Quote:
Originally Posted by t6dpilot
Never got up on the step and missed a whole shyteload of runway to the right of his t/o path.
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Summed up perfectly, and it would seem the former was a partial function of the latter. It's hard to tell from that video, but Lake Hood (Anchorage, AK) has a "channel" that is used as the active runway. This guy appeared to be way left of the channel to begin with, even prior to the "gust of wind" he gave as the crash cause. Due to the obviously fixed orientation of the channel, cross-wind T/O's and landings are an every-day occurrence there.
IMO, he was either preoccupied with something or hot-dogging for the camera and didn't realize (or correct for) the wind drifting him off center before reaching the channel. It also looked like he wasn't confident on what to do when he finally recognized the problem (or his point-of-no-return).
Here is a video that shows the lake's channel a bit better (and how a normal T/O in a Beaver looks there):