Participants in a ski race in the Italian Alps are calling for action against the pilot of a Swiss-registered Super Cub on skis who cut through the racers during a takeoff on Saturday. The skiers were taking part in the Mezzdalama Trophy, a prestigious skimo back country skiing race, on Monte Rosa. Although the plane went through a sizeable gap in the line of skiers, they were still appalled at what they considered to be a reckless act.
Seems like an unforced error to me- looks like they landed and then immediately took off. You can see a line of people like that from a long ways off. Maybe they thought they would have taken off by the line of people?
Looks like he was at the service ceiling, stuck between the ridge and the long line of racers. If he steered left to stay airborne he would have gone right through the line of people. Pretty smart to land, then veer downhill to get airborne again, steering between a gap in the racers. Pretty dumb overall, but not sure he had many options. Even trying to stop after landing would have been risky for all.
If the skiers organization did not request a NOTAM for the mountain, how would a pilot know that there would be more than usual number of skiers at that hour?
I saw this video first on FB and didn’t think too much about it until reading this avweb report and possible action against the pilot. Since the plane made a landing, turned without stopping and continued into a takeoff between skiers, there’s more to this that may explain pilot action when investigations reveal the reason for not stopping uphill and alerting skiers before taking off.
My amazement with irrationality associated with aviation issues never ceases. Looks to me like the gap between mountain climbers and the aircraft was at least equal to the distance possible between spectators and an aircraft operating on a 30 ft wide runway at a small airfield or people standing on the edge of a road with cars traveling in two directions at 60 mph. The hype goes with the news cover of 5 aircraft fatalities a year here in Switzerland versus 250 traffic fatalities a year. When it comes to aviation, rational thinking takes a back seat. I suggest to Keith that he avoid sidewalks based on how dangerous they are in Vancouver.
Any ski pilot who operates often on sites with a double fall line, knows that you never turn downslope unless that’s the direction you plan to take off in. In other words (forget about his initial decision to land) after he had landed, slowed , but still had some momentum he shoulda/coulda kicked it around INTO the downslope, to the right, and easily made a 180 to take back off along the tracks he made landing and stayed the hell the way from the skiers. Once he turned left and was pointed downslope, he had few options other than to do what he did.