you have the possibility of hitting floating debris and remember you have no brakes.