If It Can Fly, It Can Float!!! (3 Viewers)

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If it can fly it can float. But perhaps not too well.

Avenger-USS-Bataan-catapult-launch-fail.jpg
 
In the late '50s, flew floatplanes in MN one summer for Gopher Aviation ... mostly hauling fishermen to remote boundry waters lakes or into Canada, and or pulling up to resort docks and giving sight seeing rides. Mostly Cessna 170/180s, but some Piper Pacers. Few had expensive Edo type retractable wheel floats, and we had take off dollies to use on runway departures ... with some sort of brake that actuated when the floats lifted, hopefully the dolly coming to a safe stop to be retrieved. Some ran into weeds and tumbled, so a lot of dolly maintenance was required.
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Some maintenance bases were landlocked, so we kept a smooth area with tall grass to land on ... carefully!
Especially with the Cub/Pacers but sometime with Cessnas, we'd use early morning heavy dew on tall grass to take off. (Don't tell EPA, but we'd sometimes wipe used oil on the float bottoms!)
Some adventuresome arrivals, but I never scratched anything, nor did the others in my time. Really helped my airmanship, and I was proud to have had Max Conrad as occasional advanced instructor in my logbooks.
 
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Anything will float, sometimes only for a fraction of a second.....
You know prior to WW2 the Services took some pains to make sure that their aircraft could float in the event of a water landing. Some had sealed air tight compartments in the wings. The Grumman F3F had inflatable bags that could be activated to keep it afloat. The Douglas B-18 had a special set of corks so that the crew could run around and stop leaks if they came down in the water. But in WW2 they no longer seemed to care. Just let the poor wrecked thing sink. There is more and better ones where that one came from.
 
You know prior to WW2 the Services took some pains to make sure that their aircraft could float in the event of a water landing. Some had sealed air tight compartments in the wings. The Grumman F3F had inflatable bags that could be activated to keep it afloat. The Douglas B-18 had a special set of corks so that the crew could run around and stop leaks if they came down in the water. But in WW2 they no longer seemed to care. Just let the poor wrecked thing sink. There is more and better ones where that one came from.

F4F Wildcat after ditching in San Diego Bay.jpg

F4F Wildcat after ditching in San Diego Bay
only installed on early planes.
For years, zoning kept the El Cortes Hotel in the background as the tallest building in SD. Now lost in the shadow of mega towers.
 

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