Originally Posted by
Pilot DAR
Directional control and pitch attitude control are not really related during takeoff. If the accident aircraft had a directional deviation, it would still have had a better outcome were the tail to be up, and the aircraft at flying speed before being allowed to become airborne. The sudden wing drop visible in the video is exactly what happened to me numerous times during stall testing of a turbine DC-3. Recovery was gentle if initiated before the stall had occurred. If the stall progressed to loss of control, it was demanding to recover with minimum upset. Recovery from a half turn incipient spin in t DC-3 will use up around 2000 feet of altitude for my experience.
In a standard powered DC-3 the forward push to get the tail up can hardly be called "gentle" when heavily loaded. Now this airplane was nowhere near that condition but I have flown them where it takes everything you have to push the tail up. As a matter of fact in those conditions you have to use the trim wheel to get things going. As for directional control, as I mentioned in a separate post, the ailerons are highly effective for directional control and MUST be used, rudder alone cannot overcome a large swing. And we routinely used aggressive differential power when needed to keep the thing straight when aerodynamic control input was not sufficient.