LSA weight difference

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3Dreaming
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Re: LSA weight difference

Post by 3Dreaming »

When I first saw the video I was thinking to myself that the airplane is turning the wrong way.
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drseti
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Re: LSA weight difference

Post by drseti »

Just watched the video. The pilot definitely froze. Didn't even kill the engine when the aircraft departed the runway.
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FastEddieB
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Re: LSA weight difference

Post by FastEddieB »

Here’s a post I made on that video over on Pilots of America:

That’s a scary and sad but informative video.

Warren Zevon once sang “You’re a whole ‘nother person when you’re scared”. Once panic sets in, everything changes.

In this video we see at least two cognitive flaws working at once.

Task Fixation - once he applied full power, his brain apparently locked onto getting airborne again, to the exclusion of anything else. I doubt reducing power and braking ever crossed his mind - precious little conscious thought or analytical thinking result once panic sets in.

Negative Transfer - Every car he’d ever driven responded to input to the steering wheel in the same way. And a yoke looks a lot like a steering wheel. I’ll venture there’s not an instructor alive who hasn’t seen a student attempt to “steer” away from a swerve. And not just beginners. Watch pilots as they correct to stay on the centerline on takeoff and it’s not unusual to see the yoke subtly “steering” the plane in addition to the rudders. Innocuous in most circumstances, but not once panic sets in.

So, I would not be too quick to fault his training or his instructor. Student pilots solo with just the basics having been covered, and this fellow may have had the basics down pretty well - up until it all suddenly went very, very wrong. No doubt this scene replayed with some regularity before GoPros became ubiquitous.
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