Somewhere in here I posted to "plan the flight and fly the plan". Today it was worth the effort!
I took off for a flight test of a recently repaired autopilot, in a Lake Amphibian. Wind 180 @ 7kt, so I used runway 18, full 6000 foot length. 200 feet up, and the gear had just retracted, the loud bang and clatter up and behind me, and the shaking engine pylon, told me this was going to be a very short flight. Pullng the power off helped. A quick teardrop (flying, not from eyes), gear and flap selected down really fast, and I was pointed back at runway 36, fast but nice touchdown halfway down the runway. I found I still had power to taxi, and the engine was now smooth again. When I parked, and got out, the reason was clear. The cowl latch had broken it's lock, and released, allowing the half cowl to open, and flop all over the place. Everyone was quite pleased that it did not rip off, and go out through a quite new propeller! It's amazing how much the flopping cowl made the whole pylon shake!
The farthest I got from the button of runway 18 was about 7000 feet, beyond that was miles of unwelcoming forest in all directions. I've aborted two other takeoffs from this airport, and should have aborted a third. The two aborts were just relands, on the same runway, so they don't really count. How glad I am that I keep planning for a failure. It would appear that I have not had my last!
Prepare for the unexpected!
Pilot DAR