Look, Ma! I Can Take Off With No Flaps!

[bitterlyclingin]

Ground effect only.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDu0jYiz-v8]Plane crash video from inside cockpit - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Mad Scientist]

Looks like it was a PA-22 (?)

I don't think flaps were the problem there. I don't know what the altitude of that field was but it was either a hot day with a high Density Altitude or the Engine just wasn't generating enough power for some reason, maybe related to Density Altitude.

When I was taking Flight Instruction at High Desert Airport in 29 Palms, my Instructor and I took off for my short Cross Country flight at about 4 PM. We got airborne but I couldn't get anymore than about 50 feet per minute climb out of the Tomahawk!

As calmly as I could I told the flight instructor through the headsets: "Uh, I don't think we're gonna' clear those power lines up ahead" to which he replied "Carefully bank and turn the plane to the right gently and we'll fly parallel to the power lines until we get enough altitude". It took us about twice as long to get up to altitude that day.

I never got to finish my Lessons because another student made a bad landing and rolled the little trainer into a ball!

 

[bitterlyclingin]

Looks like it was a PA-22 (?)

I don't think flaps were the problem there. I don't know what the altitude of that field was but it was either a hot day with a high Density Altitude or the Engine just wasn't generating enough power for some reason, maybe related to Density Altitude.

When I was taking Flight Instruction at High Desert Airport in 29 Palms, my Instructor and I took off for my short Cross Country flight at about 4 PM. We got airborne but I couldn't get anymore than about 50 feet per minute climb out of the Tomahawk!

As calmly as I could I told the flight instructor through the headsets: "Uh, I don't think we're gonna' clear those power lines up ahead" to which he replied "Carefully bank and turn the plane to the right gently and we'll fly parallel to the power lines until we get enough altitude". It took us about twice as long to get up to altitude that day.

I never got to finish my Lessons because another student made a bad landing and rolled the little trainer into a ball!

They're claiming he hit a pocket of superheated air shortly after take off in Idaho. I saw Yahoo had the whole story on its list of most searched news items after I pulled it from flightaware and posted it. Memories of that passenger flight trying to take off from DetroitWayne Metro some ten or fifteen years back where both pilot and co pilot failed to ensure the flaps were down before their takeoff roll still linger. You lose a lot more lift after bouncing off a bridge