by MrWidgeon » Mon Aug 01, 2016 1:32 pm
There are videos on line that show a Beaver and Goose doing exactly what that PBY did (especially the Goose).
One would have to stomp a hard right rudder, pull the power off the right engine and apply full power to the left to get anything near that kind of turn or swerve that FOWE got.
Bob Hamilton, my late friend and a pilot with extensive seaplane and small flying boat time coined it a "Bow Low Upset" where the forward part of the hull gets deeper in the water than the step causing the airplane to swerve violently first in one direction then in the opposite direction, in a float plane about the 3rd oscillation you'll find yourself on your back.
A flying boat like a Goose or PBY with tip floats is more stable, but the oscillations increase in ferocity until something breaks, usually a tip float then you find yourself scrambling out of a sinking airplane.
As David knows the PBY's nose wheel doors are a tender spot, it doesn't take much to cave them in or rip them off which is why you always see a PBY pilot hold the nose up as long as possible.
If you look at the photos of FOWE landing in the shot before the swerve into the buoy he has let the nose come down to where the water is hitting just behind the rear of the nose gear doors.
Once those doors were breached it sucked the nose down and it was "Katy bar the door".
Bill
In water flying attitude is everything