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Waterplay

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Posted

There didn't seem to be much happening on the Forum and okay, so I was bored. I know I should have been working on the project but the weather was good and I had to get out and play. The Knik River is the perfect playground this time of year because the water is low, it is almost all gravel, and there are a lot of pools of standing water in the braids of the river. I found a good pool that was fairly long and straight with smooth transition to the gravel and decided I should give a water pass a try. A wheel landing on the water at about 50 mph feels just about like landing on ice but with a little more resistance. After a few water passes I landed in the gravel nearby and walked the pond to see what the runout was like. I found a smooth area with a good transition in a little cove area of gravel and decided it was a perfect spot to try a water landing. I don't know the exact speed I was at around the transition to gravel because I couldn't take my eyes off of he outside to look inside, but the drag increases very fast as you get slow on the water and the water is flying everywhere. bugeyes.gif The pictures are of one of my landings showing where the plane stopped from the edge of the water with very little braking; about 90' ground roll.

I was having so much fun that I thought I should go water skiing for a while so I lined up on a nice straight stretch of river and settled it onto the water. It was very comfortable skiing along on the mains throttled back to about 42 mph on the GPS. Power up a little to hop over some iceburgs or make a turn and set it back down on the water. It actually steers through gentle turns pretty smoothly with the rudder but I didn't try anything too radical. I wonder if it would float if I mounted a 26" bushwheel to the tail? lmao.gif Maybe I could call it a "conventional" float plane? Just too much fun!

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Posted

Nice shots Randy!

Man, I gotta get a set of BW for mine.. they look just perfect on the Avid / Kitfoxes! Hope the pending D is over soon and I can get back to spending money on toys again :lol:

Looks like a great day for flying and no better place to play than right there! We are so damn spoiled with what our back yard has to offer!

:BC:

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Posted

Awesome pictures as always!!

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Posted

Nice shots Randy!

Man, I gotta get a set of BW for mine.. they look just perfect on the Avid / Kitfoxes! Hope the pending D is over soon and I can get back to spending money on toys again smilielol.gif

Looks like a great day for flying and no better place to play than right there! We are so damn spoiled with what our back yard has to offer!

BC.gif

That is so true sometimes I have to pinch myself. You couldn't ask for a better place to live with an airplane!

Maybe a person really needs two Avids; one on BW's and the other on floats.wink.gif

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Posted

Awesome pictures as always!!

Joey, I'm looking forward to some of your off airport pics when you give your new gear and tires a workout. snack.gif

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