Aborted Take Off

PeterPilot said:
Hopefully you have a parachute rigger certificate if you are repacking parachutes.
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You do not have to be a parachute rigger to pack parachutes...you can be "supervised" by an appropriately rated parachute rigger...but yes I am a rigger, seat & back rated.
 
jhugz said:
shenanigans.png
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awesome find :) great movie

+1 point
 
Unfortunately, what you experienced with your boss is all to common. I personally have MANY ecounters/stories of being reprimanded for excersizing caution and safety. The bosses aren't the ones flying those planes, you are! If you crash and burn, they blame you! You were never instructed by the company to fly that way!!!Also, you're not there to defend yourself! And there's always insurance to cover the costs! Owners only care about one thing and one thing only, MONEY!!! And how much YOU can make for THEM! And, as the economy worsens, so do they!

If you think what you went through was bad, wait until you do 24/7/365 on demand charter and refuse to fly because your duty time is about to run out, or you're going past your daily 10 hours of flying time and need to stop to get your 10 ours of rest!

Many owners don't realize you can't make tons of money in aviation. But they believe they can and if you can't do that for them, they'll just fire your ass and get some other over-eager-beaver-nieve pilot willing to step into your shoes.

I hate to sound negative but this is today's world of aviation. It's gotten just like every other job. It can even now be a dead-end job!

Hopefully you can find that one in a million operator who will treat you like a human being!
 
Hawks said:
I am just probably ranting, but I thought I would write it here anyways.

Today the winds in south Nevada were pretty strong. I was able to get my first load of skydivers up with out too much of a hitch. Load number 2, I am on my take off roll, pretty gnarly cross wind, I have both left aileron and rudder in this thing and I am still drifting right so I killed it, exited and told my skydivers I was going to give it another go, they weren't keen on it, so we called it a day, because they have to land in this crap with parachutes....Fast forward

The boss man is getting on my case because I aborted my take off. I told him the conditions, and he wasn't having it. He gave me a lecture on how we need the revenue etc...I told him, at that point screw the revenue, my decision was based on safety concerns. Better to scream about a few bucks then have an incident or accident...

This is not the only time I recieved a truck load of crap for making a decision like this. I do not need to start second guessing my self.

Is this the crap you deal with while you are building flight time?

One of our jump masters told me I am getting schooled on cross wind take offs and landings tomorrow. I'd better bite my tounge or else...
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Cannot maintain directional control on takeoff. The very definition of a reason to abort. You did the right thing.

Just nod and smile and keep your job. Unfortunately crap companies are where you just have to nod and smile or else the paycheck goes bye-bye. Good luck.
 
Hawks said:
I am just probably ranting, but I thought I would write it here anyways.

Today the winds in south Nevada were pretty strong. I was able to get my first load of skydivers up with out too much of a hitch. Load number 2, I am on my take off roll, pretty gnarly cross wind, I have both left aileron and rudder in this thing and I am still drifting right so I killed it, exited and told my skydivers I was going to give it another go, they weren't keen on it, so we called it a day, because they have to land in this crap with parachutes....Fast forward

The boss man is getting on my case because I aborted my take off. I told him the conditions, and he wasn't having it. He gave me a lecture on how we need the revenue etc...I told him, at that point screw the revenue, my decision was based on safety concerns. Better to scream about a few bucks then have an incident or accident...

This is not the only time I recieved a truck load of crap for making a decision like this. I do not need to start second guessing my self.

Is this the crap you deal with while you are building flight time?

One of our jump masters told me I am getting schooled on cross wind take offs and landings tomorrow. I'd better bite my tounge or else...
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Yeah, it's some of the stuff dealt with when building time, doesn't make it right though. Like everyone else has been saying, you did the right thing. None of us, nor the boss, were there in the cockpit with you. There are many accidents where a timely abort may have saved the day, USAir 5050 coming to mind.
 
I'd have done the same. Kudos to you for making a good decision.
"There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots."
My primary instructor told me that on my second flight lesson - its true.

I was asked to take a photo shoot flight last week at night above a stadium in a POS 172. They had clearance to do the shoot and wanted to fly at 1000AGL - I told them to find someone else to fly the mission. Wasn't ugly about it, but stood firm and listened to the bitching. They found someone to do the job and he earned his $20 (seriously!)


Bp244
 
minitour said:
Thank God 1) I'm willing for him to "fire" me for saying "no" and 2) the pay is "better 'n average".
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If there was anybody out there who could do your job as well, or better than you do it, and for the same or less pay, you'd have been replaced already.

Same as anybody else in any other job
 
I've aborted only a couple of times in 2600-2700TT. Basically, one time I didn't have any airspeed as I was departing (snow in the pitot tube on taxi), and the other time I had some bad engine instrument indications.

Its very very very difficult to not be in the mindset of "once those levers move forward there's no way I'm pulling them back." That being said, you did the right thing. Every time I take off (at risk of sounding kind of like a tool) once the power is fully in, I think (or if I'm a little tired, I'll say them out loud):

Power is Good, Gauges are Green
Airspeed's Alive
Out of Useable Runway
Positive Rate of Climb
Obstacles Cleared Flaps up

If anything serious happens before the third one I'm staying on the ground, meaning immediately going to idle and apply brakes. By serious I mean something that's going to effect being able to safely make a trip around the pattern. That's either partial power, control problems, fire, really long ground run, or something that gets my attention and alarms me.

After there's no more useable runway (since I'm flying singles) its either go off the end, pick where I want to glide to if its an engine failure, or make a trip around the pattern and land if the airplane is controllable. The first two options don't sound good, so its always better if you can catch the problem before it becomes an accident.

You had control issues on the departure. It could have been a lot of things, a gust could have got you at the right time, maybe your technique was a little off that afternoon (happens to the best of us), or maybe (and this is the clincher) something was wrong with the airplane that wouldn't let it safely fly. If it was the third one, and you tried to force it, you could have been dead. Again, good call.
 
Mike H said:
If there was anybody out there who could do your job as well, or better than you do it, and for the same or less pay, you'd have been replaced already.
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I'm sure they're out there. It's just a matter of getting the owners to cough up another $xx,xxx for training if he replaces me.

-mini
 
You were absolutely in the right here, and if the boss doesn't see it, he's an idiot. He also doesn't seem like he is/was a pilot himself and needs to be "schooled" in aircraft safety himself.
 
Regardless of what the boss thinks, or whether you were in the wrong or right, it is far better to answer to him for being overly cautious than explaining why you weren't to a mishap board or worse. Personally, I think you did the right thing given your description of the incident, but of course I wasn't there.
 
I told a chief I used to work for something along the lines of

"as long as smoking hole on short final counts as a success then he is most certainly ready for solo, why don't you go ahead and sign him off, I'll watch."

I sure don't miss Rainbow Air...
 
Hawks, congrats on making the right decision and standing your ground. Keep it up. No job is worth compromising safety, endangering lives, and/or putting your ticket on the line. There's always a integrity test we all must pass from time to time and you passed this one with flying colors. Well done!

There will always be tests like this no matter how many hours you have in the logbook or what job you have. I know trying to do the right thing day in and day out helps me sleep at night!
 
And I would take this a bit further and suggest that perhaps if safety is not a priority of your front office, that it might not be the place to be working. Of course one little occurence of this isn't really grounds for making a rash decision to leave, but if this is a symptom of a larger problem, then I would personally take a hard look at whether or not it is worth the heartache.
 
I'm absolutely amazed. I'm looking for that elusive fist job, and this stuff is plain scary. Your boss yelling at you because you aborted due to a lack of directional control on takeoff. Of course, had you continued and wound up in the grass, you'd have been fired for an obvious lack of judgment. :banghead:
 
The best boss to have is a non Pilot passenger. Anytime we have any issues with any part of the flight he has no problem playing the safe side. Hmmm, maybe because, his life is at stake.... Hmmmm shall we start taking our chief Pilot's and bosses up with us?
 
Inverted said:
The best boss to have is a non Pilot passenger. Anytime we have any issues with any part of the flight he has no problem playing the safe side. Hmmm, maybe because, his life is at stake.... Hmmmm shall we start taking our chief Pilot's and bosses up with us?
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That would violate the "non-pilot" bit of the deal, although it probably would make them think twice before forcing you into marginal situations.
 
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