I have been told of two incidents where the crew started the takeoff roll without flaps selected, both on B737NG's. One aborted & one continued the takeoff while selecting the flaps - not what I would have considered smart! It must have been a little noisy for a while.
It would appear that Boeing has written the normal procedures to cover the case of de-icing during taxi & therefore not selecting flaps & calling for the checklist until after this is complete, just before takeoff. Some operators or pilots have taken the wording literally & are not calling the checklist until line up on every takeoff, even in areas where you never de-ice during taxi.
IMHO in these cases it is a setup for takeoff without flaps. If you are de-icing you are constantly aware of the aircraft configuration as you are turning packs & bleed off & on; setting stab trim & flaps. If you are just doing a normal taxi & takeoff, & you aren't naturally thinking about configuration unless you have some sort of memory jogger that you use before takeoff.
When I was flying in the part of the world where you never de-iced on taxi, I always called for the checklist when leaving the apron. This meant that the flaps were checked shortly after selection, before they were forgotten. However, there was once where the taxi was very short & busy. I was lining up, about to roll, when the F/O asked if I wanted the checklist. I had clean forgotten to call for it! We had the flaps set, but would have taken off without doing the checklist if it hadn't been for the on the ball F/O.
Reagrding the Config Warning horn, I have also taken off on one occasion without it's protection. I missed the first sign which was no chime from the cabin to advise ready for departure. I was listening on the interphone, so knew that the purser was trying to call. I thought that the chime system had failed & decided to deal with it once we were on the way. I finally twigged when we did a selcal check after TOC & it didn't work either. The Aural Warning C/B was popped. Actually I don't think it was 'popped'. The engineers pull this breaker on ocassions to stop the noise from the warnings when working on certain systems in the aircraft. And then they sometimes forget to reset it.
The trouble with this C/B is that it is right beside the fire extingusher on the F/O's side. If you don't get right over & look almost straight down, when doing the C/B check, you can easily miss that it is out. And if it is out, you will have no config warnings.
I filled a report expecting something to be sent out to all the pilots advising of the traps with this particular C/B during the preflight check, but they mustn't have considered the issue important. Go figure.
Last edited by Oakape; 19th Oct 2007 at 04:38.