Aborted Takeoff/Runway Overrun

[Unregistered]

I fly out of a runway that I've said doesn't have accelerate/stop distance for the plane. The other day, I put this to the test, and found that, at least for the given conditions, I was right.

The runway was slightly damp on this morning, and the plane loaded up. My passenger got in and closed the door, something that this passenger frequently does (followed by locking it). The passenger didn't lock it, and then didn't tell me to lock it. This pilot passenger also normally sits right seat, and was sitting in back on this day. Start up, run-up, etc., everything's fine. Locking the door isn't on my checklist as it's part of the flow - close door, lock door. I've always stated that if a door opens on the takeoff roll to keep on rolling - an aborted takeoff is more dangerous, and a door popped open isn't dangerous, just noisy. Leave the door alone, go once around the pattern, and land. I have had this happen on more than one occasion, and have made the right decision every time confidently and without fail.

Coming down the runway right at about rotation speed, I looked over for the final check of the engine oil pressure gauge. Low oil pressure will cause an abort on the takeoff, and rightly so. Better to go off the end of the runway than have an engine seize in flight. As I was looking at the oil pressure gauge, I heard an unusual whistle, looked over, and saw the door latch in the "unlocked" position. I immediately aborted the takeoff with hard braking, and realized this was a bad idea, but stuck with it knowing that to reverse my decision would definitely result in a bad crash.

Despite hard braking that was very firm with no flat spots or locked wheels, I ended up going off the end of the runway. The way this airport is set up, fortunately there are no gates, but the runway does butt up against a perpendicular street. By the grace of God, there were no cars on the road when I entered it, and I came to a stop in the middle of the 2-lane road. I whipped the plane around and got it back on the airport and shut down. No cars stopped, but I'm sure that the people driving needed new pants when they saw a plane barrel into the road, and then turn around and come back.

The brakes were smoking, so we put fans on them and gave a good look over the plane and found nothing wrong with it. Very lucky.

I thought about this for a while and realized why, in a split second, I made the wrong decision when I'd made the right one more than once before in the same situation.

1) The loading routine was different from normal, hence why the door didn't get locked. Normally it's immediate close and lock. Since it was a flow item not on the checklist, it didn't get caught.
2) The door popped open from this as I was looking for a signal to abort the takeoff. Although it wasn't the signal I was looking for, it got confused in my brain. Having a split second in which to make the decision, I opted for the wrong one
3) Because the runway didn't have sufficient accelerate/stop distance and I was pretty much right at rotation speed, went off the end

I've since added checking the door as locked to the checklist to help prevent this. I'm also going to adjust my glance at the oil pressure to be earlier in the takeoff roll than when I did it. Fortunately, nobody got hurt, plane's fine, and I learned from it. I'm glad that I didn't reverse my decision to abort the takeoff once I realized I didn't have enough runway. This would have resulted in what likely would've been a fatal crash, definitely bent metal and probably a total loss on the plane. Once you make a decision like that, you need to stick with it.

One could argue another corrective action would be restricting myself to longer runways. There are reasons why I end up using some of the shorter airports I do, so it's part of a calculated risk that goes into that decision process. That said, I may consider it.

With thousands of hours of flight time, this is the first time I've made a bad decision that resulted in this level of embarrassment and potential for things to go really bad. As I've always said, we're all susceptible to bad decisions. The best thing that you can do is remain proficient and set yourself up for success.

 

[Johann]

Glad everything worked out. Can you share in which type of airplane this happened?

PS: Someone has to come up with a Metal Takeoff Calculator

 

[Unregistered]

I'm not going to share the specific type, but just say that on short field takeoffs, you typically take off around 70-75 kts. So that's about how fast I was going when I aborted.

 

[Brad Z]

When it's time to fly, it's time to fly. Unless you're on fire, when you reach Vr, you rotate. Anything else will require a circuit in the pattern, including low oil pressure. I'm glad you had good luck; certainly you could have killed yourself and others on the ground. I think you're correct in reevaluating your take off procedures. Thanks for sharing. Fly safe.

 

[Ted]

When it's time to fly, it's time to fly. Unless you're on fire, when you reach Vr, you rotate. Anything else will require a circuit in the pattern, including low oil pressure. I'm glad you had good luck; certainly you could have killed yourself and others on the ground. I think you're correct in reevaluating your take off procedures. Thanks for sharing. Fly safe.

That may not be the best idea. In a piston twin, an engine failure at (or even past) rotation can often be most safely handled by pulling both back and landing. In a single, that theory probably has more merit, and in a Part 25 aircraft it's a completely different animal. Even with a single, it depends on how long the runway is. Abnormality at rotation speed in a 172 on a 10,000 ft runway (full length, of course) would make me think best to just abort the takeoff.

 

[sourdough44]

Here's how I do the door on my PA-28. If it's hot out I leave it ajar. I may leave it that way during the taxi out. Once the door is swung shut it gets latched.

I don't count on the passenger to do any of it, maybe except for the older Son. I still check his work.

Years ago the door came unlatched after T/O, after appearing locked closed. I paid it no mind, landed and relocked it.

 

[Henning]

You made the wrong decision initially to abort, but you made the correct one in continuing the abort once started. So, you're batting .500.

 

[frfly172]

You changed your procedures,glad there was no harm,maybe a little to your pride. A good lesson shared .Thanks

 

[FastEddieB]

When it's time to fly, it's time to fly. Unless you're on fire, when you reach Vr, you rotate. Anything else will require a circuit in the pattern, including low oil pressure.

That seems like overly broad, and perhaps dangerous, advice.

As Ted said, it largely depends on the aircraft and runway. For instance, in a Light Sport or small GA plane on a 5,000' runway, mentally committing to getting airborne at Vr with 4,000'+ of runway ahead seems like a very poor recommendation.

Most problems are more easily and safely dealt with on the ground. Yet there is a very, very strong psychological compunction to get the plane in the air, even when something is obviously not right - Lord knows I've seen that in myself.

To the OP, good job and thanks for sharing.

 

[poadeleted20]

That may not be the best idea. In a piston twin, an engine failure at (or even past) rotation can often be most safely handled by pulling both back and landing. In a single, that theory probably has more merit, and in a Part 25 aircraft it's a completely different animal. Even with a single, it depends on how long the runway is. Abnormality at rotation speed in a 172 on a 10,000 ft runway (full length, of course) would make me think best to just abort the takeoff.

I'm with Ted. In Part 23 piston twins, you are generally unable to fly away after an engine failure unless it happens after reaching Vyse with gear up or you're well under max gross weight. We've killed a lot of folks trying to fly a 310 or the like after an engine failure near rotation, but we don't kill many with runway overruns -- hitting a fence at 30 knots is almost always nonfatal, but hitting the ground at 100 rarely is.

As for the OP, given the options, I try to group the various engine issues into "loss of thrust" versus "engine malfunction with thrust". So, while I might have one max abort speed for engine failure (i.e., something that causes the nose to yaw due to asymmetric thrust) where I might abort even after rotation/liftoff, I would also have a lower abort speed that gives accelerate-stop on the runway in existing conditions for more cautionary failures such as dropping oil pressure, which eventually will cause loss of thrust, but not instantly.

 

[Brad Z]

That seems like overly broad, and perhaps dangerous, advice.

As Ted said, it largely depends on the aircraft and runway. For instance, in a Light Sport or small GA plane on a 5,000' runway, mentally committing to getting airborne at Vr with 4,000'+ of runway ahead seems like a very poor recommendation.

Didn't the OP establish that he was aware of the fact that he did not have a balanced field length? My point is that a twin pilot's pretakeoff briefing should include a consideration for a point at which when the takeoff sequence may be terminated, and when it should be continued with the commitment to climbout on potentially one engine. The OP broke his own rule on when to fly, he should, didn't, but got lucky and has an educational story to share.

 

[Ted]

My point is that a twin pilot's pretakeoff briefing should include a consideration for a point at which when the takeoff sequence may be terminated, and when it should be continued with the commitment to climbout on potentially one engine.

That time is typically when the gear comes up, at least that's how I split it. Even still, there was a recent discussion on another forum regarding 421s and hot/heavy takeoffs where the POH states at a certain point it won't climb out.

Ron and I are in agreement that we've killed too many pilots in twins trying to fly out on one from situations where the plane just won't do it.

 

[Henning]

Yeah, if it has pistons and props, weight is a major factor in flying with a wounded machine. When flying myself and fuel, my ability in the 310 to climb out after gear in transit on one was very good. Load another 650lbs in the plane though and the situation becomes much more dubious.

 

[cirrusmx]

did you set max power while braking before the takeoff roll? you could have catch the low oil pressure fault before starting to roll.

 

[poadeleted20]

Ron and I are in agreement that we've killed too many pilots in twins trying to fly out on one from situations where the plane just won't do it.

It's not so much the pilots I mind (Darwin at work, although I don't like seeing anyone get hurt even if they fly like idiots) as the passengers or people on the ground those pilots kill -- that's a tragedy.

 

[poadeleted20]

did you set max power while braking before the takeoff roll? you could have catch the low oil pressure fault before starting to roll.

There are a lot of reasons not to set max power before brake release in bigger piston twins. They range from skidding the tires to picking up debris with the props to just shaking the plane enough to scare the passengers. Typically, running to about 1800-2000 RPM (whatever your run-up setting is) and checking for two good engines is sufficient. If you have the right oil pressure there, it's not likely you'll be low after your hit full throttle.

However, I gather the issue here is that the oil pressure dropped near rotation speed, and that's a bad place to have a warning light come on in a piston twin. Personally, knowing I was beyond max abort speed for the circumstances (short, wet runway), I'd probably have continued with a "low oil" light near rotation unless there was some other indication of loss of oil pressure (such as a rough-running engine), but I won't fault the OP for his "abort" decision under the circumstances.

 

[steingar]

You made the wrong decision initially to abort, but you made the correct one in continuing the abort once started. So, you're batting .500.

Agreed with Henning. Anyone can have a momentary brain fart, but I think the OP was way better off taking the overrun than trying to take off with too little runway. Way more hurt that way.

If a ball player hits the ball one out of three times he's batting .300, which is really good. Flying is lots more complicated, so batting .500 isn't bad, especially since no metal got bent and nobody got hurt.

 

[Ted]

It's not so much the pilots I mind (Darwin at work, although I don't like seeing anyone get hurt even if they fly like idiots) as the passengers or people on the ground those pilots kill -- that's a tragedy.

I agree 100%.

 

[Brad Z]

However, I gather the issue here is that the oil pressure dropped near rotation speed, and that's a bad place to have a warning light come on in a piston twin. Personally, knowing I was beyond max abort speed for the circumstances (short, wet runway), I'd probably have continued with a "low oil" light near rotation unless there was some other indication of loss of oil pressure (such as a rough-running engine), but I won't fault the OP for his "abort" decision under the circumstances.

Wait, I thought the OP's door popped open?

 

[jesse]

What type airplane was this in?

 

[Brad Z]

What type airplane was this in?

According to post #3 it's a secret. Sigh.

 

[CTLSi]

Runup checklist should include the following:

Taxi to runup and brake recheck, oil pressure check, oil temp check, EGT/CHT check, voltage check, takeoff trim set, yoke/stick check, mag check, seatbelt check, door check, radio frequencies set, final instructions to passengers, first call to tower or takeoff call if unicom...

 

[1600vw]

Wait, I thought the OP's door popped open?

Correct. The passenger did not lock the door after entering airplane. Because of this it did not get latched correctly and came open at rotation or this is when he noticed this. He then aborted the flight.

Tony

 

[poadeleted20]

Wait, I thought the OP's door popped open?

Sorry, perhaps I got confused by something someone else said. For a door, unless that door interfered with flight (and most don't), no way I'd abort above max abort speed. And again, that has to be a part of your pre-takeoff brief -- what you'll abort for and when, separating things into flight critical (for which you'll abort at high speed even if it means going off the end) and non-critical (for which you will not abort above max abort speed).

 

[Henning]

Probably a Piper product.

 

[Unregistered]

did you set max power while braking before the takeoff roll? you could have catch the low oil pressure fault before starting to roll.

On this particular aircraft, the brakes won't hold full power. Plus what Ron said about picking up a bunch of gravel/etc. that's hard on the props. Normally get to around 20"/2000 RPM before releasing the brakes.