Float planes really don’t like calm water.
One of the things I’ve always wanted to do was fly in a float plane. I guess it’s having watched series like Tales of the Gold Monkey which included a Grumman Goose flying boat. But anyway, since on this holiday Beth was going up the CN Tower and seeing Niagara Falls – things that I’d done but she hadn’t, and from where we were staying in Parry Sound Georgian Bay Airways were running Fly and Dine trips to Henry’s Fish Restaurant, a place only accessible by water, how could we resist!
Heading out wasn’t a problem – we were introduced to our pilot, signed the relevant pieces of paper and filled out emergency contact details, and clambered into the little float equipped Cessna 180. The take off was a little bumpy, thanks to the little waves on the water, but we had a beautiful clear run out to Henry’s Place.
The meal was fantastic too – fish and chips, but with all the fish freshly caught of course. Having finished eating we then sat and watched the world go by waiting for our lift to come back. It was a lovely evening – pretty sunset, and absolutely no wind at all – which proved to be a bit of a problem.
Our plane appeared right on time – but had to abort his first attempt at a landing thanks to a boat crossing it’s runway area. When he eventually came alongside we had a trainee pilot too – not too much of a problem.
We got in, and the pilot manoeuvred the plane out to the take-off area, opened up the throttle and tried to take off. Unfortunately the plane just didn’t lift. After a bit of a discussion they went round again, and again it wouldn’t take off.
At this point out in the middle of the lake we did a seat swap, and put the more experienced pilot into the pilots seat and swapped me with the trainee pilot to put him in the back, and tried again. Even at the fourth attempt we didn’t take off, so at this point we headed back to Henry’s place and left the trainee pilot behind, the pilot phoning back to base to get another plane to pick him up.
He then tried again – still no joy.
Finally, having watched the other plane come in, he tried taking off on the much longer landing runway and succeeded – at attempt number six.
Needless to say, the pilot was incredibly apologetic, as in all the problems we’d missed the sunset flight over the islands – we’d just had to head back to base. He said that the problem was caused by ‘glassy water’ – essentially the lack of wind and the millpond smooth surface of the lake made it significantly harder for the plane to lift. He even offered to buy us an ice cream, and said that he felt it was entirely his fault, but having read up on float plane dynamics it really wasn’t his fault, nor was it because, as Beth thought we as passengers were unusually heavy – bear in mind that even with the second pilot off the plane it still wouldn’t lift.
To some extent, the fact that absolutely still water makes it harder for a float plane to take off seems a bit counter-intuitive, but if you read this Plane and Pilot introduction to Flying with Floats, taking off from glassy water is described as being harder than a rough water take off. To understand why you have to remember back to your school Physics lessons, in particular surface tension and the capillary action on the plane. If the surface of the water is flat as a mill pond, all the surface tension on the water is acting to hold the plane down, hence the force needed to get it into the air is significantly more. With the water being a little bit choppy, the effect of the surface tension is lessened, and the plane is better able to move.
So lesson number two from the holiday – you may think that smooth water would make life easier for a float plane – but it doesn’t. Having said that, if you’ve never experienced a float plane, it is a great experience and certainly one to try if you have a chance – and you now don’t even have to leave the UK to try it out.