A and C
With regard to the BAe 748 land back at Stansted some years back I was able to talk to the captain of that aircraft ( i was flying another RR dart powerd type at the time and wanted to know why it failed) Performance was not an issue in this case , the fire was ! and the "land back" would have left the aircraft with no further damage had there not been a drainage ditch just off the end of the runway.
Absolutely true in this case (from my reading of the article in "Pilot") but I don't think that in any way devalues my argument.
There are many potential reasons for wanting to land back quickly, regardless of performance (I personally have had smoke in the cockpit (x2), total electrical failure at night and severe vibration on rotate, but these are only examples) and if you are taking off from a long runway (I typically use IFR fields) it is simply good sense to leave the odds in your favour by leaving the wheels down.
If I cannot reasonably expect to land back (fog, water, town, mountain, cliff for example) I whip the gear up very quickly.
Last edited by Timothy; 2nd Jan 2003 at 15:42.