Flying in Russia Is a Dirty Business

AKA, "In Russia, runways lands on you!"

An article about a messy take-off accompanied by two videos; one from the ground and one from a passenger. Neither are very confidence inspiring:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/where-drink-cart-plane-takes-off-mud-slicked-190737222.html

Looks like the plane was drifting a little about halfway down the runway

I can't help but think the pilots were assuming they could build up enough speed while plowing through the mud, they used every inch of that runway...

Didn't know John Deere made airplanes.

I would wager that the roads are in worse shape. A high wing airplane is the most suitable type for those conditions. I think that it looks more dangerous than it is.

Umm that's OK, I'll just get out here and walk.

pilotbraden wrote: I would wager that the roads are in worse shape. A high wing airplane is the most suitable type for those conditions. I think that it's more dangerous than it looks.

Fixed it for you. A car getting out of shape and hitting something is bad, but designed for it. Planes aren't designed to hit things. My pants would have had more mud than the runway by the time it was airborn

I would've been worried that A) if that plane doesn't lift off, will be able to break in time? B) Will the landing gear sustain such abuse? C) Don't they make ski-plane type things to fit onto the wheels?

PHeller wrote: I would've been worried that A) if that plane doesn't lift off, will be able to break in time?

I'm sure you wouldn't have to worry about it taking too long to break if it didn't lift off.

Those Cold War-era Soviet cargo planes were designed with unimproved (to use the term loosely) fields in mind. The An-24 is pretty rugged, so I wouldn't be too concerned about the gear. It looks to me like the pilot is trying to build as much speed as he can before rotation, rather than trying to use as little runway as possible.

I noticed the pilot using a lot of rudder early in that take off!