No like in the other clip stick one wheel in water and it will be like hitting a huge brake on that side only!

its bad piloting control skills allowing the aircraft to drift left on the takeoff roll and not judging correctly the wave points washing the beach…. Do not know what to say ? Plonkers

Pace

Going into the sea prevented any take off attempt, and thus saved their lives (probably). Had they got airborne, there's no way they'd have avoided flying smack into those cliffs!

What on earth made them think they would make it?
How not to execute a beach take off :=

Looks like he didn't take into account the cross gradient on the beach, then could only go one way.

Why didn't he use the full length of beach and do a curved takeoff? You can clearly tell there's thousands of feet behind him unused.

There is another view on Youtube and it really does look as if the cliffs are reasonably close to the runway. Words fail me. It would be a great case study in a PPL course.

Yes, they are kit builds. The fuel tank is behind the seats, and I mean right behind the seats, actually in the cockpit. There is no fuel gauge, you simply look back and see the white plastic tank, you can see the fuel level as a shadow through the clear plastic tank, and there are markings of 10, 20, 30 litres on the side.

If there was any kind of blockage, I'm sure any Jabiru pilot would try and fix it themselves and immediately get airborne again, that's the sort of airmanship these guys display. Whenever you step into a Jabiru aircraft you're basically saying you don't care if you see another day, absolutely terrible aircraft that should never have been allowed to get airborne.

To be honest that sounds a more accurate way of working out how much you've got left than most GA fuel gauges!

Yeah, it's not bad, but at least in something like a C42 they had the decency to build some kind of all between you and the fuel tank, even if it does have a flap you can peek through to see the fuel tank.

I've watched this a few times now, and I still cant understand what was going through their heads the whole duration, not just before take off on either attempt.

There was more than one attempt at takeoff! :eek:

Do you mean that they tried and abandoned the take off and then tried again? I've only seen one attempt.

Or have I misread your comment?

According to the video they tried to depart twice?

No, they had an emergency landing earlier due to a fuel blockage. Then they fixed the blockage on the beach and tried to take off again - which failed.

The reporter said "imagine having two crash landings in one day" which might have confused the issue. Technically, there were no crash landings at all, there was one forced landing and then a failed take off resulting in a crash.

More here...

BBC News - New Zealand plane beach take-off fails

No, I don't think there were two take off attempts.

The video refers to the aircraft crashing twice, it says that it had a problem in flight and "crash landed on the beach" after some maintenance and replacing what they broke during that landing they had the take off attempt which you see, which resulted in the second (and final) crash into the sea.

I just hope this aircraft never flies again.

EDIT: Howard beat me to it :ok:

Its still not clear to me if there were one or two on the airplane for takeoff. As a side note, nose wheel airplanes will tend to drift downhill when taking off/landing on a side slope (in this case, into the surf). Taildraggers are the opposite, and tend to go uphill. The steeper the slope, the more rudder required to counter the effect.

Soft surface, small tires, water, slope, not much horsepower, too much weight. The Jab was doomed.

There's definitely two on board. You can see them both wearing life jackets as they prepare the aircraft, and then when the aircraft is nose down in the water the right door pops open and the "co-pilot" (as referred to in the video) is sat in the right seat.

I saw another angle on this and it is clear to me that they didn't use enough right rudder as the plane drifts to its own left (viewed from pilot, PORT).

HOWEVER, having never heard of this type of plane, it may have a non standard engine rotation.

YIKES

And with innocent kids around! Shame on them

The RH door falling open after the rotation to the left, after the impact with the water and beach, gives one a great deal of confidence in the cabin structural integrity of Jabirus. :(

Should be a regulation
 

The exhilaration after pulling off a damage free forced landing seems incompatible with the cold rational calculation needed to accomplish a successful takeoff from an unprepared area.

If you manage to pull off a forced landing and find the aircraft usable afterwards, it should be a reg that you promptly visit the pub to celebrate your luck -- preferably after securing the a/c.

Then in the morning you can make a thorough investigation of the various obstacles and hazards presented and work out a plan to either mitigate them to a reasonable level or, if doubtful, arrange to haul out the aircraft.

Oh ok, hands up then, it confused me :)