I was in Northern Quebec on a caribou hunt with my son a few years back. We had flown in with two amphib Caravans. On the way back, we had to shuttle out with only one. I asked the pilot,as I was in the right seat what was the reason. Apparently it was a wheels down and the plane was being "worked on". Luckily, there was a strong wind in the landing area and the pilot had full flaps and nose high attitude when he set down. According to him, it nosed over so the water showed up half way up the windshield and the plane then popped back upright.

That appears to be a Cessna 185 in the video and likely sitting on top a set of Wipline amphibious floats - not an inexpensive misshap.

I agree, 185 on Whip's amphibs, probably older 3730's. The flat deck and bar like front wheel strut suggest Whip's floats, the dual mains are from earlier models. Aerocet and Edo did not use dual mains on amphibs for 185's. I think the new 3450's and 3500 Wipline floats have single main wheels as well.

At least two got out, I hope no one was injured. The background suggest NW US or Alaska, the registration numbers are US, not Canadian. Depending on how much damage was done righting the plane, it would be a nice doable project to rebuild that one.

Roger

My first C-180 was frozen into the ice up to the leading edges when I (and two partners) bought it from an insurance company...it was on wheel skis, in a little lake south east of Great Slave Lake. We flew it out in less than two weeks of admittedly pretty hard work. Luckily, the engine was just barely below the ice and we only had one cracked jug. I never chopped so damn much ice in my life, but it was the best $3,000 we ever spent. The only airframe damage was a nice little three cornered hole in the pitot head where one of us tagged it with a needle bar....which was carefully plugged with a wad of certified chewing gum. It ended it's life in another lake, some years after we sold it. That thing just never did learn to swim.

My second was bought from a guy who fished it out of Great Bear Lake, where it was bobbing around upside down. Some time after I had it, I was in Ft. Nelson, B.C., and an old timer spotted the registration and came over to talk...it turned out he had owned it at one time, and put it on it's back in the muskeg. He salvaged it by taking off the wings, pulling the engine, sawing the fuselage in half with a Swede saw, and hauling it out in pieces with a dog team! One of these days, I'm going to buy a dry one.

I never did actually see one do an endo, but I was standing on the shore of the McKenzie River one day at Fort Simpson and looked out at the river to see the bottoms of a pair of floats going by, about 100 yards out....a few minutes later a wet bedraggled guy came trudging down the shore, muttering all manner of unrepeatable things. I couldn't bite my tongue quick enough, and asked him "How's the water?" Not surprisingly, his answer was just two words involving sex and travel....

There aren't many airplanes in the north, if they stay there long, that haven't had misadventures at some time in their lives - some tragic, but most of them hilarious in hindsight. Float planes are a great invention but it's always seemed to me that, given the choice, they prefer to float upside down.

I have personally seen only one go in, it quite flying about 15 feet above the pond in a full stall and nosed in. (Glassy water landing). I have helped right two, a 185 on amphibs and a 172 on straight 2000's. It is amazing how stable they are upside down!

We flooded the front two float compartments, tied a rope to the tail and when it started to go nose down, just pulled it over slowly with a boat. As the tail came over, the water drained from the cabin and up it came. The 172 took a tube inflated in one of the float compartments to get that float to come up.

The impact deformed the cabin and both wings in the 185. They were put in a jig and reskinned, and both needed new wire, interiors, windows, paint and of course instruments. The floats were good. The engines were hot going in, but surprisingly they were taken down and reassembled by the local A&I at reasonable cost.

These were written off as total loss, and the salvage value was very low because of concern about the water damage. The AI was able to come out by doing the work at home rather than in the shop. Both were flying last I heard.

Roger