west hawk
Yeah, I took off at Kaneohe Bay to Honolulu once with 28K on fuel, empty. One swoop to 9,000', idle, cleared visual; far different story above about 732K gross weight. Not a lot of power out of those 60's vintage GE hair driers. Many, many take-offs required the entire runway, standing take-off and every inch of runway. 0-120 knots was, typically between 33 and 39 seconds.
Speaking of rejected take-offs, reducing your engine choices down to ONE doesn't make it much easier. Last F-100 RTU class, we were lectured by Vietnam vets on th dangers of high speed rejects. The plane took off at about 165 knots, had a drag chute and marginal brakes. The instructors emphasized the dangers and said taking most problems airborne was preferable.
WRT KDOV accident, dysfunctional leadership is in the background, an IP who shouldn't have been made one, poor CRM skills on the IP's part, resignation and fatigue all play role. But the man in the left seat shouldn't have been there and the two other pilots failed badly to correct the situation.
GF