Mother Lode Crash Sequence

[SenorSpode]

DVD's out...go get it, it's priced great on eBay!

[SenorSpode]

ATTENTION: THIS MOVIE WILL BE AVAILABLE ON DVD on March 30, 2011! Amazon and other online merchants will have this movie in Region 1 DVD and the prices are going to be excellent. About time!!!

[lonaticc]

They need to release this in HD in it's full widescreen format. This is one of Heston's best roles & one of the best suspense adventure movies ever made.

I haven't seen this movie on tv or available anywhere in over 15yrs. or more. My VHS copy is worn out & is not in it's originally shot 2:35 format widescreen version.

[777Phoenix11]

@lonaticc I totally agree. Great movie. I have it on VHS, and would love to see it on DVD in much higher quality. Definitely one of the best movies I ever saw. Great suspense/adventure movie, and one of Heston's best performances.

[iflyc77]

no serious casualties huh? that is good to know I guess

[poexxope]

I almost did something like that last summer. I felt it grab on the right float as I was rushing the landing and I pulled back on the yoke which caused the Beaver to jump back off the surface so I could line it up right. My friend and I had been watching this clip that morning! I did this in front of him and felt a little cowed because of how it turned out in the clip.

I think this crash was good for the story line. Maybe an accident but they were filming it with two cameras. What a movie!

[Magnolia296]

The flight sequences and cinematography are superb, and the story is excellent. This may be Charlton Heston's only role where is doesn't play excessive melodrama. It was Kim Basinger's first big role before her starmaking role in the Natural.

One of the most underrated movies ever!!!

[rimbaldcatt]

Yup, can't crab on a water landing. Gotta be right into the wind. Ouch.

[kw757]

That wasn't the problem. You don't have to land right into the wind. He was too fast and his nose was too low on touchdown. The float "dug". Had he touched down with both floats at the same time, he would have done a simple noseover and ended up on his back. Because he touched down on one float, the digging float caused the yaw and resultant show.

[SenorSpode]

Exactly, kw757. It was also stated that the weather was "glassy", which is a major hazard to floatplane landings because you can't judge depth or rate of descent accurately. You're spot-on regarding the rest.

[zuzupetals1999]

Glassy water landings are tricky but you don't use the water to judge your rate of decent. You use the VSI. You don't need to know the exact depth because you don't flair, you set a nose pitch angle and pull back after you hit the water. He looks like he came in hot and tried to flair at the last second. I agree that if he had dropped both floats at the same time, he would have ended up on his back.

[SenorSpode]

@zuzupetals1999 I disagree. You have to know where the water level is in relation to your plane at all times, a VSI isn't going to tell you that. It's also not easy eyeballing a VSI and water at the same time, let alone glassy water. This is a landing best done by sight and feel, I'd only be quick-glancing at the VSI up until the last 5 seconds.

[NoNameJustFlame]

Nice, I remember this movie.

[Sunburnt99]

I talked to someone who worked on the set of this movie. This was an accident, it was suppose to just land but they left the crash in the movie

[SenorSpode]

You're right.

[ray3maxwell]

This accident happened in "Lake Lovely Water" in the Mountains Northwest of Vancouver, BC, Canada. The pilot was Art Scholl. He had 7,000 hours total time, but he only had 10 hours on floats when he had this accident. It was not in the script. He made several fundamental mistakes. Downwind landing, improper landing speed and attitude. The final comment in the DOT report said, "It helps accident investigation to have film from two cameras of this crash."

[HappyJack01]

@ray3maxwell My only question is if they wanted a 'normal' landing, why bother hiring Art Scholl? It seems like if they payed for him to do it, they wanted something extra.

[Deltoid71]

@HappyJack01 Maybe they wanted him for the flight sequence leading up to this.....the flight up the canyon.

[eenersha]

Where I come from they call this error 'sucking it' -- because when you land too hot (which is what the guy did--i.e. too fast) water drag is so high it feels like mud sucking your over. To make matter worse, the high speed puts the float's center of bouyancy forward of the center of gravity, which is bad. Result is a dangerously unstable aircraft that wants to pitch over. Ad a crab angle at touchdown, and this was the inevitable result.

[SenorSpode]

I first saw this when the movie came out in 1983. The big fail here was the glassy-water landing. It is nearly impossible to judge height and rate of descent in such a situation that is exactly what happened. The plane is descending too fast as well as having too much forward airspeed, and the pilot flares too late, as well as lands asymmetrically. That spells it all out.

[SenorSpode]

I discovered, much to my glee, that this plane was salvaged, fully restored and is now living an on-wheels, very-cared-for life in the US as N323RS. The plane is beautiful, she sparkles now. Hallelujah!

[Deltoid71]

@SenorSpode

I knew a guy in the CAP in SLC that was the a/c broker that found this particular a/c for the movie.

[WowRodg]

Despite of is weight, (Beaver is a massive airplane), it seem to have no inertia in this sequence. It dance over the water like a radio controlled aircraft! Kind of weird! Pretty solid plane. Roger Diotte