Scary Take off!

[cgarr]

[GH85Carrera]

Pull up pull up!!

That is a pilot that will not live to be an old pilot.

[svandamme]

damn

[Tim Hancock]

Someone e-mailed me that a few days ago..... It simply could not have been any closer to ending badly. That dude was very lucky.

[URY914]

Buy a ****** chainsaw.

[asphaltgambler]

I don't understand why the aircraft traveled so far along the ground ?? - did he not have enough ground speed to lift off? I thought those things didn't need too much runway or ground speed to take off

[masraum]

Wow! I don't want to fly with that guy!

[304065]

Wow.

1) You can see the leading edge of the elevator is up, indicating that the pilot is commanding forward stick. This is the recommended procedure for a conventional gear takeoff- raise the tail to lift the tailwheel, reduce angle of attack (and induced drag) and align the airplane with the direction it's moving (reducing the profile presented to relative wind). If the tail doesn't come up within a few seconds, it's an indication that something is wrong and to abort before the go/no go point.

2) OK, so the tail finally comes up 7 seconds in and the elevator is forward- but then ten seconds later the tailwheel drags on the ground, you can see the dirt plume. Unclear if this is caused by undulation of the runway or the pilot's attempt to rotate. The plume of dirt from the tailwheel continues all the way until the plane is airborne.

So how do we grade this takeoff? First, if the caption is correct and there is high density altitude, then the performance charts should be consulted and a decision made: either utilize a short field technique (full power prior to brake release utilizing every available inch of runway, even to the extent that the tailwheel is in the weeds at throttle-up, or more radical techniques such as a 90 degree turn once the airplane is rolling (have to be careful in a conventional gear airplane)-- or DONT TAKE OFF UNTIL BARO PRESSURE RISES, TEMPERATURE DROPS OR RELATIVE HUMIDITY FALLS.

Second, in terms of technique we can learn a lesson from the big jets-- maintain forward stick pressure until rotation speed + 10 knots and then affirmatively rotate the aircraft. You can see in the final seconds that the pilot is commanding back stick, and all he's doing is increasing the angle of attack and the corresponding drag, as well as the drag from the tailwheel hitting the ground.

Recommend removal from active flight status until remedial training complete.

[GH85Carrera]

My dad is a retired Air Force cargo pilot. He was stuck in the Philippines for several days because his C-124 was full of mattresses. They ran the numbers and it was too hot and humid for several days. There was big pressure from command to get the mattresses delivered.

When the calculations finally came in right at the edge of go-no-go they decided to go for it. The field was flat and right at sea level with nothing but sugar cane fields around it. He said they still mowed down the top of a lot of sugar cane.

[loach]

"What I'm gonna do is meander up to full power from about a hundred yards up the runway and then rotate really early so that my tailwheel drags a plume all the way to the point where my death looks an absolute certainty.... then neeeeooooww" If you pretend that he meant to do it, it's pretty impressive.

[Joeaksa]

Density altitude is usually easy to work with.

1. Take off earlier when the temps are lower.

2. Remove weight (cargo, fuel or pax)

[cgarr]

Usually as soon as I get he tail up I can feel if the plane is getting lite in both my seat/landing gear and flight controls. For some reason that plane looked heavy or he was riding the brakes!

[tcar]

What kind of plane is that...?

Huge vertical stabilizer.

Wings look short...?

[VINMAN]

At what point do you scream ABORT, ABORT!!??

[cashflyer]

As it goes by, it looks like there is only one person (the pilot).
After he lifts off, he seems to climb okay.

I think he did it on purpose.
If not, he will still likely tell everyone that he "meant to do that" and skip the part about buying new underpants.


Perhaps Canadian registration... hard to make it out as it passes.
Gear and body looks like an Aeronca - but I have not seen one with that tail.

[tcar]

Stinson (L5?) of some kind maybe?

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by tcar

Stinson (L5?) of some kind maybe?

Ohhhh... I think you have it.
Though the L5 Sentinel had 185hp. It should have leaped from the field.
Maybe the earlier Voyager with 75hp?

[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.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

At what point do you scream ABORT, ABORT!!??

As soon as you see that guy jumping in the driver's/pilot's seat.

I know that for takeoff there are a couple of waypoints for various things, I suspect the go/no-go waypoint for taking off there wasn't very far into it.

[widgeon13]

He could also have done something stupid like leave carb heat on after the mag check. I bet he didn't cut it that close on purpose though.