Aborted Take-offs
 

As I was flying out of Atlanta Friday afternoon, I had the unique (for me) experience of not one, but two aborted take-offs. On the first one, we had just started accelerating and were probably only going 60-80 mph when the pilot throttled back and pulled off the runway very quickly. Over the intercom we heard, "Yeah, that's a problem - we have to figure it out." Then silence for about 10 seconds followed by "Ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats." As if we were going anywhere.

After about 5 minutes, the flight attendant came on and told us that there was been a control surface warning and "maintenance" thought that resetting the computer would clear it, so the pilot retarts the computer and we go get in line again.

The second time, we're screaming down the runway and are just about to rotate when he throttles back, full on the brakes, full thrust reversers, air brakes on the wings...heck I think he was dragging his feet to get the plane to stop. We pull off the runway. "Ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats.".

This time we went back to the gate and got to hang out with the mass of humanity in ATL while we waited to find another plane.

Probably a common occurrence, but this had never happened to me...

I've never started down the runway and aborted. I've been stuck in the plane at the gate or out parked on the runway for hours.

I have had two go-arounds- on right after the other. Cleared to land in O'Hare, we're almost touching down and full throttle, we go around and do the same thing again. Both times the runway is occupied (I'm listening to Channel 9 on UAL). Pilot comes on and says "third times a charm." It was; an uneventful landing. But I had to wonder what was going on in O'Hare's tower.

Once I was actually flying when we received clearance at Reagan; a TWA 727 was sitting on the runway (gives you an idea of how long ago this was). My friend the real pilot took over and we did a go-round.

It happens. . . Better to deal with it on the ground than in the air in a lot of cases.

I've flown many miles (as pax) over the years and the occasional scrubbed approach/takeoff still gets my attention pretty quick. I'm sure the pilots love it as it breaks up the routine...

I remember on one of the first flights I made to the USA when I was a kid that we had a tire blow out and had to go back to the terminal. I think we may have started down the runway, but we could have been just taxiing - I was only about ten at the time.

Leaving Miami for the Bahamas a few years ago we took off with a very steep climb. There was a loud boom and the plane started to shake violently. I thought the plane was coming apart. We started dropping. You could feel the plane falling. Then the pilot hit the power and we started climbing again. Everyone let out an audible sigh then the violent shudder happened again with the same loss of power and rapid loss of altitude. Somehow the pilot got the plane turned around and landed safely. There were emergency crews heading for the runway.

On the way off the plane the cockpit door was closed. A retired pilot (passenger) asked if he could speak to the captain. The flight attendant started to say he was busy, but the cockpit door opened. The old man looked at the pilot and said, "Damn fine work, Captain." The captain looked worried and exhausted but he managed a smile and "Thanks."

I'm just glad we never left the ground. After one abort, I was willing to go along with the "let's just give the ol' computer the three-fingered salute and try it again" approach, but after two aborts, I (and many of the other passengers) were going to need some reassurance that they actually knew what the problem was and that it was rectified.

Even when we got back to the gate (once they found a gate - you know ATL), they were maintaining that it was merely a computer issue and that they were going to swap it out and we'd be on our way. We weren't even going to deplane. After about 5 minutes, they came over the intercom and told us to gather our belongings and get off.

Evidently there was more wrong than simply a computer.

Good story, Moses. My Dad tells a similar one from a takeoff in a 727. Center engine let go (very violently) right as they rotated and they had to take off anyway and go around really quickly and land again. My Dad said he walked off the plane (at 9:30 in the am) and went straight over to the bar and had a vodka and tonic. :>)

Most takeoff aborts are a non-events these days. It is one of the most practised events (in the simulator). Except there, the instructors/examiners have loaded you up to max everything, thrown in some weather, and waited until the exact last second to hit you with the reason for the abort (pre-programmed into a computer).

The second most practised event in the simulator is the exact same scenario, but they wait until just seconds AFTER the commit to fly point, and then hit you with the fire/blown engine scenario.

You get to fly it around the pattern (IFR and VFR) to get back on the runway. Of course at max gross weight, snowing, crosswinds, and sometimes a fuel truck or a FedEx freighter crossing the runway as you get ready to flare (requiring a go-around). Minus that engine that folded tent just before liftoff.

If the instructor had a fight with the wife or had some road rage left in him from his commute to work, he failed the engine with the hydraulic system that boosted the flight controls, or the brakes and steering, letting you physically wrest that 50 tons of plane around the pattern.

If he really doesn't like you (or sees, in my case, that you have never crashed the sim), he'll shut the airport you just left from down, and let you sweat your way to some other airport to land on a shorter runway with an even lousier approach.

The stuff that actually happens in the airplane in real life is usually a non-event.

You've seen a lot worse in the sim. That's the whole point.

Some people take that swagger as pilot bravado.

I consider it the confidence that good training instills.

We used to call the sim the "stimulator" or "the sauna". Very appropriate. Sim sessions are the most fun (and most stressful) situations you'll get (hopefully)!

I'm sure you're right. I also happen to work right in between two runways, so I see planes taking off and landing all day, every day. There's even a couple of small "Lear" jets for lack of a better term with Air Force markings that do touch and goes *all day long*. Every day. These guys take off and land *alot*. I'm sure it was a non-event for the pilots - I've just never been a passenger in that situation.

The pilot even came on and said that it was a frustrating for them as it was for us...

Michael is spot on here. With todays simulators flight crew are run through the mill by the time they get online.

They have one more aborts and missed approaches in the simulator than they ever will do in the real airplane. BTW, flying the simulator is more difficult than the real jet, so if you can handle the simulator, flying the jet is a non issue.

Good training does build a good pilot but it also weeds out bad ones. By the time you get to this level you are either good or working at Burger King.

agreed. after two weeks spent at pan am or simuflite every 6 months back when i was flying the old lears, it was good to get out of the 'hot seat' and back into the 'security' of the real bird..

I had two failed landings at DFW on weekend. both coming down during a spring storm. The second one I heard up in the cockpit the beep beep beep and the calm female voice saying "windshear" "windshear" "windshear"
pull up, pull up.

Please (and I am on your team you here)...simulators can't suck enough:)

Better to be on the ground and hope to be in the air than to be in the air and hoping to be on the ground...!

Only one "traffic on the runway" landing abort & one holding pattern bugout "getting a little too close for comfort" in hundreds of flights over 25 years.

Ian

Remember the DC-10 that got caught in windshear at DFW? I was flying overhead when that happened and a friend of mine was flying the Learjet just ahead of him on approach. If you listen to the CVR tapes you can hear my friend warning ATC about shear.

Happens a lot in this part of the country this time of year. Do not miss it at all...

But I bet something that you have never done in the simulator an aborted takeoff (at will say V1) when suddenly the cabin fill with smoke!!! That one (real flight as a pax) scared the pants out of me, I did not fly that day ... and I had other (several) aborted take offs and landings and two emergency landings.....

Hey pilots! Any idea what kind of mechanical problems might have caused the problems we had in Miami?

Moses,

Did you guys lose an engine? Almost sounds like it, especially if the plane started descending. Hard to tell without being there but that would be my first guess...

I would say an engine problem. Bird ingestion, compressor stall.....

Man I'm glad you guys train as thoroughly as you do.

Forgot about that... Miami... takeoff and birds. Not a good mix.

Moses,

When Michael or I go in the simulator its 20 to 40 hours in a week of solid sim. About 20% of the time in the sim we have both engines running, the rest of the time its single engine, hyd out, simulated one engine on fire, no landing gear and so on. Its not fun and as we said before, if you pass the sim you can fly the plane.

The bad part about this is that after you have been doing this as long as Michael or I have, the instructors in the simulator usually have fun with us. One of them told me recently "you have seen all the old fashioned stuff, we have to make up new things for you old farts!"

Reminds me of an old favourite.....

Right after reaching cruise altitude, the mandatory 'welcome aboard' speech was due from the cockpit. The grizzled old (probably tired looking) Captain did the usual speech to the cabin over the PA, and on finishing, replaced the handset in it's holder, but forgot to shut off the system.

His words, meant only for the co-pilot's ears, were "Now all I need is a good hot cup of coffee and a blow job from that cute new flight attendant in back."

Of course, all of this went out to the cabin over the PA. The new F/A in the back, hearing this, thinking only of the good name of her airline, got up from her seat, and began walking briskly up to the cockpit door to tell her Captain that the switch was still on for the Cabin PA.

A little grey haired lady seeing her racing up the aisle, reached out and stopped her in mid-stride, and with a straight face said... "Don't forget the coffee."


Yes, an old one, but a good one. That and the billy goat one.

We definitely lost the right engine. Passengers on the right side in front of the wing could see it. I think we might have had issues with the left one too, but had enough power to land safely.

Love the coffee and BJ joke. Classic.

Gahan Wilson. Anyone in aviation is familiar with his cartoon work.

Two favs.

Two little pilot types flying along in their airliner; fluffy clouds, smiles on both of their faces.

Both of them suddenly see the same thing. A little billygoat standing on a cloud right dead ahead.

They look at each other and say.... "How do you suppose that little billygoat got all the way up here????"

The other... Gahan Wilson is known for his 'monsters' characters. These people with really ugly caricatures. All of us pilots have to submit to the 'every six month medical check'.....

A one page cartoon... a doctors' office. The craggly old doc, with the reflector thingy on his head, rumpled white lab coat and clipboard in hand is looking at the poor pilot-type sitting on his exam table.

The forlorn-looking pilot, in a wife-beater t-shirt and polka-dot boxers, has this horrible alien monster thing with claws and bloody teeth buried in his back, unseen by the pilot.

The doc, looking at the pilot says... "I think I might have found your problem..."