Columbia crash...opinions

"Kobra" wrote in message
...
Check this clip out. What does everyone think happened here?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZWC2XJYgcJU

It looks like a 182, so it had *some* muscle.

I think it must have been hot, maybe a high elevation, loaded with fuel,
people and equipment. But one passenger was a small boy so he couldn't
have been very heavy.

It also looks like a soft-field technique that was poorly executed and he
lost directional control and didn't lower the nose to build airspeed
first.

Very sad,

Kobra

Looks like a loss of directional control on takeoff.

The pilot *might* have saved things by using left brake, rudder, and aileron
to avoid the pedestrians, but most of us (including myself) are not
practiced up on abrupt maneuvers at *almost* flying speed.

Once he lifted off, I think he was afraid to bank the aircraft and used
rudder to either bring the aircraft back to the runway centerline OR to make
a slight turn into the wind. That, or he completely forgot about the rudder
and P-factor put him into uncoordinated flight. He'd have done much better
keeping the airplane in coordinated flight - without the excess drag caused
by that slip, he might have reached a managable speed and flown away...
KB