Hi Denys. Welcome to the forum and it must have been a gruelling first up post for you.
As you have no doubt gathered, several of the pilots here think you are extremely lucky in a way that you didn't write yourself, the plane and the pax off.
You seem convinced that you could go with 29 ", - that is the problem with an operation where local rules start getting made. Bar talk and hearsay can start over-riding the manuals.
You are not alone in doing something incredibly stupid.. yours was just so dangerous and public that it was the final straw in bringing down an airservice operator.
Many operations fail after a crash, the publicity and loss of confidence by the public means that the revenue loss is unacceptable.
I can rattle of a string of names of junior pilots who have not only killed themselves but often their passengers and the company in the process.
You were very fortunate in a way.. then again if was mortified to see Ged report your fellow pilots' take on the events.
At our meeting, that evening the PIC got a ripple of applause from his fellow pilots. I said NO! You must realise how close this was to a disaster. It wasn't clever. It wasn't good flying - it never should have happened.
Airmanship appears to be dead.
Perhaps it could have happened to a number of your peers.... you may have just been the unlucky one in the batch.
Some of you guys need a cranky Chief Engineer to ream you out..
You will soon stop the cavalier approach to defects and the reporting of same.
The moment that engine did not get above 30" on the take-off the aircraft was no longer airworthy.
I have never bought into the argument that a 200 hour pilot has not got the experience to realise that. The rules are very clear and it is not difficult to teach.