Posted on 09/18/2019 1:24:00 PM PDT by Rebelbase
re: “would any pilot attempt to take off in such strong crosswinds absent a life threatening emergency?”
20/20 hindsight; did you see his vids where he takes FULL responsibility?
re: “Mike did not ground loop on takeoff, he failed to maintain control during t/o. Seems he needs a little crosscontrol training in crosswinds.”
Winds overpowered ALL control input at the last; it was unavoidable given conditions.
He even says he should have gone “into the wind” in which case we would not be having this discussion.
You beat me. As I recall, the Fieseler Fi-156 Storch stalled around 28 MPH.
My first job out of high school was fueling planes at the island of a busy metro. (Anything to be close to aircraft.)
I always opened on Saturday mornings at 7 AM. One Saturday, right after opening, a group of three immaculate Boeing-Stearman biplanes, painted as 1930s PT-17 or N2S (Chromate Orange), did a tight-formation, low-and-slow fly-by on the deck right over the airfield.
It was a foggy morning, barely VFR, and hearing, then seeing, the three float over the otherwise quiet, empty airport, as close to stall as they could get, was a surreal experience I will never forget.
There’s two kinds of taildragger pilots.
Them that’s ground looped, and them that will.
I'm with you. I prefer my pilots cowering at the controls.
If you listen to Mike’s explanation of the accident, and watch the video of the takeoff, the crosswind was so strong that the downwind landing gear strut was fully compressed. Mike said that a gust blew him over like a kite, and full aileron authority wasn’t enough to counter it. The only crosswind training Mike needs is to know when not to attempt a takeoff.
He took off within 5 plane lengths! Hell of a plane!
How about landing?
Move things around a bit on the ship and it looks like you could fly it off the aft deck of a destroyer! (Spotting only...too light to carry munitions)
The takeoff run for the Storch was even shorter than normal at the field behind the Campo Imperatore Hotel. Of course, the first part of the flight was straight down after it went over the cliff with a rotund Mussolini, a hefty Skorzeny and the pilot in the two seater plane.
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