This pilot needs remedial training. From the get go he is headed towards shore. Completely forgets his right rudder the whole way.

Right as the plane lifts off you will see the windsock. Looks to be 5-7 knots of wind at the planes 3:00

Luckily no one hurt very bad, but the plane......

[youtube]http://youtu.be/YVwlodvWh7w[/youtube]

I think I would have started running before that guy did.

That is crazy. I am glad everyone was all right.
In Canada the Beaver is always hard to get out of the water.

That's because they are always overloaded.

It doesn't help that he was almost flying in a circle trying to take off.

I only do that when I'm drunk.

That just looked bad.


Is it just me, or did it sound like that plane wasn't making full power? It also seemed like he had a lot of flaps in, but WTHDIK about Beavers or float flying.

Alaska is just . . . . different when it comes to aviation.

The percentage of the population there who fly is about four times as much as in the Lower 48. As a result, there are quite a few who should NOT be flying, and they regularly add to the statistics.

Some of them think that because they read "Wager With The Wind" (great book, by the way) and they own a Super Cub or Beaver, they are now honest-to-goodness BUSH PILOTS.

Well, Bubba, flying 15 hours a year when your medical practice allows does not equip you to make high performance flights, and Bush flying is, in fact, high performance.

If you get a chance to get to Lake Hood in the summer, by all means do it. Largest float plane base in the world.

I just decided this week to visit Alaska this summer to visit an old friend. He just finished writing his 20th book -- several of them are on aviation. He's 84, and I haven't seen him for years, so I'm not going to put it off any longer.

He's in Homer. One of the prettiest places you can imagine.

The main problem was that he didnt keep the Beaver lined up with the center of the pond and he tried to take off at too slow a speed and he hit the shore.

What a waste of a nice aircraft.

Tom,

Sounds like a great guy and a fun trip.

I visited Homer back in `95 and certainly found it beautiful. Between fishing and holding down a stool at the Salty Dog, I took a flight with a bush pilot.

We crossed the Cook Inlet and used a tidal marsh as an air strip. Talk about soft field! We flew home with about ten pounds of marsh grasses streaming from the landing gear and wing struts. We looked like a flying swamp monster. It was great.

Turning take-offs are a routine maneuver in confined spaces. Lake Hood for a fully loaded Beaver with a North crosswind is not for amateurs. Windsock as he buzzes by is almost straight out, could be 15 to 20 knots, not noticed on the water in the lee of the land. The spit in the channel is only 2000' long, not much in the land of heavy seaplanes, and that guy was on the step for better than 30 seconds.

Not defending his skills, whether complacency or lack of experience, he let the wind get under the right wing, that loaded him on the downwind float. BAD place to do that in a channel.

My friend is Jim Rearden.

http://tinyurl.com/mfap28

If you can, grab a copy of "Koga's Zero" for an interesting tale (true) of how the U.S. captured a Zero and flew it to learn how to fight it.

I wish "Castner's Cutthroats" was not out of print and expensive. It's a wonderful read -- fiction based closely on history.

http://www.alaskaseaplanes.com/book.html

The Shadows of Eagles is a fun read about an early Bush PIlot.

>>In a two-seater airplane in 1934, 18-year-old Billberg fulfilled his boyhood dream of learning to fly. For the remainder of the 1930s he flew around the Midwest as a barnstormer--putting on shows of airborne acrobatics at state fairs. The skills he developed served him well 10 years later, when he moved on to Alaska to become a bush pilot. Recalcitrant engines frequently stalled, propellers died and fires mysteriously ignited, forcing landings in rugged country. Billberg's skill at managing these midair crises makes for dramatic reading, although their sheer volume can numb. He also offers appreciative anecdotes of his adventurous colleagues in Alaska--all of whom seemed cut from the same pioneering cloth. The satisfaction he found in Alaska, serving as a lifeline to residents of isolated villages, is palpable. He departs from his usually matter-of-fact style in describing the romance of 46 years of flying: "the flash of wings in the sky, the feel of wind against my face, the surge of power from an engine . . . this was my passion." For the reader, it is a pleasure flight through a bygone era. <<

I'll be sure to pick up the book about the Zero.


While I was in Homer I read Tom Bodett's Tales From the End of the Road. What a tickler. Some of the lines still stick with me. Like the story about the lady that accused the snow blower driver for chewing up her Chevy truck that she thoguht she left on the road shoulder the night before.

In regard to the giant snow blower he said I've passed a few Subarus, but a Chevy? I'd a felt that.

It just occurred to me that this was staged in that the photographer was right in the path of this plane. My guess is the pilot wanted to get filmed taking off right over the photog's head and it didn't work out. He may have committed himself to a course of action and when it didn't go well, he resisted changing his course of action.

Another Alpha Hotel ruins a perfectly great airplane

N915RC

Here are photos of the aftermath.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31242357@N07/3605858358/