I prefer not to vilify the pilot for what he did, certainly I'm not perfect, however it appears to me there's at least a couple of useful takeaways from this unfortunate accident (apart from the obvious):
- If he had decent headwind at the start of takeoff it's quite possible that dropped significantly as he approached the trees. Trees will have quite an effect on the air between 5-10 times their height downwind, something the pilot may not have been aware of - especially if he didn't walk the proposed runway.
- From what I could tell the pilot didn't use any particular short field technique? I'd have expected full power on the brakes (and stick hard back!) for a time before releasing brakes and beginning the run, but it didn't seem to me he'd done that. Happy to be corrected, and I'm not saying it would necessarily have helped here, nevertheless it's a potentially useful practice for such instances and could make the difference in some circumstances.
Also, my 180 time is pretty minimal and very distant, but in other tailwheel craft I'd usually want to get the tail up in order to reduce drag asap. It didn't seem to me that was done here; apart from there perhaps not being enough time due to the (too) short runway I wonder if such would be useful given a 180's characteristics? Please note I'm genuinely asking the question because I'd like to know, not making a statement!