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been set and verify that neither side’s lever moves. Just a brief relaxing of the right-hand’s grip and lifting the hand’s palm maybe a half-inch or so is all we are talking about here. Did one or both of the levers start to migrate aft? If so, then two choices exist depending on how much runway remains. Choice One is to abort the takeoff roll, taxi back, tighten the friction more and then try again. Choice Two is to tighten the friction some more and continue. Having a co-pilot do the friction adjustment is really the only way this can be safely accomplished. Without a third hand to help it’s comical and perhaps deadly for just two hands to do what’s required while also completing the takeoff itself.
It will certainly be a painful, heart-wrenching decision to lower the nose to increase airspeed back up to V2 if the runway or the farm field is just a few feet below you. But friends, you and your passengers’ chance of surviving that “landing” is immensely greater than surviving the loss-of-control roll that you will face if you don’t push the wheel forward as speed drops well below V2.
If the retardation of one or both power levers due to PLM is observed by the pilot, it is of course easily corrected by pushing the misbehaving lever(s) back to where it/they should be. But when the movement goes unnoticed (Because it’s nighttime? Concentrating on the flight instruments? Distracted by a radio call?), that’s when disaster lurks nearby.
Retracting the gear on takeoff – especially when dealing with unexpected power asymmetry – is not nearly as critical as making sure both power levers are asking for takeoff power, that neither has slipped back. All parasite drag – whether a windmilling propeller, an antenna, flap panels, gear legs – depends on velocity through the air squared or multiplied by itself. The drag of the landing gear at 160 knots is four times as great as the drag at 80 knots (160 x 160 = 25,600, 80 x 80 = 6,400 and 6,400 x 4 = 25,600).
That’s a reason why our power loss mantra begins not with gear retraction but rather with checking power. Props comes next. Both prop levers are full forward, right? Next, flaps. If approach flaps were used on takeoff they should not be retracted until 400 feet AGL and VYSE are both attained and the correct, lower-than-blueline V2 airspeed should be maintained until leveling off at 400 feet. Next comes gear and now is the time to retract them. Now continue to “Identity, Verify and Feather” and for the myriad of you blessed with autofeather, it will be easy to identify and verify since the prop will already be stopped! But carefully go ahead and move the propeller lever into the feather detent yourself. That step guarantees that it won’t unfeather itself by accident later after the autofeather switch is turned off and also supports the habit pattern you will need to use when flying a multi- engine airplane that does not have autofeather.
JANUARY 2024
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 27