How To Improve Your Takeoff

A takeoff is like anything else; it will be good if you prepare wisely. That is why the Pre-flight and engine run-up are important. The pre-flight and run-up to takeoff is the entire approach to a landing. So, I will simply say DO EVERYTHING IN THE PREFLIGHT and watch all gauges.

The stuff that are in the checklist should be taken care of. Then, when you taxi onto the runway aligning to the center line is important, but you have to do that without losing runway space. When this is done you have to smoothly advance the throttle. Also, WATCH your gauges. Make sure everything is in the green arc.

Here is the part that makes your entire liftoff look GREAT. The rotation. Once, you have rotation speed (Vr) pull back on the yoke, right? But it isn't that easy. There is a certain range where the yolk is ineffective at that speed. You will notice that when you are at Vr. Pull back out of that range relatively quickly and smoothly until you begin to feel the pressure on the yoke. At that point apply pressure until you feel rotation and then hold the pressure there. Then, like any climb maintain the speed that you want to climb at. (Throughout this DON'T forget to apply the proper amounts of right rudder to correct for left turning tendencies.)

I find the key to this is in that rotation. Getting that feeling so that you don't apply too little pressure to make it look smooth but you don't apply too much pressure which would stress the aircraft and get it into a high angle of attack which can cause a stall at takeoff.