First real-life aborted takeoff today...

[Guest]

As one person said to me, "There's a first time for everything."Well today was the first time I've ever had to abort a takeoff. I had justed landed on runway 02 at DeKalb (KDKB), retracted flaps, and applied full power for my touch'n'go. I had just verified rpm in the green, oil/temp in the green, and airspeed alive when all of the sudden a flock of about 2000 small birds started flying directly across the runway from east to west within a few feet of the runway. I pulled the throttle to idle and started some serious braking. I had my right hand on the mixture knob and was about to yank it to idle cut off if needed, but I came to a stop about 50 feet short of the flock. Whew! Got my ticker pumping pretty good.

[ejoiner 21]

Too bad you didnt have a double barrelled shotgun underthe wing with some bird shot! You'd a been an Ace in no time! :-)Glad everything turned out ok. Big Scare.Eric

[Guest]

WOW! Sounds pretty hairy. We almost hit a flock of seagulls like that once on takeoff. We spotted them at V1 and had to go flying. Yanked back and managed to only hit two of them on the landing gear. Made a little "Fried Chicken" upon landing when the brakes heated up. Glad everything came out OK, birds can sure ruin your day.http://members.shaw.ca/madamo/Avsim_sig_KP.jpg

[Guest]

Wow, that was a close one. But I just have to ask, were they geese by any chance? Because lord knows we have enough of those out here to go around. :-lolScott

[Guest]

Glad to hear you got out of it! Although experience is a good teacher, the lessons are hard and rough. :-)http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/edenw/FS_..._banner_je3.jpg I took your love for grantedAnd all the things you said to meI need your arms to welcome meBut a cold stone's all I see

[Guest]

Had that happen to me also, but in my case it was a bunch of kangaroos here in Australia (of course) I was a student at the time and I spotted the roo's before my instuctor did and powered off!. He sang out "abort abort" and I really thought we were going to catch one in the prop, but luckily we didnt. It was close though and from memory only seconds before rotating, in a Cessna 172.CheersPete

[Guest Moghdad]

Hi Jason. I plan to check out DeKalb some time in the future. My lessons are going very well. Spent an unintentional afternoon hanging around Grand Geneva resort last Tuesday. My instructor and I had flown up from Palwaukee and decided to try a practice landing there. Everything went well until the nose wheel touched down and promptly blew. I've seen better landings... Fortunately there wasn't any traffic so we got out and pulled the plane onto the ramp. Of course, the airfield office was deserted. We called the flight school on my cell phone and an hour later another instructor and his student pilot showed up with a cannister of compressed air. No go. A quick weight check showed that their Sundowner wasn't going to carry the four of us back to Palwaukee, so back they went leaving me and my instructor. An hour later the plane returned with just the instructor. I made the flight back home pretty much unassisted, except for a little correction on short final to runway 30 at Palwaukee. The best part was this: By the time we took off from Grand Geneva it was nearly dark so I got my first taste of night flying.Huge fun!

[Guest Raptors4590]

I know this isnt as good as you guys' but i hit a Crow on Thursday. Kinda sick, dont want it to happen again, eww :) I really feel sorry for the guys tho, he just came ion front of the prop as I turned final (my first fully controlled landing). Well I guess there's a first for everything and something to remember it with. :)

[Guest]

My first Real Aborted takeoff was botched. It happened about 10 years ago in a C-172. In hind sight I don't feel that I was properly or adequately taught the procedure for an aborted takeoff until this event. The procedure I was taught (for a C-172)was the pull the throttle back, break firmly, and apply back pressure on the yoke to take off excess pressure from the nose wheel. And in practice this work well. But we alway seem to have practice it a fairly low ground speed! Well, I was on a cross county solo as a student pilot and I made a full stop landing at my destination airport (which had an operating control tower). I taxied back to the departure end of the runway, recieved clearence for takeoff and started my takeoff roll. At about 40 Knots something didn't "feel" right. As I approached 50 knots I decided to try to abort the takeoff. Now remember, you rotate a C-172 at about 55 Knots. Well as taught, I pulled the throttle to idle, all was good s far. I started to apply breaks and I applied light back pressure to the yoke. This is where things started to go wrong! By appling back pressure to the yoke at that speed the plane tried to lift off the ground. It started to skip down the runway! Because the wheels were not in contact with the ground much of the time the breaks did nothing! The end of the runway was growing nearer and nearer, and the plane was not even near stopped! That when I made a spur of the moment decision...I applied full throttle and decided to deal with any emergency in the air (still not knowing what didn't feel right on the takeoff roll)! I got the plane in the air about 200 feet before the end of the runway. I am sure the controllers didn't know what to think when they saw the plane skip down the runway. Once in the air I scanned the control and gauges quickly to see if I can find out what that naging feel was. And there it was.... Inexperienced, I didn't follow the pre-takeoff checklist as I taxied back to the departure end of the runway and I forgot the push the carburator heat control back in, so I took off with the carburator heat on. This is not a life threatning mistake but it led to a situtation that was almost a disaster.Lessons learned: 1) ALWAY use checklist, and 2) DO NOT apply back pressure to yoke during aborted takeoff while at high speeds. This exception was never taught to me. I learned it myself that day.

[Guest]

Nope, they looked like sparrows or finches or perhaps some other small bird. I know what you mean about the geese, though. I've had to go around a couple of times because of geese taking flight on the approach end to runway 26 at Lake In The Hills. I remember hearing about one of the flight center's newest 172's hiting a goose about a year ago which dented a wing pretty badly.The only other trouble I've seen is large herds of deer crossing the runway at Lake in the Hills which only caused me to stay in the pattern for a bit. There have been 2 or 3 deer-impact incidents at the airport in the last few years. I know two of them involved Citation Jets. They finally hired a redneck a little while ago with a shotgun and bagged something like 15 deer.

[Guest]

Wow, sounds like you had a long day! You just gave me some incentive to review the landing with blown tire checklists again. You can't review any of that emergency stuff too much!