I've never experienced a RTO myself, but dear God it must be scary if it happens just before V1.
Two take-off rolls that stick in the mind as I thought we were a fireball at the end of the runway for sure:
- Late 1980's and I'm on board an Air Zambia DC10 out of Lusaka to London. Still in my twenties and was going to live for ever...God alone how much runway was left before we left the ground. I thought we were going to drive across Africa back to London.
- Only a month ago I was treated to what seemed like a ridiculously long take-off roll at BKK on the way back to FRA in an old Lufthansa A340. Cheapo flight (Euro 370 SXB to BKK return) so rammed full of passengers & cargo; we were heavy for sure. The aircraft really started to shudder & thump with each paving-joint on the runway; it didn't seem to be accelerating at all towards the end of the roll. Thought the pilot would never call rotate and I simply can't imagine there was any room left to do an RTO. The flight made worse since this was just after the Iranians had shot down the American Global Hawk drone and Trump was talking about having a go. The run up the south coast of the Gulf past Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi was no fun at all...and I was glad to see we were past it on the map.
Only had one go around and that was about a year ago on a BSL to LHR with BA. Mr Mark Carney himself was onboard and since we departed late I assumed the flight crew wanted to make up time and got a bit ahead of themselves on the approach to LHR with aircraft separation. Once we landed the Captain stood outside the cockpit to see everyone (and Mr Carney) off the aircraft...
Oh, all the old war stories...Chris