Quote Originally Posted by Brit plumber View Post
That looked a little odd, there were a few problems before wheels off and the pilot appeared to still opt to continue rather than abort. Possibly a control restriction. A real shame but at least all survived and still demonstrates the strength of the DC3/C47 after 80 years.
Possible control restriction was what I was thinking when I watched the video. I wondered if he had accidentally missed a control lock when he did his pre-flight. I remember reading that was the cause of the accident in which the US Army's Golden Knight parachute team was killed in 1973. That was a Dakota too. From memory, the investigators found a control lock still in place (rudder or elevator ????) at take off and after the crash.

I also wondered if he had a problem with the right engine speed (throttle? mixture control? fuel flow? magnetos?) since he took so long to get the tail up, and it appeared he veered to the right and was right wing low at one point then left wing low and veered left.

The accident investigation report will be interesting reading when it is published.