Free A Chick in the Cockpit by Erika Armstrong

extra moments lined up at the end of the runway where I could see all the rubber skid marks from thousands of tires transitioning from flight to earth. I could see bad landing marks and wondered how many other pilots have looked down this same runway. It also put into perspective the awe of taking the metal below me and putting it gloriously into the sky.
    Most people think the landing portion of the flight is the most dangerous segment of the flight, but it’s actually the takeoff and departure sequence. It’s when the aircraft is at its heaviest and least maneuverable that if an engine failed, the pilot would have to perform perfectly to keep the aircraft where it needs to be—in the air.
    There is a moment during the roll down the runway that is the deadliest. It’s the transition between being committed to the takeoff or choosing to keep the aircraft on the ground. When the non-flying pilot calls out “V1,” the flying pilot takes their hand off the throttle and puts both hands on the yoke. At this point, the pilot has committed to taking off, even if an engine blows up. There isn’t room on the runway to stop at this point, because you’re going so fast and the momentum of all that weight would careen the aircraft off the end of the runway. However, even though you can’t stop, you can’t take off, either. The aircraft is still not going fast enough to get it in the air safely—especially if you lost power. The pilot has to wait until the airspeed hits a previously calculated speed, at which point the non-flying pilot calls out “rotate!” It is Pilot Purgatory in those moments, and the implications of the wrong decision between V1 and rotate are disastrous.
    You’ll have these moments in your life without realizing it—moments of choice where it could go either way. If you’ve done a good job of being prepared for an emergency, you’ll reflexively make the right choice. It you’re not ready, the moment between “V1” and “rotate” could be a catastrophe. You’ll spend a lot of your time in purgatory, waiting for what comes next, whichever way it goes. Could be Heaven or it could be Hell. It’s stressful waiting for the right moment, but remember that you’ve already calculated the safe takeoff speed. Wait for it. If you pull back too early on the yoke, when you’re not ready to fly, you could end up a pile of mistakes at the end of the runway. Sometimes it’s best to just keep it on the ground.
    This happened to me when I was seven months pregnant, I was flying one of the last trips before going out on maternity leave. It was supposed to be an easy turn from Denver to Mazatlán, Mexico. I was trying to hide my pregnancy with a big blue aviator’s sweater that had the epaulet holders on the shoulders, but I wasn’t fooling anyone.
    The flight down was uneventful. We unloaded our passengers and took on a new load of fuel and passengers. We would be departing hot and heavy for our flight back to Denver, and since I’d flown down, my copilot would be flying us back.
    We waited at the end of the runway for two aircraft to land before being given the order to taxi into position and hold. Once the runway was clear, we were cleared for takeoff. My copilot smoothly brought the power up and released the brakes. As the nonflying pilot and captain, my job is to call out the airspeeds, set the power, and keep my hands on the throttles, especially after V1 is called out. Once I call out V1, the flying pilot then takes both hands and puts them on the yoke. At that point, we are committed to the takeoff, no matter what happens.
    I called out “80 knots, cross checked” which verified we both had matching instruments that were functioning. In the time it took to take a breath, there was a low level vibration that I could feel in my butt. Engine indications on our instrument panel were normal, but in the