Not sure at which point he should have called it
The point at which he should have called it was BEFORE he ever loaded up the airplane! This pilot clearly did not check his takeoff charts using actual weights. Had he done so, he would have realized they were stuck until the temps cooled off.
He actually had a chance to abort, and that was the point at which the airplane settled back onto the runway. They started the takeoff roll at :23, the pilot hauled the airplane into ground effect at :51, and then settled back onto the runway at 1:02. Unbelievably, the pilot continued the takeoff roll and once again hauled the airplane into ground effect at 1:15! Even then, the pilot had enough runway left to abort. The runway end markings slide under the airplane at 1:30. Now airborne, it is too late. I cannot tell for sure whether they were flying into rising terrain, but it sure looks like it. The airplane struggles mightily, but it appears to finally get out of ground effect at 1:50 but is unable to climb. The nose is high, and the airplane is clearly on the back side of the power curve. Somehow he clears the trees at 2:25 by hauling the nose even higher. This gives a temporary tradeoff of airspeed for altitude, but once they start back down at 2:35 they are clearly in a stalled condition. The pilot was out of options by then and totally SOL. I am amazed they all survived.
Now consider: They had an 18 second takeoff roll, which would be normal for this airplane. But then the airplane is too slow to fly and is mushing through the ground effect, so 11 seconds later the pilot sets it back down on the runway. Why didn't he abort? Durned if I know. He even had an additional 13 second long
second takeoff roll on the same runway, which was more than enough time for him to reconsider his folly and stop! He still had plenty of runway left to abort on, and even if they went off the end, they'd have walked away from the adventure unscathed.
Now I did read on another forum that this is not the first accident this particular pilot has had. Sad to say, but it appears his judgement has been faulty on more than one occasion, and that alone brings his Certification into question. If he was unable to learn from his first accident, I believe the FAA will be handing him over to their Legal Department for certificate action, or they may simply do an emergency revocation based solely upon the evidence of this video.
Moral of the story: If you're going to do something stupid, DON'T LET ANYONE MAKE A VIDEO RECORDING OF IT!
Rant Over
RC
