Whew, this was a close one:
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Runway length being short by about 12% is a HUGE deal.
Wheels
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Runway length short by 1 inch is career altering.
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I remember seeing this at Sumburgh. The landing mail flight did an ils approach below minima. Saw the threshold and landed. Wrong threshold.
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I remember that one!
I was at flightschool at the moment and Hangar5 and Ben-Air were airline springboards at the time. So the accident got our attention.
I never had to work for them, but many of my colleagues have. They all have stories to tell…
One of these post/paper delivery companies had a payment scheme where you didn’t get paid in the first 18 months. If you stayed longer than that, you got your salary retroactively. If you left before 18 months, you lost the money… They were taken to court, eventually, and lost.
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In the case of the title of video, it is leaning uncomfortably into click-bait territory. Every grass take off with trees at the end looks tight through the lens of a wide-angle GoPro.
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thought this was interesting
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I saw this too and thought it was interesting. However, I wonder whether the effect will scale with larger props? Higher aspect ratio wings are known to be more efficient and I don’t see why that wouldn’t hold for prop size too? 
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Another close call…
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As a non-pilot I’m not sure what I think of this - comments welcome?
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It seems like a great way to get stuck ‘on top’. Not something I would do intentionally.
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Legal doesn’t automatically mean smart, or even safe.
I can’t watch the video now, but it’s a discussion that gets had quite a bit. I think if you’re IFR capable (pilot and aircraft both), and have a solid exit strategy and the ability to pick up an IFR clearance enroute if necessary, it’s acceptable, but I’ve also never needed/wanted to do so.
Edit:
You know what, after this post I started thinking about it some more, and remembered that earlier in my career when I was flying SE pistons for profit and pleasure, I actually did do a bit of VFR over the top* in IFR equipped aircraft, for convenience sake. So my last sentence was inaccurate, and I shouldn’t be dismissive of the practice. Sorry, I forgot. Jet pilot mentality creeping out.
*Only with a good ceiling underneath the overcast (in case of engine failure) and a good exit strategy/ability to pick up a pop up IFR.
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This is a crazy, stupid admission that I hope shows how someone who endeavors to be safe and professional even during off hours can still d*** things up badly. I had bought the Pitts and had just two days to bring it home to NJ from TN. My plan was to fly low up interstate 81 which meanders through the Blue Ridge mountains and Appalachia. It’s a long dull story but the crux of it is that I found myself stuck on top in an unstable biplane that had already frightened me multiple times. It had no instrumentation. The compass didn’t even work (a common Pitts problem). With about 50 minutes of fuel remaining…
…Let’s just say that the airmail pilot’s spin trick was considered and may or may not have been performed. Whatever skill and/or luck got me below, I landed in Farmville with the vow never to do anything so stupid again.
An aerobatic friend was killed in his Extra on the way to the Vermont contest a few years ago. I had skipped the contest because of the weather. Other aerobatic friends, a dozen or more of them, were in the FBO with his wife and daughter. As time wore on they were all certain that the worse had come to pass but avoided conveying that to the family. Such a tragedy. The lovely young wife slowly processed the horror that her life had become. Every pilot I have known who has died has done so because of weather. I’ve known a bunch who’ve left their loved ones behind this way. One took his loved ones with him.
VFR on top is madness unless you have the instrumentation and skill to get below through the clouds, illegally but safely. The FAA will forgive. The family will not.
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Ooof. I’ve done that in IL2:FC out of desperation. Glad not to have had to try it IRL.
I have a similar story (Student pilot VFR>IMC w/ a non-gyro equipped aircraft in the mtns) that took 100% concentration on the instruments I had to climb & turn to exit, so not unsympathetic at all. A series of mistakes I’ve never repeated for sure.
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I didn’t watch the video, but I’ve done some VFR On-Top flying myself…in my youth.
Now, VFR On-Top in a instrument rated multi, is one thing. As long as you have the skills and equipment to go IMC, that’s no problem. I was in a single engine piston, 9000’ over sea going VFR On-Top of a solid cloudlayer. Now, both departure and destination was CAVOK, but the sea was covered in a few thousand feet high overcast. So, in theory, this would be a non issue. But what if the engine stopped…? Small VFR only GA SEP aircraft usually has vacuum powered gyros and this one was no exception. Would I have a working attitude indicator as I descended through the overcast? Having to glide it down to a ditching is one thing. That’s bad enough. Spiraling uncontrollably through the clouds and into the sea would spell instant disaster. I didn’t think about all this before or during the flight, but I did afterwards and I vowed never to do it again.
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I’m not saying anything. My flying instructor is on this forum and he knows where I live.
Safety first. I have absolutely, definitely and totally never made a mistake and got stuck on top. That would be foolish.
I’ve never made a collection of mistakes that could of been nasty
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That’s where filling your bag of experience before your bag of luck becomes empty comes into play. Any pilot worth their salt has made mistakes and errors that they have learned from. It’s the pilot’s that don’t learn that you have to worry about. 
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Cargolux Jumbo loses a gear boogie during emergency landing…
And Juan Browne takes a look at it on his Blancolirio channel.
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That’s pretty cool!
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It was!
And the way that boogie bounced after breaking away tells us something about the energy they are absorbing, every time they interface with the planet…
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