This is a very good discussion.. I don't necessary agree with everyone but I very happy to see that its on everyone's mind and the fact that its being discussed my very well save a life.
In August of 2006, I was departing from amarillo in a Lear 31A. We had new tires that had 12 landings on them. we had been on the ground since landing at AMA for 1 hr. We departed as normal, I was the PM, I called out the usual calls, upon, 100-105 kts (I believe V1 was 112) we heard what was unmistakeably the sound of a tire blowing ( louder than you would think). the airplane immediately moved off to the left side of the rwy centerline, The PF applied rudder to get the airplane back on centerline when the Second Right main tire blew, sending us back to the left violently. ( obviously we had little directional control... a key point to an abort) so the PF aborted...stated this outloud... throttles idle, spoilers, TR's...he immediately made it known to me that he was having trouble keeping it on the runway as he slowed the airplane..I called out his speeds as it was slowing...While doing this I radioed to Tower we had a blown tire and were aborting.( i will explain why this may be important) .after I called out 50 kts.. the Two Left mains blew almost at the exact time and we were immediately pulled off the runway to the left perpendicular to the runway... our tornup wheels dug into the grass and we came to rest 35 ft from the side of the RWY. The Rwy is 13000ft long and we took from start to finish 10600 ft... ( it was supposed to be balanced at about 3800 ft).. as soon as the plane stopped we did as we were trained and immediately exited the airplane getting the pax off etc.. shutdown.. etc.. By the time I had opened the door to the airplane the emergency crews , including 3 fire trucks had surrounded the airplane..Now for my reasoning on the radio call..We were obviously lucky in alot of respects.. but the one that was most important to me was the fact that we had no idea if the wheels and brakes ( magnesium) had heated up to starting a fire.. located directly under the wing ( fuel) that was a major thought.. having the FD arrive so quickly was imperative for this reason as well as, what if we hit something and it didn't end as well as it did.. you may think 20 seconds isn't much this type of situation it may very well be a life. a simple radio call from the PM, cannot hurt and in my opinion it helped. I believe the tower wasn't even aware we had the problem until i radioed and it may have taken them another 2-3 minutes to figure it out and then call rescue. I will tell you this, we are trained to abort for loss of directional control..but again the circumstances have to work to abort.. I know if we were on a 6000ft rwy, the PF would have kept going as best he could and we would have taken off if at all possible... Training doesn't account for every scenario, it preps us for judgement and gives us a basis or a control to work from. I Brief blown tires on my takeoff's.. and what I expect from the PM..
Keep the discussion going .. I like to have other perspectives in which to learn from.
In August of 2006, I was departing from amarillo in a Lear 31A. We had new tires that had 12 landings on them. we had been on the ground since landing at AMA for 1 hr. We departed as normal, I was the PM, I called out the usual calls, upon, 100-105 kts (I believe V1 was 112) we heard what was unmistakeably the sound of a tire blowing ( louder than you would think). the airplane immediately moved off to the left side of the rwy centerline, The PF applied rudder to get the airplane back on centerline when the Second Right main tire blew, sending us back to the left violently. ( obviously we had little directional control... a key point to an abort) so the PF aborted...stated this outloud... throttles idle, spoilers, TR's...he immediately made it known to me that he was having trouble keeping it on the runway as he slowed the airplane..I called out his speeds as it was slowing...While doing this I radioed to Tower we had a blown tire and were aborting.( i will explain why this may be important) .after I called out 50 kts.. the Two Left mains blew almost at the exact time and we were immediately pulled off the runway to the left perpendicular to the runway... our tornup wheels dug into the grass and we came to rest 35 ft from the side of the RWY. The Rwy is 13000ft long and we took from start to finish 10600 ft... ( it was supposed to be balanced at about 3800 ft).. as soon as the plane stopped we did as we were trained and immediately exited the airplane getting the pax off etc.. shutdown.. etc.. By the time I had opened the door to the airplane the emergency crews , including 3 fire trucks had surrounded the airplane..Now for my reasoning on the radio call..We were obviously lucky in alot of respects.. but the one that was most important to me was the fact that we had no idea if the wheels and brakes ( magnesium) had heated up to starting a fire.. located directly under the wing ( fuel) that was a major thought.. having the FD arrive so quickly was imperative for this reason as well as, what if we hit something and it didn't end as well as it did.. you may think 20 seconds isn't much this type of situation it may very well be a life. a simple radio call from the PM, cannot hurt and in my opinion it helped. I believe the tower wasn't even aware we had the problem until i radioed and it may have taken them another 2-3 minutes to figure it out and then call rescue. I will tell you this, we are trained to abort for loss of directional control..but again the circumstances have to work to abort.. I know if we were on a 6000ft rwy, the PF would have kept going as best he could and we would have taken off if at all possible... Training doesn't account for every scenario, it preps us for judgement and gives us a basis or a control to work from. I Brief blown tires on my takeoff's.. and what I expect from the PM..
Keep the discussion going .. I like to have other perspectives in which to learn from.
