Page 27 - Volume 14 Number 10

ASK THE EXPERT
Where’s Your Right Hand at Rotation?
by Tom Clements
As I write this near the end of August 2020, the “ADS Crash” thread on the BeechTalk forum is approaching 100 pages. As most of you know, in June 2019 a tragic accident occurred at Addison airport (KADS) in Dallas, Texas. A nearly new King Air 350i departing on a flight to Florida, crashed into a hangar on the airport just seconds after liftoff from Runway 15. All 10 people aboard – eight passengers and a crew of two – died. The NTSB preliminary docket was just released. This document presents their findings thus far concerning the facts of the case, but no conclusion of the cause has yet been found nor presented.
takeoff had to be considered and charts/procedures had to exist to allow either a successful abort or a successful continued one-engine takeoff, depending on the speed at which the engine failure was recognized. That is, Accelerate-Stop and Accelerate-Go distances, both had to be possible in the distances available on the runway.
With the relatively stellar single- engine performance of the Lear, the “Going” procedure lacked the drama that we experience in a light, piston- engine twin trainer. It is difficult to make a cogent argument for aborting the takeoff after V1 when the airplane can continue so well even with an engine failed. In fact, high speed aborts were riddled
As you may imagine, this tragedy impacted most of us in the King Air community very strongly and it is easy to understand why the thread on BeechTalk is as large as it is. One of the many discussion points that has been raised is the position of the pilot’s right hand at rotation. Let’s discuss that.
OCTOBER 2020
Not until I received my Learjet type rating back in 1978 was I ever exposed to the procedure of “Right hand moves from throttles to control wheel at V1.” The Lear was the first airplane that I ever flew that was certificated under the rules of FAR Part 25 ... the “big airplane” rules. Here, an engine failure during
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