Since I have been here on the west coast of Canada and living on Vancouver Island, I have just had the saddest experience........Back when I first moved here, I spent quite a bit of time at the local airpark and got to know a few of the great guys who fly here.....I have since had the good fortune to go flying with a few of these fine friends.......
This Thursday past, I received a most disturbing e-mail which stated the nightmare of any flier......a plane was down and in the river.....the note itself was from a friend who owns and operates a Volmer-Jensen homebuilt amphibian....been up in it and love the bird.....
Dave tells me of a dead stick landing in the river by Hal, the owner of a Vans RV-6...been up in this one too and looked forward to the possibility of another jaunt.....not looking good so far......
So the first question is about Hal.....but the answer is already mentioned in a word that he is OK and back to the river in the PM to try and assess the situation so some form of recovery can be initiated ?...
Well where do we start ......always the question is "what happened? ".....really, this can be gone over after, but for now, lets just suffice to say that a mistake was made and it was a very costly one, but in the final analysis, the physical injuries will heal and the financial loss will not totally ever be recovered, ......sad indeed, but life goes on.......

First imags here will show where the A/C sat inverted on the bottom of the river at low tide, just a few hours after the dust had settled......







This is Friday morn at first light.....rain falling and the tide is high......not a good start to make an attempt to overturn the bird back onto its wheels so we can tow it down river to the float plane ramp.......we took lots of tries before we eventually had to give up the idea as the current in the river was too strong and the ability to maneuver the boat was not adequate ......images of this part were not able to be captured as the four of us in the boat were a bit to busy to take a chance of losing a camera overboard......here also is the boat at the dock after we had finally placed the A/C just off the ramp for the drag out of the water......









Just off the ramp and ready for the haul and flip .....this wasn't the most relaxing part of the ordeal.....but it does show the damage and how bad things can get in this sort of situation.....












From here, you can see the boxes strapped in which were used to take air samples for an environmental agency......this was the purpose of the flight on this particular day.....



Back on its wheels, the little yellow bird now awaits its final trip back to the hangar.......



Without any power, the bent and broken airframe is physically manhandled as it gets rolled back on misaligned wheels to Hangar 37....






And now at the hangar, it sits dejected and sad looking with only bare resemblance of its beautiful look from the morning before......









And the way I will always remember her, with me and Hal preparing for a great evening flight over the mountains of Vancouver Island....



Sorry for the long winded story and excess of images, ....will try to stay within the rules .........

There is a real irony on this story ........the fact of surviving a small aircraft crash is bad enough, but imagine this........ upon impact, and this is verified from the G-Meter from the cockpit, the water was impacted at, at least 10 G's... this buckled the fuselage to the extent that after removing belts, it was found that the canopy frame was jambed and wouldn't open,.......fortunately the canopy exploded outward and left an opening large enough for the pilot to stand on the seat, step out onto the wing, remove his jacket and wait for the plane to sink from under himself ........
........here is the bad part, and its not just the fact that the water is almost ice cold.......the river has current and for a strong swimmer it was pretty wide, but how about for a non-swimmer ?.........this was the situation...........learn to swim now, in ice cold water and with current and after sustaining a huge jolt to the entire body from a deceleration factor of at least 10 G's.......
My hats off to the man who kept his cool long enough to do all this and remain with us to tell the tale........Good on ya Hal......I'm so happy to see you in these shots........

As it sits now, its a write-off.....engine may be serviceable, and some of the instruments and radio gear, but the airframe looks to be off the scale.........

10G's! Holy ****
Hal is lucky to have got out of that mess alive. The poor plane doesn't look so well Just shows how well built it was!
Don't worry Ken, now you can help Hal build a new one

Quote:

did he put down in the river thinking that might be better than trying for solid ground..

Most of the solid ground on Vancouver Island is laden with tall trees.
So ditching her in the wet stuff was probably the best thing to do.

I'm sure Hal realises how lucky he is/was ........ At the end of the day he's lost nothing compared to his life .....

& I'm sure with his insurance he'll get a shiney replacement .... just hope this hasn't put him off the hobby .... 

Shame that its a write off, but at least Hal was ok, and did a might fine job of ditching it in the first place...

Charlie

It's hearthbreaking, what can one say...

Guess the others said or asked what I wanted to do...

I only hope your friend will have the currage to get back into the air, one fine day...