Quote:
Originally Posted by Baronman  There was a freedom erj last year that aborted past v1 successfully. I believe the gust lock which holds the elevator did not fully disengage and the pilot was unable to rotate. As other erj drivers know you really need both hands and to pull back almost 90% of the travel to raise the nose. Of course it was an rj and not a 747 and luckily they had the long runways, I believe all the other aircraft systems performed normally. |
I dunno, I think V1 is a good guideline, however, I don't feel that its a golden rule to be followed unthinkingly. A lot of times it depends on the airport, If I'm on a 11,000' runway in the 1900, it only takes about 3500' for us get off, if I lose a motor at exactly v1 (which was usually 114kts) I think its probably prudent to chop the powerlevers and brake to a stop, which the airplane will do no problem, additionally with beta (provided both motors are working for other emergencies) the braking roll is drastically reduced.. Why take that airplane into the air and fight with a dead motor when you still have about 8000' of runway to burn. It will take you more than 30 seconds to reach the end at 114kts or so, so slowing you have plenty of time.
I think we need a new speed called Vbrake or something, which is the speed for the field length that allows you to stop using braking power alone in the remaining runway. It'd have to be calculated before every takeoff, but it'd be useful. There are a lot of accidents on takeoff that I think could be prevented, or the circumstances at least changed for the better if the crews had a bit better idea of their options.