Strictly speaking you must have initiated a takeoff rejection by V1. But now, if you have an engine fire just below V1 and you abort or reject, you´re doing exactly what you´re supposed to do, exactly what they teach us in the sim, and exactly what the judge will determine as legal.
All takeoffs are "go minded" which means one tends to let the airplane do what the airplane knows best.....fly ! but there are a whole bunch of possible scenarios where one can´t speculate with "oh well I am a few knots below V1, no matter what happens I´ll keep going" because that speed is based on the aircraft´s capability to stop against its capability to be controlled and to accelerate safely for flight. What if you´re taking off on a contaminated runway and V1 is really low, and of course the fire is a REAL fire, and the engine also quits...not the simulator fires, where you only get the bell but the engine performs perfectly... What if you´re departing with anti skid inop...and your V1 is even lower...you decide to continue a takeoff with very low speed, low weight, you might have controllability problems...and may not accelerate, could tail strike and lose control.
All I am trying to say is that you can´t deal in absolutes here. High speed failiures are the probably the most critical scenarios and you can´t just say "I will never reject a takeoff maneuver this many knots below V1 or beyond certain point at the rwy or whatever. Someone came up with a V speed called V1 and your course of action must keep in mind this value.
Regards,
SW.
PS: and yes, old smokey ´s very correct..if its a fire...and you don´t abort, you could have 3 o 4 minutes to destruction, if it was IMC and you had to fly an instrument approach eww..nasty..hope those freon bottles help...
Hey this is my post #100 !!!!!