The non-seaplane rated private pilot stated that his intention was to get comfortable with the Aventura II.
He performed several maneuvers in the air, then seven uneventful touch-and-go water landings with half flaps extended. On the final landing attempt, he fully extended the flaps and had difficulty controlling the airplane.
It bounced on the water twice and the pilot initiated a go-around. The airplane veered left and was headed toward houses and boat docks near Tyler, Texas, so he maneuvered to ditch the airplane into the water to avoid a collision.
The airplane hit the water and sustained substantial damage to the wings and fuselage.
The pilot got out of the airplane with minor injuries.
Probable cause: The loss of airplane control during a go around, which resulted in impact with the water. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s lack of seaplane rating and inexperience in the accident airplane.
NTSB Identification: CEN15CA353
This August 2015 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Is there any written/online literature describing the differences between SEL and SES techniques and physics?
Despite 25 years and 1800 hours in seaplanes, my insurance company still requires me to get annual recurrent training. Why? Because flying a seaplane requires different skills and present different challenges and risks. What made this pilot think it was so simple that anyone could do it without training? The fact needs to be more widely disseminated that seaplanes need seaplane instruction-lots of it. To do otherwise can be lethal.