Flying the Caloosahatchee River

[HopCar]

This is a film made by a fellow I knew many years ago. He moved from Miami up to the Lake Okeechobee area so he could fly like this.

He often flys with his dog in a carrier in the seat behind him.

 

[Marin]

Very cool. Not unlike flying a floatplane in some respects.

 

[O C Diver]

He's flying a trike. It's people like him who give the rest of us trike pilots a bad rap. When the Rotax motor quits while flying that low to the water, the rear wheels hit, the nose nose digs in, trike flips forward and kills you. Also spooking farm animals like he did in the video, is a great way to get shot by a farmer. I have flown the Caloosahatchee and it's very scenic, just do it at 500 to 1,000' so you can land safely when the engine quits and aren't harassing anyone / thing.

Ted

 

[HopCar]

O.C. he's actually flying a fixed wing aircraft called a Drifter. I know of two Drifters that ended up in the water. The first one lost power at altitude, landed on a dirt road next to a canal, hooked a wing on a bush and spun into the canal. The pilot was unhurt but the plane was badly damaged.
The other one was pretty dumb. The pilot was flying low over the Kissamee River, touched his wheels in the water and in he went. He was unhurt and amazingly so was the airplane. The next day our flying club recovered the plane but first we had some fun. We tied the plane to a boat and towed it underwater, very very slowly. The pilot was able to fly the plane underwater! He later rebuilt the engine and put a lot more hours on that Drifter.
Drifter pilots are all crazy. There is something about that airplane that just makes you want to buzz somthing.

 

[O C Diver]

Ok, my mistake, from the mirror shots, a thought it was a delta wing. Still a really bad idea to fly that close to the water a lot.

My Toy before it was "N" numbered:



Ted

 

[Codger2]

Ok, my mistake, from the mirror shots, a thought it was a delta wing. Still a really bad idea to fly that close to the water a lot.

My Toy before it was "N" numbered:

View attachment 15608

Oh boy! You've opened Pandora's Box on this subject, Stand by!

 

[HopCar]

"Still a really bad idea to fly that close to the water a lot."
Can't argue with that but it sure is fun. When I flew low to the water I had a set of floats under me. The time the engine quit it was no problem to land but I was stuck in the middle of Biscayne Bay. I was towed in by a sailboat. Oh the shame of it all!

 

[MurrayM]

EEGAD that's FLAT country!

I have to boat 60 miles down our channel or drive for 16 hours east onto the prairies to see the horizon.

 

[Marin]

Most nerve wracking low level flying I've done I think was "crop dusting" the pineapple fields on Lanai in Hawaii with a Cessna 206. The "dusting" was actually dropping millions of live, sterilized fruit flies on the fields as part of a University of Hawaii experiment. But they had to be dropped from an altitude no greater than 20 feet.

 

[O C Diver]

I was towed in by a sailboat. Oh the shame of it all!

You are a far better man than me! You couldn't get me drunk enough to post that on an internet forum, much less admit it in public.

Ted

 

[RickB]

As long as you keep the speed up and the brakes on, wheels on the water is no big deal!

Training wheel drivers shouldn't try this though ...