A long time ago, when the VW Beetle was still being sold in the US, there was a VW commercial that started out with a Beetle going off a pier and the announcer claimed, “A VW Beetle floats, …. but not for long” as is slowly filled up and sank.
Those with floats do well 😉🤪
alioth wrote:
The CAA leaflet on ditching used to have a picture of an Emeraude floating around somewhere in the Irish Sea on its front cover.
“A lifeboat attended after about an hour and a Search And Rescue helicopter from Prestwick arrived about 15 minutes later.
The aircraft was salvaged from the sea and the engine was inspected by an overhaul agent.”
An hour is a long time in the water at these latitudes, even in August; maybe the pilot didn’t get too wet. It doesn’t say how long the aircraft floated before it was recovered.
I just checked some drawings, and there may be quite some room in the wing to stick some foam into. But here’s the bummer: there is no room for a paddle to take me home.
This was one pilots solution to the problem of bouyancy
https://littlebuttesbooks.com/2021/01/30/ping-pong/
Then, after a bit of media hype, you can sign and sell the ping pong balls to pay for all of your flying
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1936-trans-atlantic-flight-dick-1883709939
Peter wrote:
The guy in the video was packing a lot of foam into the wings of his RV.
Yes, but why exactly? It will make an awful raft, and I doubt any rescue team would offer a single thought about saving the aircraft. Perhaps as a separate mission later on, but a couple of weeks in salt water, what’s there to salvage? and at what cost? Some insurance thing?
For the two last ditching incident I know about, neither of these did float for some time. The Da40 near Calvi went down immediatly, and the C182 (not very far but north of it) wnt down also after going inverted (it wasn’t a rg).
DA40 are heavy despite its carbon wings, and front centered, it doesn’t stand a chance.
Some extract of an newspaper article about the da40 story (in french / pdf):
gtranslate:
Q (left seat student) “I take off my glasses and drop them at my feet to prevent a shock from hurting me. Not seeing properly will be quite disabling for the future. I turn around to exchange a look with K, we cross ourselves. The sea passes lower and lower and A brings the airplane up to its speed of
stall without ever losing control of the aircraft. The wings are flat and we touch the sea with great brutality.
We slide on the surface, the water splashes the canopy and we go from 60 knots to 0 in a second.
The shock was completely canceled by the seat belt for me, and it did not take my breath away. There is a moment of hesitation where everyone looks at each other, cut short by the immediate irruption of water in the cabin. She engulfs herself by
the gaping opening at the back and through all the vents and air intakes. I detach myself with my right hand while I push on the canopy with the left, it opens completely normally and I evacuate by putting myself on the wing which is floating for the moment. A is already in the water and tells us that it is our turn to jump in and inflate the canoe. I did not inflate my lifejacket when I noticed that the canoe was filling up with air very quickly. I didn’t want to be hampered in my movements. I grab my backpack still on the plane and jump into the water. A few moments later we find ourselves all three on the canoe. A look at the plane, I see that the propeller is completely bent, besides the nose of the device begins to tilt forwards and it is soon the whole DA40 which goes vertical and dives entrained by the weight of its engine and the cell full of water. No more than 3 minutes must have elapsed between the moment the plane touched the water and the moment it finished disappearing. »
A (right seat instructor) “I decided not to extend the flaps to keep the approach as flat as possible and already have the trim for the flare by positioning myself parallel to the swell which is not very strong. Then I wait, keeping the plane as stable as possible. I hear the stall warning. I push on the stick immediately so as not to stall. The plane begins to gently touch the water and then, very quickly, comes to a sharp stop. I hear a thud as I’m propelled forward and I hit the dashboard cap. I force myself not to close my eyes and to keep them open so as not to fall asleep. I see the water passing over the glass roof, then again the sky and the horizon to my right. We are on the water, the plane on the belly, in one piece. Q opens the canopy, I go out on the right. I find it hard to get up and breathe.
I’m standing with both feet on the wing, I turn my head and see Q and K, also on the wing, it’s won, they are safe and sound.
I inflate the vest. I have few pictures from that time. The next image is the one in the water, at the left rear of the plane.
Seeing Q and K on the wing, I tell ’em pump up
Don’t modify the plane by putting foam in the wings. It’s a solution to a very infrequent risk, while creating a risk of increased corrosion of the wing structure, added weight, and a possible increased risk of more intense fire should it catch. It takes a lot of foam to produce the required bouyancy.
Sure, having the plane continue to float after ditching would be a nice feature, but you still must carry the necessary life saving equipment, so focus on that. When I fly over cold water, even in my flying boat, I’m wearing an immersion suit.
I think raft, plb, immersion suite and 2ft long axe offer better chances than flimsey foam engineering
My thinking @Pilot_DAR
just returned from 2 NAT crossings, concentrated on having the engine turning iso me swimming (at best…) 
