[Tim Hancock]

I think it is an early Stinson 108..... but I am not 100% sure.

No way did he do that on purpose.... He was inches from clipping that tree "solidly" with his right wing tip.

About 15 years ago when my 2500' E/W runway was only half completed (west half was decent sod/East half was bare mud), we hosted a small fly-in event with nearly all guests using our old established N/S 2300' runway. A local pilot who is known to make poor decisions decided to take a couple people for a ride in his Cherokee 140. He taxied down the west half of our runway and we all assumed he would turn onto the N/S runway for takeoff. Instead he did a 180 at the end of the sod E/W and poured the coals to it on the little over half length E/W strip. All of us pilots looked on in horror as he rapidly approached our hangar building maybe 40 yards from our road which is elevated somewhat from our surrounding hangar yard. I had spread some straw on a few bare spots in front of our hangar and he actually stirred up straw with a wing tip as he hauled back on the stick with insufficient flying speed. The plane touched a wheel then barely hung in ground effect high enough to clear the road by mere inches. He cleared the road and ditch and the plane sank to just inches off the muddy field on the other side of the road. After a few hundred feet he finally got it established into a climb.

Everyone standing near my hangar was horrified and many of us gave him a severe blast of shiit afterwards.

I personally have never put myself in that situation, although my old Grumman Yankee on a hot day with two people on 2000' of grass with clear approaches was sometimes a bit marginal.... Two people/80+ humid degrees/full fuel was a personal NO/GO for me unless there was a stiff steady breeze straight down the runway.