[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

I'm not a pilot, but the first thing I noticed is that I didn't see much, if any flap. That would seem to be more at the heart of the matter, wouldn't it?

Not all small airplanes are the same when it comes to use of flaps on takeoff. Some manuals may call for a certain degree of flaps for short or soft field takeoffs...some may not. Applying flaps at the start of a takeoff roll on most airplanes will add drag which will result not reaching takeoff speed as quickly.

In my anemic ground loving little Grumman AA1B I used to own, the manual did not recommend using flaps for takeoff, but I found "my" best techique for getting it into the air on short firm grass strips with clear approaches was to throttle up facing 180 degrees to the takeoff direction.... do a 180 degree turn into the wind.... think "light" thoughts while speed increases .... Once speed gets close to takeoff speed, flip the flap switch to start dropping the electric flaps.... break ground staying in ground effect until speed increases to safe speed.... start gently climbing out while slowly bring flaps back up.

This technique was effective, but with the pitch sensitive short winged underpowered Grumman, one needed to be very precise to avoid getting into a bad situation. Definitely would not be advisable for a Cessna 150/172 pilot to try this when at the controls of a Grumman for the first time.