Learn how to ditch an aircraft safely in a flight simulator: select water, configure the aircraft, control touchdown and avoid common errors.
To ditch an aircraft safely in a flight simulator, maintain control, establish the published glide or ditching speed, select the safest reachable water, complete the aircraft’s ditching checklist, and touch down wings-level with a slight nose-up attitude and the lowest practical sink rate. Aircraft-specific instructions always override generic technique.
Across our Aviation & Real-World Flying library, we treat ditching as a forced landing on water, not as a normal landing on a wet runway. In a real aircraft, the pilot operating handbook, quick-reference handbook and crew training take precedence; simulator practice is not a substitute for flight instruction.
What is the safest aircraft ditching procedure?
The safest sequence is to preserve flying speed, choose the landing area early and avoid major configuration changes until reaching the water is assured.
- Maintain control: If power has been lost, pitch for the published best-glide speed and trim the aircraft. Attempt a restart only when altitude and workload permit; the priorities in our guide to practising an engine failure in MSFS 2024 apply equally before a ditching.
- Select reachable water: Choose the largest clear area within the aircraft’s actual glide range. Avoid boats, rocks, piers, breaking surf and steep shorelines. Being reasonably close to rescue is useful, but never stretch the glide towards shore and risk a stall.
- Plan the landing direction: Account for wind, swell and the available clear distance. Make this decision early enough to avoid a steep final turn close to the surface.
- Declare the emergency: If workload permits, transmit a Mayday with position, altitude, intentions and people aboard. Use the emergency frequency and transponder code where the simulated aircraft and ATC support them, but keep flying the aircraft first.
- Prepare the aircraft and occupants: Tighten restraints, secure loose items and follow the type-specific cabin and evacuation checklist. Depressurisation, door positions, life jackets and a ditching switch must be handled exactly as the aircraft procedure states; do not improvise generic settings.
- Configure late enough to preserve range: Use the specified flap setting and, for a retractable-gear landplane, normally keep the wheels up. Do not shut down electrical or hydraulic systems prematurely if they are still needed for flaps, communications or flight controls.
- Fly a stable final approach: Hold the recommended ditching speed, minimise sink and keep bank angles shallow. Correct drift gradually, then reach the surface with the wings level and the aircraft aligned with the chosen path.
- Touch down under control: Use a small nose-up attitude and the lowest practical rate of descent without stalling. Do not make a large runway-style flare several metres above featureless water; that usually produces a balloon followed by a hard impact.
- Complete the simulated evacuation: Once stopped, carry out the aircraft’s shutdown and evacuation actions. In real procedures, a life jacket is normally inflated only after leaving the cabin because an inflated jacket can obstruct escape.
Which direction should you land on the water?
The preferred direction depends on both wind and wave pattern; landing directly into wind is not automatically safest when it means crossing steep swells.
| Water conditions | Preferred approach | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Calm or sheltered water | Into wind, provided the path is clear | Reduces groundspeed at contact |
| Long, pronounced swells with light wind | Parallel to the major swell | Avoids striking a wave face across its slope |
| Strong wind crossing the swell | Use the aircraft procedure and make a stable compromise | A headwind helps, but crossing a steep swell can be more dangerous |
| River or narrow lake | Along the longest unobstructed channel | Provides room to settle without a sharp turn or obstacle conflict |
Surface current mainly affects drift after contact; wind controls the airborne approach. If the aircraft is drifting or crabbing towards the selected path, our explanation of crosswind correction and alignment covers the control inputs, though a ditching still demands wings-level contact.
Glassy water creates another problem: there may be no reliable height or texture cue. Hold a stable attitude and descent using the instruments and any shoreline references rather than chasing reflections or making an abrupt late flare. Night ditching is harder still, especially in aircraft without a working radio altimeter.
Should the landing gear be up or down for ditching?
A retractable-gear landplane is normally ditched with the landing gear up unless its checklist explicitly requires another configuration.
A wheel entering the water can catch suddenly, pitch the nose down and produce a rapid deceleration. A fixed-gear aircraft offers no configuration choice, while an amphibious aircraft should use its published water-landing configuration, which normally means retracting its wheels. Floats are different again and should be treated as a normal part of the floatplane’s water procedure.
Why does the simulator record a crash after a good ditching?
A simulator may trigger a crash because its water-contact or aircraft damage model does not support survivable ditching, even when the approach technique was sound.
Microsoft Flight Simulator, FSX, X-Plane, Prepar3D and individual add-on aircraft can all handle water contact differently. Some conventional landplanes stop the session as soon as they touch water; others float, sink gradually or calculate impact damage. Visual waves may also have little or no physical effect.
Where available, temporarily disabling crash detection lets the approach continue, but it can also hide a genuinely excessive impact. Judge the attempt using touchdown airspeed, vertical speed, pitch, bank, alignment and replay footage. There is no single acceptable numerical limit for every aircraft.
Common ditching mistakes and their fixes
| Mistake | Likely result | Better technique |
|---|---|---|
| Stretching the glide towards shore | Loss of speed or an aerodynamic stall | Accept a nearer clear area and preserve best-glide speed |
| Extending flaps or gear too early | Excess drag and failure to reach the selected water | Delay drag-producing configuration until landing is assured |
| Making a steep turn on short final | Higher stall speed or a wingtip strike | Choose direction early and use small corrections |
| Flaring as if over a runway | Balloon, stall and heavy vertical impact | Use a restrained flare and maintain a low sink rate |
| Touching one wing first | Yaw, cartwheel or structural damage | Remove drift and reach the surface wings-level |
| Concentrating on radios or restart attempts | Unstable speed and attitude | Aviate first; abandon secondary tasks when time is short |
A useful simulator practice setup
Begin in daylight with light wind, a familiar aircraft and generous altitude over a large lake or coastal area. Practise the glide, configuration and restrained flare separately before combining them; our advice on stable approaches and smoother touchdown control helps with the final energy-management phase.
Save the flight shortly before the failure if the simulator supports saved situations, then repeat it while changing only one variable at a time: wind, wave direction, starting altitude or aircraft weight. Add poor visibility and night conditions only after the basic sequence is repeatable.
FS2004 users can also practise with the dedicated Miracle on the Hudson ditching scenario and floatable aircraft setup. That avoids the immediate water-crash behaviour found in aircraft that were never configured to float.