Ok, so you've made an emergency landing on a small lakewith Beaver, Twin Otter, Kodiak, (in this case, something with floats). Theproblem was a whole lot of smoke coming out from under the panel and it turnedout to be an electrical short that reduced your radio to nothing more than a weightfor a down rigger. The landing was a close call but you pulled it off.Unfortunately in your sudden race to find a place to put down, you flew way offyour flight plan's route to get to this remote and obscure 'pond'. Of course, the radio was useless from the first sign ofsmoke. You're somewhere in the Pacific NW, Washington State or maybe just onthe border of Canada and Washington. It's early fall and there's already been afew flurries. In addition, you're not a smoker, have no matches, andmissed that last episode of "Man versus Wild" where Bear Grillis wasgoing to show you how to kill a charging 1500 lb griz with a strip of tree barkand a pen knife. That wasn't the part you wanted to see though. It was how hewas going to start the fire to cook it! With temps in the low to mid 40's it was going to get coldin a while... Ahh screw Grillis and his pen knife. You've got to fly yourselfout of there and that's all there is to it. OK, so that was my attempt at a little humor. Now for theserious stuff to you guys with the real plane experience; Let's suppose thatyou can just get enough ground/waterspeed to get yourself on top water's surface and the lake is smooth with a small ripple coming from alight 3knot breeze, ( from the north). You have 125' to 170' trees that are right up on the edgeof the lake. Now you can pick the planebut assume that you will attain the minimum take off speed, (very bareminimum), on your run when you go for it. But the real trick is 'hopping' overthose trees. I tried in the sim and what I did was to hold back from puttingdown the flaps until I was 3/4 of the way down the lake. Then I hit full flaps, pulled back on the yoke for all Iwas worth, and just as I got my stall warnings pushed forward on the yoke whileat that same moment bringing the flaps back up to their #1 position. Wellthat's just fine in the sim but what about real life? Can any real-world pilots make some suggestions as to howto handle that? Should you wait for a stronger wind for instance? And itdoesn't have to be a lake. The scenario can be a small dry clearing orsomething. How about it? Anyone want to field this problem? Thanks

I wouldn't have landed in a small lake that wouldn't let me get out with a small problem like a shorted radio.

A flight plan was filed? Well, manually trigger the ELT and wait. I'll take my chances making a fire the old fashioned way. Wait, what's the question?

You will need to climb at Vx so that you climb at the best angle.If you determine what your angle of climb will be you can work out how far before the trees you must start the climb.That will tell you how much distance you have to accelerate to Vx and if the pond is big enough.Lowering the flaps at the last moment will give you less drag during the takeoff run.Reducing your aircraft's mass will also help acceleration and climb performance.Favourable weather will help too but you may have to wait a long time for it.A good headwind and cold temperature will increase your takeoff performance.

You will need to climb at Vx so that you climb at the best angle.If you determine what your angle of climb will be you can work out how far before the trees you must start the climb.That will tell you how much distance you have to accelerate to Vx and if the pond is big enough. Lowering the flaps at the last moment will give you less drag during the takeoff run.Reducing your aircraft's mass will also help acceleration and climb performance. Favourable weather will help too but you may have to wait a long time for it.A good headwind and cold temperature will increase your takeoff performance.

The floats I flew (Beaver and Cessna 180) required flaps to be down on takeoff from water. You also have to think about getting on step and climb out before getting to Vx speed.

One real world technique floatplanes use in confined areas is to start the takeoff downwind and do a step turn into the wind (provided the lake is wide enough). This also has the benefit of stirring up the water which helps break the suction, since small lakes are often glassy smooth. After takeoff if there’s enough room you can do a circling climb over the lake until you have the altitude you need to depart. I’m not sure how well this works in flightsim though since the water handling is nowhere near realistic. Brian

One real world technique floatplanes use in confined areas is to start the takeoff downwind and do a step turn into the wind (provided the lake is wide enough). This also has the benefit of stirring up the water which helps break the suction, since small lakes are often glassy smooth. After takeoff if there’s enough room you can do a circling climb over the lake until you have the altitude you need to depart. I’m not sure how well this works in flightsim though since the water handling is nowhere near realistic. Brian

Interesting.

I certainly appreciate those replies folks! Sorry I got back on this so late, I had a major system mess and just fixed it. Am I right in guessing that the Vx figure would vary with wind speed, direction, temps, and of course the starting altitude? I hadn't considered those factors when I wrote up the scenario. But now that I look at the replies, maybe waiting a day, (and sleeping through a cold night), may be prudent. If you start a signal fire someone may see you. Then once they got you out of there, all you need to worry about is the THOUSANDS of dollars you'll need to come up with to get an EH 101 to pluck your plane out of there. Hmm, maybe I might take the shot after all. Just hope I'm up on my math! Thanks, very good considerations. A lot to consider if you place yourself in a remote, not often traveled, section of the woods. I've hiked/camped places that were so quite that I actually noticed there were no signs or sounds of airplanes at all for the 4 days/5 nights I was out there, (but that was 40 years ago). I would probably guess that anyone who did any regular flying over areas like that would have a survival pack that they made up themselves... I would.Thanks again!

...Favourable weather will help too but you may have to wait a long time for it.A good headwind and cold temperature will increase your takeoff performance.

Yes, especially if you get the pond to freeze over (less resistance on takeoff! ;-) Cheers, - jahman.

One real world technique floatplanes use in confined areas is to start the takeoff downwind and do a step turn into the wind (provided the lake is wide enough). This also has the benefit of stirring up the water which helps break the suction, since small lakes are often glassy smooth. After takeoff if there’s enough room you can do a circling climb over the lake until you have the altitude you need to depart. I’m not sure how well this works in flightsim though since the water handling is nowhere near realistic. Brian

You need to do that with that Cessna 172 XP at BEFA

You need to do that with that Cessna 172 XP at BEFA

So true, the sandbags for CG don't exactly help things either.

So true, the sandbags for CG don't exactly help things either.

Have you flown the new one they got?

One real world technique floatplanes use in confined areas is to start the takeoff downwind and do a step turn into the wind (provided the lake is wide enough). This also has the benefit of stirring up the water which helps break the suction, since small lakes are often glassy smooth. After takeoff if there’s enough room you can do a circling climb over the lake until you have the altitude you need to depart. I’m not sure how well this works in flightsim though since the water handling is nowhere near realistic.

That's probably the best option for getting off water; it also depends on the bird. A PA-18 should be no problem. On the other hand, in a -2 or a 180/185 you might be doing a couple circuits of the pond before lifting off. Otherwise, hope you packed the fishing pole! Oh and BTW... if you're flying in the PNW, especially BC or AK you HAVE to have a fully stocked survival pack on board. If you didn't have one when you set down on that 'pond' and got stuck out there, well... I'll send some nice flowers. Alan

Yes I thought there was some likelihood of a survival emergency pack minimum requirement law out that way. Of course Mother Nature would be the one to enforce it. At any rate, from the answers I see here, it appears that there's a 50/50 chance or better of flying out of there if the 'circling maneuver' is as viable as it sounds. But I suppose that option may be too hard to do in a plane like the Twin Otter where there are no rudders. Then again, it's all about ingenuity and how bad you want it I guess.