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Jabiru downunder


Roger Lee

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Many of us have zero experience with sloped runways.

 

I gained some when based out of Blue Ridge Skyport. But that was upslope or downslope.

 

But other than bush pilots, not many of us have experience with laterally sloped runways I.e. sloping away to the left or right.

 

In this case the left slope possibly overcame even full right rudder, if in fact he applied such. Once that left main touched the surf, the fat lady had effectively sung.

 

There but for the grace of God...

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Good lesson learned here. Don't assume a take off will go as planned - especially on unimproved surfaces. It is educational to see how just a slight differential resistance encountered to the main gear (in this example it's initially wet sand and then finally the surf) will present much more force than the directional control of the plane's rudder. One can substitute wet grass, hi grass, snow, gravel for this scenario. I can put myself in the cockpit, trying to push that right rudder through the floor with no results, and taking the ride into the surf. Not a pretty sight.

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I have taken off on numerous beaches back in the early 80's. With nose wheel steering he shouldn't have had an issue. He may not have been paying attention to the water and more on the takeoff. Matter of fact sometimes the nose wheels bites in too well in sand, especially with smaller wheels. As soon as he saw the waves coming toward him he should have turned the key off and gone right hard rudder.

 

 

I know saying that now is arm chair quarterback for sure. I had a prop damaged due to water around an estuary back in 1982. The rear wheel hit a hole with water and tossed it up into my wooden prop. One glass worth of water will ruin your day. Didn't feel too bad that week as 4 people trashed props due to water. One just like the guy in the video, but he only tagged the prop. Two others went for a swim with their plane in the estuary. My prop cost back then was a whopping $180.

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As soon as he saw the waves coming toward him he should have turned the key off and gone right hard rudder.

 

 

I just watched it again, paying attention to the rudder.

 

Sure looks to me like he was feeding in right rudder from the start and ended up with a lot of right rudder at the end, maybe even full.

 

Of course, I'm not familiar with what full rudder looks like on that particular plane, but it sure looks like he was pretty heavily invested in stopping the left turn.

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I see nothing funny in these incidents, but CTLSi's response reminds me of when he called the pilot that committed suicide a "loser." I am also reminded, however, that the forum admins do not want anyone called insensitive, callous, or immature, so I won't.

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There's nothing wrong with beach or highway operations if you have the proper preparation (you can operate on highways in alaska). Crap happens. Yeah it's risky, but one might argue that flying period is risky.

 

We all have different levels of comfort. The best thing to do is try to make sure our skills meet or exceed that comfort zone :)

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I agree things happen and I'm happy to have insurance when I do something with a lapse of good judgement.

 

Insurance doesn't care if you are ignorant, stupid or accident prone. They will pay. If they didn't most people may never get an insurance settlement.

If you kid takes a match and starts a house fire the insurance doesn't care, they will pay. If you do something stupid that everyone knows is a dumb thing to do in the kitchen the insurance company pays. Auto accidents aren't accidents anymore. Accidents aren't preventable collisions are preventable, but insurance still pays for your not so bright maneuver.

 

Quote:

"Or, you takeoff on a parking lot road with people standing on the side along with a large truck obviously not back far enough to give clearance fora wing.

 

Are these accidents? Or stunts? I say they are stunts, and are a laugh mainly due to the utter and absolute stupidity of the pilots involved."

 

 

I think these were just a lapse of good judgement and lack or paying attention to detail further down the path.

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I think there is some correlation between overall experience and one's attitude towards things like this.

 

It may relate to "The Killing Zone". A zone where a pilot has enough experience to think he's getting good, but not enough to realize all the pitfalls.

 

Clip a truck on a takeoff? I can see myself doing that, having misjudged wingtip position before.

 

Fail to adequately compensate for a sloped beach? I can see myself doing that, never having taken off from a beach before.

 

Land at the wrong airport? I can see myself doing that, but have always managed to catch my errors in time (so far).

 

And so on.

 

Now, I've never done any of those things, nor do I plan to do so. But Lord knows I've done some idiotic things in planes over the years.

 

I just think higher time pilots have seen the types of errors they make, and other pilots make - too many to assume they're immune.

 

To be clear, this is not aimed at anyone in particular, just an overall observation.

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