Tue Mar 20, 2012 5:19 pm
#1048674
A weeks holiday unusually aligned with a spell of nice weather, so I and number 2 son decided to fly the following morning, nice and early. At the field for 0800, plane checked out, bit of ice on the wings, but the early morning sun soon put paid to that. Lined up.......DI/compass, accelerate.........speed obviously increasing, but no air speed, brief moment, which DID seem to last forever whilst I processed the data...then it dawned on me. In my self imposed rush to get airborne, Id forgotten that the pitot head cover was still on!
By this time, I'd used about 1/3rd of the available runway, so the decision was a no brainer, and with fairly robust braking we came to a halt at the last turn before the end of the runway.
The only thing hurt was pride, and fortunately, as it was so early, no one was there to see my embarrassment (or call the emergency services if the outcome had been different)
It did give me pause for thought though, had I been further down the runway, Id have been committed to the take off and *think* Id have managed using engine noise/attitude to complete a circuit.
Has anyone used something like a pitch attitude/engine RPM table to help in this situation?
Lessons: Checklist and use it.
By this time, I'd used about 1/3rd of the available runway, so the decision was a no brainer, and with fairly robust braking we came to a halt at the last turn before the end of the runway.
The only thing hurt was pride, and fortunately, as it was so early, no one was there to see my embarrassment (or call the emergency services if the outcome had been different)
It did give me pause for thought though, had I been further down the runway, Id have been committed to the take off and *think* Id have managed using engine noise/attitude to complete a circuit.
Has anyone used something like a pitch attitude/engine RPM table to help in this situation?
Lessons: Checklist and use it.