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Old 02-13-2008 | 12:39 PM
  #26  
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subicpilot
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From: A300CAP
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There is no concrete right or wrong answer. This scenario, like so many, is not black and white...only shades of gray.

This is why experience is so important and why Captains make the big bucks!

There have been cases of successful rejected takeoffs after V1 because in the captain's judgement, the aircraft either would not sustain flight, or getting airborne would be worse than the consequences of a high speed reject. (Note: If you do find yourself at the end of the long green table without a chair and a glass of water over a reject after V1, your answer had better state something like the previous sentence. That in your judgement as captain, the aircraft was not going to fly, or if it did manage to get airborne, it wasn't going to stay there long.) The spoiler problem mentioned above, and any kind of fire in the fuselage come to mind.

Likewise, rejecting prior to V1 does not necessarily guarantee you'll stop prior to rolling off the pavement. Windshear, for example could make is so you could never get airborne on that particular takeoff attempt, and you might not reach V1 until you have 100 feet of runway left.

Keep in mind that there is usually a very small split, if any, between V1 and VR, so we are quibbling about something that has an unbelievably small chance of happening...
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