trust performance calcs?

[sferguson524]

I don't know if anyone has seen this, but WOW......

 

[Jim Logajan]

Unless you're doing a soft field takeoff, which isn't appropriate for the conditions.

Yes, he rotated too early and got himself behind the power curve out of ground effect. That was his primary error. Nothing to do with DA.

Winds can change the equation quite a lot, but with that runway at that altitude, a normal takeoff would have served him much better than that mess. Short field is not necessary. It's 3500 feet to the trees, and they are only 41 feet high.

I concur. I've now had some modest practice at higher altitude (and moderately short) grass and dirt airports. The reason the pilot in the video didn't get anywhere near the book performance is because he wasn't following the book technique.

I've now seen several videos of pilots taking off with the stall horn chirping when they were well out of ground effect. I can see climbing near stall to get off a soft field into ground effect so you can pick up speed quicker, but as you point out, that wasn't needed here. But based on my limited experience, even that technique is rarely needed. Normal rotation and pitch that takes you to Vx is what you want. Climbing at below Vx must be a sign of some bad teaching going on. Plenty of bad, and no good, comes with takeoff climbs below Vx.