I spent so much time learning how to fly my Q2 (high speed taxis and all) but didn't learn proper performance taking off at 8000' density altitude.

The alternate airport I chose from the air had way too short of a runway (3400') when just 20 miles more was a strip of 9000' (I normally fly out of 3500' runway (at 839'), so the normal warning bells didn't sound). My planned destination had a 10,000' strip.

On take off, doing the normal hold the stick back until rotation, then release pressure at 70: nothing happened. 75mph, still on the ground. 50 foot wide runway and my hold the plane on the centerline was not good enough to brake and remain on the runway. At the end of the runway was a cliff. I ended up trying to push the plane into ground effect, like other planes but only succeeded in porpoising and rolling right. I leveled on the way down, impacted terrain, then off a bluff, landing in a Russian Olive tree (overlooking a river valley at U10).

I am lucky to be alive.

In hindsight I didn't need to learn mountain flying at the same time as learning to fly the Q2; flying her was like having fleeting time with a high school crush. The Q2 was like the perfect horse, you could direct her whichever direction you wanted her to go.