OVEREASYGUY
SPONSOR
New Gloucester, Maine
My friend has a new set of amphibious floats and on the top of the floats it has a ball which goes back and forth between Gear UP and Gear Down.
I can't believe they would label them this way instead of Water/Land -- as I have seen on other floats.
I looked at a wind sock once and proceeded to land down wind. At my local airport instead of a windsock they have an airplane - it's always pointing into the wind - so you just pick the runway which makes most sense so you are landing in the same direction as that airplane is pointing - it makes it impossible to screw it up.
The consequences of screwing up landing with gear down with amphibious floats are horrible! You end up upside down.
I know the way my brain works it sure wouldn't be long before I ended up upside down with floats labeled gear up/gear down!
You are landing on a lake - you look down and the ball is on LAND - how can you not realize you need to move the lever and pull the wheels up and make the ball move to the WATER setting? You only need to use about two brain cells!
Gear up/gear down seems simple when you don't have anything else to think about but when all this other stuff is going on - the brain can short circuit and you do the wrong thing. I am certain it takes twice as many brain cells to get this right! I always try to keep as many brain cells available as possible for other more important things!
If I had a set of floats labeled Grear UP/Gear DOWN i'd sure change it - fast - i wonder how hard that is - if it comes from the manufacturer labeled that way -you probably can't just change it?
My friend I hope you don't screw up and land in a lake with gear down - but if you do i'm sure going to blame that labeling!
Cliff In Maine
I can't believe they would label them this way instead of Water/Land -- as I have seen on other floats.
I looked at a wind sock once and proceeded to land down wind. At my local airport instead of a windsock they have an airplane - it's always pointing into the wind - so you just pick the runway which makes most sense so you are landing in the same direction as that airplane is pointing - it makes it impossible to screw it up.
The consequences of screwing up landing with gear down with amphibious floats are horrible! You end up upside down.
I know the way my brain works it sure wouldn't be long before I ended up upside down with floats labeled gear up/gear down!
You are landing on a lake - you look down and the ball is on LAND - how can you not realize you need to move the lever and pull the wheels up and make the ball move to the WATER setting? You only need to use about two brain cells!
Gear up/gear down seems simple when you don't have anything else to think about but when all this other stuff is going on - the brain can short circuit and you do the wrong thing. I am certain it takes twice as many brain cells to get this right! I always try to keep as many brain cells available as possible for other more important things!
If I had a set of floats labeled Grear UP/Gear DOWN i'd sure change it - fast - i wonder how hard that is - if it comes from the manufacturer labeled that way -you probably can't just change it?
My friend I hope you don't screw up and land in a lake with gear down - but if you do i'm sure going to blame that labeling!
Cliff In Maine