Any tips for better water landings with the amphibian Kodiak? I crash more times than not. Maybe it’s the lack of visual cues landing on water vs a striped runway. I generally bounce then porpoise on failed landings (or stall and drop if trying to go slow).
Kodiak 100 is a Third Party aircraft. Moved post to Third Party Addon Discussion -Aircraft
The landing technique is outlined in the manual. The key is speed.
- Slow the plane down when near the water and keep your nose slightly high.
- As you go below 60kts, let the plane slowly fall onto the water, with the rear of the floats being first. Keep back pressure on the yoke.
- Once the plane has settled, use beta to slow down.
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I do so many short and very slow landings in the regular version this works great and is cake once you get the feel of it. There is somewhat of a bug with all watercraft above 64 or so knots where all the bouncing is, fortunately just about every amphibian(even the goose) can be slowed to below that mark on landing, and most can be ‘cheated’ to lift off before it as well. Being you can descend so aggressively in the Kodiak it’s pretty easy to get it very low to about 75knots and settled just above ground effect, dump down full flaps and let it grease in just under 60. I’m finding this the easiest to plop into small rivers and small open spots in marinas. As easy to place the landing as the Icon, but with beta to actively slow it down.
Of all the amphibious Xbox aircraft available, gotta love the turboprop Kodiak being able to actually get it to ‘stop’ in the water, where most you have to kind of spin it out at slow speed and shut it down to stay in place(relative to water current).
For takeoff I think I use less negative trim than the earthly version, about -14(if empty), takeoff with 20% flaps and just get it OFF the water before 65 knots, and gently get it to 10% flaps without climbing, pick up a wee more speed just above the surface, and then begin a more typical climb. I’m sure IRL you can keep it on the water a little longer but I HATE that bouncing nonsense as it doesn’t seem linked in any actual way to water/wind conditions. Seen many a video of seaplanes leaving the water aggressively and speeding across the surface on step. But I pretty much cheat every water aircraft in some way to get it out of the ‘game effect’ just so it’s not hokey. The 172 is outright painful to build speed up for climb-out. Wish they’d move the ‘auto-bounce’ to 75KTS.
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