Volunteers Pull Together To Recondition A Popular Backcountry Airfield - AVweb

My first 35 hours were in a 65 hp Luscombe on floats. I was instructed to get up off the water, then put the nose down and stay in ground effect to build up airspeed/lift before resuming my climb. The procedure made sense but later drew quizzical looks when I moved to land-based aircraft. With plenty of power, a cool day and some flaps, this seemed unnecessary but making use of ground effect, especially on a short runway seems to make some sense.