Beaver Crash

[AKbrew]

...kind of a tough day for one of our Beavers on Lake Hood eariler this week. Everyone survived, including the dog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVwlodvWh7w

[Ragwing nut]

Re: Beaver Crash

Completely avoidable and stupid manuever. Glad to hear no one hurt bad.

[N74DV]

Re: Beaver Crash

saw this video on Fox News. what an experience to be so close as it crashes over your head!

[Robert Lees]

Re: Beaver Crash

A penny to a pound to a pinch of elephant dung that the cameraman & pilot are known to each other.

[Ragwing nut]

Re: Beaver Crash

I read and interview where the pilot said the wind blew him off coarse. Bull ^%*%. It won't do him no favors he crashed into the backyard of the Alaska DOT either.

[VictorBravo]

Re: Beaver Crash

I ain't no floatplane driver but that accident looks totally preventable to me, 100%. It looks to me like the pilot intentionally let the airplane drift over towards the cameraman to make a nicer shot. It looks as though there was plenty of open water off the right wing of the airplane, no trees, no shoreline, etc. I HATE to sound like an old fogey shaking his finger at another pilot, but that little stunt could have harmed two dogs that wouldn't have deserved it!

Update: Just watched a BUNCH of other youtube Lake Hood takeoff videos... yep, plenty of room for that Beaver to take off down the water runway another 3000 feet. Enough room for a float-equipped DC-3 for that matter.

[AKbrew]

Re: Beaver Crash

Well...I hesitate to throw any stones ("Except for the grace of God, there go I"), but I've done that same take-off run lots of times on Lake Hood. (If you Google N3571T you'll see a picture someone took of me in the exact same take off run.) The pilot had lots, and lots, and lots of lake left to work with. (Believe me, I know...I fly a plane on floats with a 100hp engine!) The first mistake you will see on the video is when the pilot tries to pick up ONE float before the wing is flying. This is a common maneuver to reduce drag from the floats, but you need to have lift from the wings and have enough speed to be 'on step'. If you don't have enough lift the float remaining in the water will turn you in the direction of the 'dragging float' (in this case to the left). Now you have an airplane heading in an "unintended direction". At this point you have two options; cut power and cut your losses, or hope the airplane gets fast enough to fly. The pilot chose option two, popped it off the water, then pulled back on the yoke to try and keep it off the bank/fence. As you know, when you're slow pulling back on the yoke is the worst possible thing you can do. You just get slower and slower until it's 'game over'. I have found that the wing is EXTRA sensitive to wind direction when you're on floats trying to get up on the 'step'. Just a small amount of wind on the nose pushing on the bottom of the wing makes a huge difference. This pilot had a slight cross-wind (nothing on the nose) and once he got into the channel with a large island blocking the wind he had either no wind, or a slight cross wind with ZERO rudder authority (since he was 'mushing along' in a pre-stall). Of course this all happened in a matter of seconds. I'm glad no one died or was seriously injured (especially the dogs!). The pilot made a huge error and had the misfortune of having the entire episode captured on video tape distributed worldwide!

[AKbrew]

Re: Beaver Crash

...oh, one more thing. It's possible the pilot knew the camera operator, but just as possible he didn't. I see people standing along that fence line taking pictures and videos all the time. It's just a few minutes from the Anchorage International Airport Terminal and there is a large (free) parking area and a grassy park-like area along the lake for viewing the floatplanes. I don't pay any attention to the photographers during the take off run or landing approach, but I notice them after becoming airborne.