Do you know what the cause of the above crash was? I heard the pilot said, "A gust of wind hit me..." but looking at the water's surface and the wind sock in the video, there seems to be very light wind, and most gusts will increase your aparant airspeed, so will LIFT you up. From the wind sock it looked like a very light right crosswind, but even so, if a gust came from the right, it must have been a -hellofa- big one, to cause that.
Well, you have to know this lake. He (a doctor) crashed because he veered off the entrance or beginning of the runway, which is a long lane along the "island", and tried to get the beaver airborne and fly out of it, instead of correcting his course on the water. The cameraman was standing at the beginning of this runway, which you can clearly see at the end of the video. The float planes use the area you see in the video as their run ups for take off to the channel/runway along the island. This appears to be an example of pilot error, and lack of experience. He had just checked out like 3 days earlier on the beaver. FWIW, He had crashed his 185 on skis at Bulchitna Lake around Christmas 2007. NOT a good record.
Timbo, this is what is believed to have happened from several of the seasoned beaver guys: At 34-35 seconds notice his right float lifts. The plane looses the float rudder authority and drifts left or in sailing terms (to port) and is now off course. The pilot has several options to correct, including throttle back and taxi to retry, and/or correcting on water. These guys think a few senarios contributed to a bad decision to try to fly out of it, lack of experience and habit from his time on a 185 on floats, which steps differently than a beaver on floats. As for the gust, they think that experience and proper crosswind training make it a mute point. The good in all this is that nobody was hurt or killed, and you know that to walk away from a plane crash is a blessing. This picture should help with the layout. Again, this **** happens alot up there.
