Originally Posted by
aindfan
Hello experts,
Though the source of my question isn't a United flight, I wanted to ask here as we have a few great contributors who may be able to answer.
I was on a LAN Argentina A320 today (in seat 2B, close to the front galley) from Buenos Aires (AEP). A short while through the takeoff roll on runway 13, the engines spooled down and the pilot slammed on the brakes. I think we made it to one of the first high-speed exits from the runway, at which point the captain said (in Spanish) "Attention crew, attention crew" and the flight attendants hopped out of their jumpseats and looked out the door windows (not speaking Spanish, I interpreted the commotion to mean that I was about to have my first ride down a yellow slide, but the flight attendant corrected my assumption when we spoke later). A few moments later, the captain said "Attention crew cancel" and the flight attendants relaxed. I was very impressed with how quickly things moved and how professionally everyone seemed to operate in this time. The captain later announced that the engine 1 reverser had failed, and we would return to parking and change aircraft.
This was my first ever aborted takeoff, making it quite an interesting experience (and underscoring the importance of a tightly fastened seatbelt and properly stowed luggage). Now that I've gone through the far too detailed back story, I'll pose my question to the pilots: how the heck does coming to the decision to abort takeoff work? Is it the pilot flying (or monitoring) who notices the warning light and knows off of the top of his/her head that this fault is an automatic no-go, or does any light before V1 mean that takeoff will be aborted? It seems like there is very little time to have a discussion about this during takeoff if there's any doubt. Specifically in the A320 (757 or other pilots, feel free to answer about your type too!), what in the instruments will indicate that you need to stop immediately, and how do you initiate such a short stop? (Throttle to idle and autobrake does the rest?) Are procedures like this one so drilled into your head (from simulator training?) that you could perform them in your sleep?
Thanks in advance! My experience today made me genuinely curious about what goes on on the flight deck during situations like this.
Each airline has their OPSPECS and their own though process on continuing a takeoff or aborting a takeoff. I will discuss United only. We have a couple speeds we look at on takeoff for a GO/NO GO decision. First is what we call the high speed regime, passing 100 KIAS. Below that speed, we can abort for anything, and it's the Captain's decision on whether to abort or not. The first officer will offer input, but it's the Captain's decision.
After we enter the high speed regime, we only abort for a safety of flight situation, which on the airbus examples are a fire, warning bell, blown tire, engine failure, windshear warning, stuff like that. We are go oriented in the high speed regime unless it's a safety issue that forces us to abort. If we abort we can safely abort the aircraft up to what we call V1 speed. I won't go into all that goes into determining a V1 speed, but that's the maximum GO/NO GO Speed. At V1 we have runway to accelerate and takeoff with an engine failure, or we can stop within the runway available. After V1 we're going to takeoff unless the jet won't fly.
We prepare for each takeoff by briefing the peculiarities of that takeoff (maybe slushy runway, thunderstorms around, short runway, whatever) and we know before we start that takeoff roll what our decision matrix is. That way if something happens, it's just instinctive. When we abort a takeoff the flight attendants will prepare for a cabin evacuation unless they hear from us to remain seated. We all have duties we perform, and we practice it every time we go to the simulator every 9 months.
AD