Weight, Density Altitude, and a tree

[Cliff_Chambliss]

Take a hot day, a light aircraft with 4 adults on board, High country grass airfield, what could possibly go wrong?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=835_1344412426

[peter rabbit]

And, when you see you're not climbing, why head back to the airport - just steer for rising terrain.

[Critical AOA]

When I first saw the video on TV this morning, I knew that it was most likely overloaded.  Four full sized adults in a Stinson 108?  Then when I read the name of the airstrip on line, I looked it up and saw that it was over 6000' MSL with rising terrain all around.  Wow! Then the son of the pilot has the gall to say that his father's skill saved their lives.  Oh really?  I don't think I would have posted this video if I was involved.  Pretty incriminating.

[a2capt]

Nevermind that the pilot flipped a 152 a couple years before, due to pending fuel starvation and landing on a snow covered runway rather than RTB'ing earlier when his 'mission' wasn't going to work out as planned.

No, just wrecked a perfectly good airplane over stupidity. One of three that month.

http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20120701X65804&key=1

[bosshawk]

Tony: sort of reminds me of the four AD AF officers in a 172, full of gas and baggage at Truckee, Ca on a warm Sunday afternoon.  Truckee is only about 7000 feet elevation with mountains all around it.  They never got out of ground effect.

Hard to legislate against poor judgement.

[Flying Pig]

Speed is life as I have learned in my aerobatic training.  And when it was obvious it wasnt going to work, he forces it.  When he touched back down the second time he could have easily stopped and taxied back.  I would have love to have a look at his W&B and the performance charts.   Looking at it, it was their low alt that save them.  Any higher he would have most certainly stalled completely or spun it.   In this case he at least had a controlled decent

Fatal plane crash Recorded from inside the plane  only these guys died. 

[arajca]

I've seen the full video.

Part of the back story is they were flying in a green Piper Cub with the video camera lashed to the wing strut. A park ranger fuond the crash site and the video tape was pulled out of the cassette and hung all over the site. The ranger carefully rolled it up and brought it back to be put into a cassette.

They were flying over Grand Lake, CO, and decided to drop down for a closer look at the lake and couldn't get out of the valley.

[denverpilot]

I've seen the full video.

Part of the back story is they were flying in a green Piper Cub with the video camera lashed to the wing strut. A park ranger fuond the crash site and the video tape was pulled out of the cassette and hung all over the site. The ranger carefully rolled it up and brought it back to be put into a cassette.

They were flying over Grand Lake, CO, and decided to drop down for a closer look at the lake and couldn't get out of the valley.

I believe it was an L-19 Bird Dog, not a Cub. Anything less than a Super Cub wouldn't have even gotten off the ground up there that day, considering the temperatures reported.

Prior to the Internet that video was regularly available as safety seminar stuff around here, but got much wider dissemination later. Which is good.

I still remember thinking, "You've got to be kidding me" when my Mountain Instructor pointed at the gap in the trees at the north end of the runway at KLXV, slightly left of centerline, after we departed there in a normally aspirated 182 and said, "If you ever find yourself not climbing properly, that is your escape route.  You can make a shallow turn south and land at Buena Vista."

The look on his face said he'd done it. I didn't ask.

Density Altitude is not to be trifled with.

[RogueLeader]

^If you do, it is at your peril.