Sun Aug 17, 2008 5:27 pm
Sun Aug 17, 2008 8:22 pm
JDK wrote:That's interesting. I'd be very interested if you can find the reference.
Sun Aug 17, 2008 8:36 pm
Bill Walker wrote:JDK wrote:That's interesting. I'd be very interested if you can find the reference.
I think it was an article in Air Enthusiast, or maybe even Flying Review, prior to about 1978. My copies are all in boxes deep in the basement, so it may take a while to confirm this.
I'm pretty sure about the date, as I was involved in performance testing on a small flying boat in 1978, as a very junior engineer. I remember discussing the article with the other engineers, and suggesting that we should be looking for 4 or 5 foot waves (the aircraft was stressed and tested for 2 foot waves). This produced a lot of laughter and rolling of eyes in the office that day.
Mon Aug 18, 2008 4:55 am
JDK wrote:...which concluded that the aircraft was very poor as a seaworthy machine.
Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:27 am
Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:50 am
Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:57 am
A disastrous Landing
Most seaplane recovery accidents fell into two categories:
1. The seaplane rolled over and sank due to the loss of a wing-tip float that had been severed by a cross swell when landing; or
2. The left wing of the seaplane needed to be replaced after the plane had run into the side of the ship due to engine torque on a starboard CAST recovery. For this reason, when the wind was high and the sea very rough, most ship's captains elected to recover their seaplanes by the port CAST recovery method.
On June 13, 1942, with the Battle of Midway behind us, the heavy cruiser USS Portland arrived in Pearl Harbor for thirty-three days.
On July 9, I had a little bad luck on my landing and a large cross swell knocked off my right wing tip float. The sea was very rough and although my radioman, Fred Dyer, who weighed over 200 pounds, immediately went out on the port wing to hold the right wing from dipping in the water, the seaplane soon rolled over. Dyer and I were left sitting on the bottom of the main float with the plane upside down below us! Portland sent us a message by blinker that they would return for us within one hour!
Later the ship returned and sent a motor whale boat to pick us up. I was wearing a new Bulova watch which I put in my mouth to keep dry when I swam the short distance from the seaplane to the boat. The ship attempted to salvage the seaplane, but without success. So the boatswain sank SOC-2, # 0406 by chopping holes in the main float. The cruiser San Francisco also lost a plane at the same time, so that made me feel a little better!