What would happen if you rotated your C-150 before V1? Could you recover?

Answer 1

You need to sort out your terminology. V1 is a decision speed for multi engine aircraft, it is the speed at which a take off must be continued in event of the failure of a power plant. It does not apply to single engine aircraft such as the C150.

The term you are looking for is Vr which is the speed at which an aircraft should be rotated into an appropriate angle of attack for lift off. The aircraft will then leave the ground when its ready. If you rotate the aircraft too early, the result is increased drag and a delayed lift off.

I trust you don't want to know the V2 speed for a C150.

Answer 2

Ray K is on track. I did this once in a 'must get off', hot, humid, short field take-off to attain max climb speed quicker. But you must stay on the invisible cushion until you're above V1. The pucker factor increases with the elevation of foliage in the departure path.

It's not an advisable maneuver and today I would wait for better conditions or seek other options. There is never a defensible reason to push the envelope. The rules were written by live pilots often after investigating tragedies.

Remember, there are bold pilots and there are old pilots but there are few, old, bold pilots.

Answer 3

You might just lift into ground effect and would be okay as long as you didn't continue the climb without accelerating. Ground effect area is approximately as high as your wing span, by the way. Could you recover if you stalled? Doubtful at that altitude. One of the most important things the Air Force taught me, MM: An airplane lives or dies as a function of airspeed. Always nail the numbers in every flight. Those numbers begin with the first movement of the aircraft, continue through the flight and don't stop until you park at the end of the flight.

Answer 4

Of course you can recover! The immediate answer is to drop the nose again.

Aircraft are tested with early rotation when they do the minimum unstick speed tests, they even over-rotate to drop a tail mounted skid on to the runway. This isn't something you'd normally want to do though because tail strike can cause severe damage to the a/c.

Answer 5

Prior to V1, the wing is not flying efficiently. It has enogh lift, with the benefit of ground effect, to maybe get your mains off the ground, but you won't have enough lift to get OGE (out of ground effect). Thus if you lost power, you will simply settle back to the ground.
Recovery isn't so much of a factor as whether or not you'll run out of runway while messing about like this. Terrain and/or obstacles seem to increase their closure rates expontentially the closer you get to them.

Answer 6

Ranjeeh D is correct. V1 is an engine failure decision speed and it pertains to the balanced field concept and has no relation to a C150. Vr is more appropriate to what you are talking about. And he's absolutely right about the V2 observation.

Answer 7

Not much. You may lift the nosewheel, but the main gear won't leave the runway until you reach flying speed. The technique is used for soft-field takeoffs.

Answer 8

try it by yourself so as not to risk anyone elses life