Aborting a T/O

[Dieterly]

Just a question. At CAL we use the term "Reject" instead of "Abort" at my previous airline. I still have the hardest time saying "Reject". What other airlines use "Reject" instead of "Abort"?

Add Cathay to the same list...

 

[:-)]

A FlightSafety Foundation Article from 2003 (I've got a hard copy, I suppose that one could google it) states that transfering control from the FO to the Captain during an abort played an important role in determining the outcome of the abort. IOWs, FO aborts were/are more likely to end bad. I doubt that this is because FO's are bad pilots, but due to confusion because most FO's try to get confirmation before a decision while most Captains just do it.

My ops procedures (A320 in 121 ops) require that the Captain mans the thrust levers on ALL take offs. In that way, there is no question regarding the abort decision. I like it this way.

 

[30West]

As a check airman for my company for close to a decade, I have observed that inappropriate aborted takeoffs initiated by the First Officer outnumber those by Captains by a factor of ten. Yes, captains do make knuckleheaded decisions also.
But if we're talking risk mitigation, captains as a group statistically have more experience in operations and type and therefore are manyfold times less likely to abort when continuing would be more appropriate.

Also not a jab at First Officers, as I have been one 3 times since the start of my career.

 

[twinbeech]

How about this one...

It is the F/O's takeoff and for whatever reason, the flight controls don't feel right. Call it a rudder pedal that "feels funny". He does not notice it until about 80 knots. He calls for an abort but the Captain, not noticing anything wrong, says to continue. The F/O in an effort to get that pucker feeling taken care of takes the time to plead his case and says "But the rudder pedal feels funny!" At this point the plane starts to head for the grass while quickly nearing V1. It is now probably too late to keep her on the runway and a much more dangerous situation because once the Captain knows what's up, you are really hauling the mail.

I bring this situation up because I was the Captain for this situation at my former airline. The difference was that either the PF or PNF could call for the abort. At that point it is going to happen. The PF then initiates it (brings the power levers to idle and gets on the binders) and the CA completes it. Something had become lodged behind the pedal under the floor AFTER we had done the flight control check. Because of the procedures we had, it was a non-event, and happening just after 80 knots was no big deal at all.

I am sure this type of thing is not a normal event, but I was glad the F/O just made the decision rather than taking the time to tell me about it and convince me we didn't want to end up going four wheeling that night.

 

[avbug]

On a Boeing, one aborts an engine start, and one rejects a takeoff.

At our company, the Captain makes the decision, and executes, a rejected takeoff. If the first officer is performing the takeoff, he stands the power levers up, moves them toward the takeoff power setting, and then calls for reduced thrust or maximum thrust.

At that point he removes his hand from the thrust levers because he's done with them. The captain guards the thrust levers until V1, when he removes his hand, too.

If an incident occurs in which the captain elects to reject the takeoff, he will anounce that he is rejecting the takeoff, and perform the RTO. In the absence of the captain taking the aircraft for a reject, the FO will continue to fly the airplane until instructed otherwise.

We have clear instruction from the company on the matter, as well as specific counsel that there is nothing on the forward annunciator panel worthy of rejecting a takeoff.

We brief the situations in which a rejected takeoff will occur as part of the departure briefing.