Back in the 90’s had some family in town visiting so took them for a flight to Catalina Island in a rented 172 from KSMO. Landing went fine and had a nice buffalo burger, upon departure preparations half way thru the check-list my numeric pager (yes, before mobile phones) went off so I checked it then went back to the check-list then proceeded to line up, power up and roll on RNY 22. I felt I was not getting the speed/acceleration as usual but kept going, with the departure end of the runway fast approaching and I'm not quite at rotate speed yet I realised I am in big trouble. The end of the runway consists of a bit grass at strip level then a severe drop away of several hundred feet. Now at the departure end I raise the nose and stall warning blaring and the passengers as anxious as me I lower the nose run across the grass and over what could best be described as the cliff!
Initially I did not lose any altitude, but did not gain any till I built some speed. The passengers were now terrified and I was bewildered. On the flight back across the water to LA I said to myself I better figure WTF happened here so I got the check-list back out and went down thru it till the item where the pager went off, the next item was “Brake Release”. I guess that upon returning to the check-list after the pager interruption I had skipped that one item and as I had not fully engaged the brake for run up the plane could get moving but not quite enough to get to rotate speed.
Lesson learned? Turn off and/or ignore all unnecessary bull**** and take care of the business at hand with 100% of your attention.
Last edited by piperboy84; 13th Feb 2013 at 17:45.