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sullivan il. | had a 172 with the continental o300 145 hp was on a grass strip in july about nine at night decided to go for a ride with another guy and 2 girls not long after my divorce so that clouds ones judgement. it was hot went to the very end of the runway hung the tail out over the road ditch to be able to use every inch of runway corn at the other end hold the breaks firewalled the throttle release brakes it slowly started moving. finally picking up a little speed keep staring at the air speed indicator waiting for it to come alive it climbing ever so slowing. then I remember something one of my instructors told me he was an 80 year old wwII vet talked about in the south pacific on some of the islands they would take off with out enough runway they would hold it on the ground till the very end then yank up on the flap handle and put full flaps in to suck the plane into the air. So that is going through my mind as I don't have enough speed to rotate and I am beginning to see the corn at the end of the runway. My Skyhawk had elec. flaps so I reached over and just held that flap switch down never looked at gauge and then all of a sudden I was sucked into the air I was barely moving forward but was in the air with tassels in the wheel pants. Looked at the flap gauge and I had 40 degrees of flaps in everytime I tried to take some out I lost altitude took almost 2 miles to get the plane cleaned up. Max flap for take off was 15 degrees.
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close calls on flying
