Gary's Flight Journal

JUNE 12, 2025

I only ran tail and over the shoulder cameras. The ground portion was a review of my flying, and procedures that included V speeds, emergency procedures and some regs. It’s always in the last place you look. I headed over to the airport so I could sump fuel and preflight. Yep, we still have the Canada smoke covering the area.

V Speed

Fear of Landing

AUGUST 2, 2024

I’ve never seen a tail strike quite so… prolonged. The nose is high in the air with the Boeing’s tail scraping along the runway as a grey plume of smoke forms. As they were already at take-off speed and with most of the runway behind them, the crew continued in hopes of getting the aircraft into the air.

Tail

Fear of Landing

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

There are a number of tail strike incidents caused by the take-off weight being logged as lower than it actually was. The description of the event clearly represents what was understood at the time: During the takeoff from RWY35L, the aircraft suffered a tail strike after the rotation. The key take-off speeds are V 1 , V 2 and V R.

Tail