The question that will never be answered is why the aircraft pitched up to 45/50 degrees after lift off, forget vertical. Some unknown event caused this.
Another important piece of information that was ignored is this.
In my view the aircraft is most vulnerable to running out of forward stick when on the jump run. The aircraft is relatively slow, low power setting, and the first pair to exit have to come back to the door at least 12 to 18 inch's. The pair at the very back are the second to exit. This is where you would expect the aft C of G to become evident, and yet there was no problem. On ratings in the Fletcher, and I would imagine the Cresco and XL as well, this is something that is pointed out, to monitor speed and nose attitude on jump run.
On the other hand take off is perfectly normal. Take off with trim a couple of turns back from fully forward, after take off get rid of flap and trim back to about 3/4 forward and then pull nose up to maintain the 90 knots for best initial climb. Not something you would be doing on 78 previous flights with a similar load in this particular aircraft, and tens of thousands in other aircraft of the same type if the flights were barely controllable as TAIC suggests.
Last edited by Weheka; 22nd December 2012 at 20:33.