westwind driver
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2004
- Posts
- 147
Quick question for you folks,
A while back I was flying a contract trip on a westwind. After descending through some weather which the radar wasn't painting, and landing at destination, we were soon back out on the runway pushing the throttles up.
The weather we flew through was pretty moderate to heavy. We came down out of IMC thru about FL200 and when we broke out 2 miles in front of us were 2 cumulonimbus buildups, with maybe 1/2 mile between them. We had no option but to go between them, verses flying through one or the other. The ride was somewhat violent even though we had alread slowed down to around 220 kias cause it was bumpy in IMC. In total is lasted about 4-5 seconds and we broke out on the other side into CAVU.
Now, it shook me up a bit, and I know it shook the captain up a bit too, but here's where this comes into play.
Like I said, we landed, dropped off a passenger and 5 minutes later we were taking off. We were on the ground a total of 10 minutes. During the takeoff roll, I made the normal calls, but at "90 knots" the PF did not transition from the tiller to the yoke. I called out "I still have the yoke" with no response. I looked over at the captain and he just seemed to have the thousand yard stare down the runway and was not responding to me. V1 came and went with my call, and about 3 seconds after "ROTATE!" he seemed to come back to himself somewhat dazed, but he rotated and started flying.
It made me feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe. I could tell something wasn't quite right with him during the rest of the flight, which made me feel even more uncomfortable as our next destination was being approached by level 5 TSRA with 2 inch hail and 50 knot gusts tops up to FL470.
How would some of you reacted if this happened to you? Would you have called for an abort prior to V1 if you realized the PF and or Captain was seemingly off in La-La land, or would you have continued the takeoff yourself and assumed control of the aircraft until the other guy returned from his 'flash back?'
A while back I was flying a contract trip on a westwind. After descending through some weather which the radar wasn't painting, and landing at destination, we were soon back out on the runway pushing the throttles up.
The weather we flew through was pretty moderate to heavy. We came down out of IMC thru about FL200 and when we broke out 2 miles in front of us were 2 cumulonimbus buildups, with maybe 1/2 mile between them. We had no option but to go between them, verses flying through one or the other. The ride was somewhat violent even though we had alread slowed down to around 220 kias cause it was bumpy in IMC. In total is lasted about 4-5 seconds and we broke out on the other side into CAVU.
Now, it shook me up a bit, and I know it shook the captain up a bit too, but here's where this comes into play.
Like I said, we landed, dropped off a passenger and 5 minutes later we were taking off. We were on the ground a total of 10 minutes. During the takeoff roll, I made the normal calls, but at "90 knots" the PF did not transition from the tiller to the yoke. I called out "I still have the yoke" with no response. I looked over at the captain and he just seemed to have the thousand yard stare down the runway and was not responding to me. V1 came and went with my call, and about 3 seconds after "ROTATE!" he seemed to come back to himself somewhat dazed, but he rotated and started flying.
It made me feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe. I could tell something wasn't quite right with him during the rest of the flight, which made me feel even more uncomfortable as our next destination was being approached by level 5 TSRA with 2 inch hail and 50 knot gusts tops up to FL470.
How would some of you reacted if this happened to you? Would you have called for an abort prior to V1 if you realized the PF and or Captain was seemingly off in La-La land, or would you have continued the takeoff yourself and assumed control of the aircraft until the other guy returned from his 'flash back?'