[Jerry_M]

Contrary to some other posts here, this is not in the least bit unrealistic. Those older tube and fabric high wing planes have very low stall speeds, and being a tail wheel configuration already had a good angle of attack sitting on the ground. Add a little bit of power and away she goes.

I remember seeing a Piper Cub that was loosely tied down with about a 20-30 kt. wind coming straght down the nose. It strained against the chains and had all three wheels off the ground a couple of times until it was snugged down.

[Aeronaut]

It's not only possible, this is hardly the first instance. There are probably hundreds of incidents like the following:

A Mooney M-20 took a brief unattended flight off the ANE airport about 15 yrs ago. It only flew about a half-a-mile, but had it been trimmed a little more nose-up it'd have gone to Canada to crash.

[Lumberjack]

I was commenting on the fact that the pilot was negligent in not having the safety measures to prevent this in the first place. I was not saying that it was not possible, only that he had done everything completely incorrect.

IOW, a plane sitting with a clear path in front of it, started, with good trim already set, the chocks out of its wheels, and the RPM's cranked high enough to cause it to be able to accelerate at least past its stall speed (that causes takeoff ya' know), and the handbrake apparently not set (if this model has one, which I would find hard to believe that it doesn't. Its not *that* old, though I could be wrong). That is just not good piloting skills, no matter how you cut it.