Plane crash video from inside cockpit

The Classic Aviation version of "A Rock and a Hard Place" !

RknRusty wrote:
EDIT: Okay, I went to Youtube and read the comments. The pilot is okay now.

Was the cause of the crash stated?

This is part of the original poster's(a passenger) comment:

Due to warming temperatures there was an increase in density altitude and we had a hard time getting adequate lift.

There was much more speculation in the public comments, some of which seemed to be by knowledgeable pilots, but with Youtube comments, you never can tell. I think the OP chimed in with a couple more answers. I didn't think they were going to get off the ground. Maybe it was overloaded. General consensus among some claiming to be pilots was the guy had plenty of room and should have aborted.

Three critical elements in a successful landing:

- Altitude
- Airspeed
- Ideas

RknRusty wrote:I wonder why he was flying so low over the trees? Maybe he clipped one banking into a turn or something. I hope the pilot recovered from his injuries. Jacob, do you know these people, or did you just find it on the Tube?

EDIT: Okay, I went to Youtube and read the comments. The pilot is okay now.

I don't know the people, just stumbled on it.

That really scary to watch. Plane was clearly overloaded with four full-grown people in it, you have to remove fuel to ensure that the total weight is not too hight. There was a clear indication when he had to take off twice!

With plenty of space to abort the flight, it is a sad testament of what blind stubbornness can lead to...

It can also be a simple case of denial:

"The Airplane MUST fly!. This CAN'T be happening! Come-on! Just a couple more feet and I can drop the nose and get some speed!"

Any pilot with some real flying time will tell you (if their ego allows it) that, at one time or another, they've pushed the boundaries, and scared themselves big time. It is just a human thing, and unfortunately, it can extend into very professional aircrews, sometimes with terrible ramifications:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Florida_Flight_90

While the Air Florida disaster had vastly different contributing factors...the basic situation is exactly the same as that of the hapless Stinson: An airplane forced into the air under conditions that would simply not allow it to continue flight.

In 1990, I flew my little Aircamper homebuilt from Cairo, Illinois to Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome on the Hudson River in New York State.

The Aerodrome's only runway has a ramp-like rise it's south end, and this helps give the antiques a boost in taking off. On the morning of my departure though, there was a breeze from the south, so I decided to taxi up to the North end, so old Yeller would have the wind on it's nose.

The plane was heavily loaded with camping gear (along with one of those early two-piece video camera/recorders!), and I knew when I started the takeoff roll that it was gonna be close. The plane plodded over the bumps and rocks, finally getting airborne at about a the half-way mark.

The thing about these old-school, low-powered planes is that you have to have to nerve to push the nose down to let them get on their step, and this can be a hard thing to do when your forward vision is full of trees! Me and my plane flew into the "Box Canyon of Maples" and just cleared lowest spot I could pick on the south end.

I had the video camera running and this is the grainy footage from the old VHS tape. If you listen carefully, you can hear me hoot as I cross the treeline and dump the nose slightly to get myself some airspeed. Guess it's not that exciting for others to watch, but it was a special time for me, along with being alive to remember it !