On Sat, 11 Nov 2006 00:59:10 +0100, Mxsmanic wrote:

Is there any harm in taking off at a relatively high speed and very
gently? There seems to be plenty of runway in most cases for small
aircraft. If I leave the ground at 120 kts instead of the normal
rotation speed, I find that I can lift off ever so gently. Plus I
have lots of airspeed if something goes wrong during my gentle climb.
Are there drawbacks to this that I'm missing?

Runway condition. Most have some unevenness, and you can be getting popped
around quite a bit as the speed picks up. Aircraft tires are fairly small
diameter, hence dips and bumps that wouldn't bother a car affect a plane quite a
bit more.

Also, holding the plane down at higher speeds offers its own problems. A
tailwheel airplane like mine can conceivably start ticking the ground with the
prop. For a nosewheel airplane, holding the plane down can cause directional
instability, a phenomenon called "wheelbarrowing."

If the sim doesn't give the opportunity for a "gentle" takeoff at lower speeds,
there's something wrong with the modeling.

Ron Wanttaja