Lord....V1...bang...like an explosion?...I would pull the levers, take the yoke and let the plane roll out.
No I won't let the PIC kill me.
If your chasing the the 'wrestling the controls' argument....having been a flight instructor long enough...anyone I have flown with has a pretty good idea that by the time I grab the controls...the controls needed grabbing. It won't be an argument...if in some alternate universe, the PIC wanted me fired, after saving the plane/passengers...we can take that up with the boss....and he can decide if the PIC was right by trying to fly a broken plane...or I was right in creating a 'Non event'.
Since I fly corporate...this type of scenario. where I have to take control....played out in more times then I care to admit...simply leads to nothing more then my not flying with this guy again...either in my plane or his...
Everyone is alive, that's what counts.
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Mutt - Maybe before we start with what the ops are used for your organization...we can start with the hiring profile of your pilots...what type of aircraft you fly...how many incidents you have...and if in the end...if you have problems...and or your pilots are so green as to not wanting them to make a decision....then you give them nice simple non thinking solutions, and just hope that the scenario they face, will be solved by a one size fits all approach...
Honestly Mutt, if had a bunch of 200 hour pilots flying my planes....my pending heart attack and ulcers aside, I guess the best I could do is just have then fly by the numbers and hope they never run into wake turbulence, ice, wind shear, multiple problems, terrorists, jack screw problems, a fire after V1, a rudder problem, flying a plane with a composite tail.......ect ect....
As far as acceptable margin to stop a plane...in what I fly...I can and do land on 3500 ft strips..
So if I calculate a balanced field of say 5000 ft...typical day...and the field is 8000ft...then it's pretty easy to figure V1 would be roughly at 2500-3000 ft down the runway...that leaves...5000 ft, pre VR...that's pretty darn easy....
The real issue isn't just how much runway ahead but the conditions I would be pulling the broken plane into..
Taking a problem up into the soup, on a SID, in the mountains, picking up ICE, trying to get back down to minimums...as opposed to a nice easy roll out is a no brainer for me.
As far as acceptable margin...every runway is different, and weather conditions are different...it's not hard to calculate runway needed to stop...on a post V1 abort...that's easy...the real question is what's beyond the end of the runway....cliff, lava...over run, miles of flat Iowa cornfields...or just miles of nice flat dry runway...
Last edited by johns7022; 11th Dec 2010 at 17:51.