AcroGimp
Cleared for Takeoff
When I took my mountain checkout in the flying club Bonanza, my instructor, another pilot and myself flew to Salida CO (KANK).
When we landed (field elevation 7523'), it was a little after Noon and it was reading 100 degrees on the tarmac. We broke out the AFM/POH, checked the TO performance chart in Section 5, and found that when plotting temperature vs altitude we could not interesect on the printed page.
Asked the instructor if we would be OK, he said he thought so, so the three of us trundled out to the trusty A-36, taxied out to the departure end of 06, took the active, put the coals to it, and slowly started down the runway (it was slightly downhill).
When we finally lifted off, about 5,000 feet down the 7,400 foot runway (I was literally about to abort the takeoff) it dawned on me, if you can't plot the DA and stay on the page of the AFM/POH, you ought not be flying.
We circle climbed to pattern altitude, on the stall horn, recovered, and had a very enlightening debrief. We then ate lunch, let it cool off a litttle, then flew with just one pilot and the instructor for both of us to get our 3 TO's/ldg's.
On our departure to return to Wichita, a glider pilot on the end of the runway notified us one of the main gear doors was hanging low, so we slowly made our way back to Beech Field. Later found out a previous pilot had oversped the gear and not reported it, which had, very slightly, contributed to the poor performance in the hot, high air at Salida.
We can't be afraid of learning, nor should we be afraid of sharing lessons learned - I have shared this experience with several flying friends over the years - it is good for some laughs but I believe had we been in a lesser plane my instructor would not have allowed us to try to takeoff as the result would have been disastrous. He is an ABS instructor and knows the Bonanza extremely well - he knew it could do it, and he knew we would learn an important lesson.
'Gimp
When we landed (field elevation 7523'), it was a little after Noon and it was reading 100 degrees on the tarmac. We broke out the AFM/POH, checked the TO performance chart in Section 5, and found that when plotting temperature vs altitude we could not interesect on the printed page.
Asked the instructor if we would be OK, he said he thought so, so the three of us trundled out to the trusty A-36, taxied out to the departure end of 06, took the active, put the coals to it, and slowly started down the runway (it was slightly downhill).
When we finally lifted off, about 5,000 feet down the 7,400 foot runway (I was literally about to abort the takeoff) it dawned on me, if you can't plot the DA and stay on the page of the AFM/POH, you ought not be flying.
We circle climbed to pattern altitude, on the stall horn, recovered, and had a very enlightening debrief. We then ate lunch, let it cool off a litttle, then flew with just one pilot and the instructor for both of us to get our 3 TO's/ldg's.
On our departure to return to Wichita, a glider pilot on the end of the runway notified us one of the main gear doors was hanging low, so we slowly made our way back to Beech Field. Later found out a previous pilot had oversped the gear and not reported it, which had, very slightly, contributed to the poor performance in the hot, high air at Salida.
We can't be afraid of learning, nor should we be afraid of sharing lessons learned - I have shared this experience with several flying friends over the years - it is good for some laughs but I believe had we been in a lesser plane my instructor would not have allowed us to try to takeoff as the result would have been disastrous. He is an ABS instructor and knows the Bonanza extremely well - he knew it could do it, and he knew we would learn an important lesson.
'Gimp
