Quoted By:
>be C-130H copilot
>at Pueblo for a gas stop on our way to Tacoma
>angry clouds start gathering
>if we delayed any more than 1-2 hours we would bust our crew day
>taxi out of parking, get runway 8L at first
>winds start to change erratically
>runway changes from 8 to 17 to 35 over the course of 10 minutes while running checklists
>ATC tells us the winds seem to be stabilizing towards runway 35
>Pilot says fuck it, WE GAAN and takes off on runway 35
>hit rotation speed about 500' from the end of the runway
>gears up, but speed is not increasing
>navigator starts reading out our radar altimeter
>"100... 100... 100... "
>our climb rate was just matching the rising terrain off the end of runway 35
>speed is still barely increasing
>"100... 100... 100..."
>Tower starts calling us to warn about towers along our flight path in a somewhat frantic tone
>finally the speed starts to increase
>pilot immediately turns east towards lower terrain and we start climbing out as normal
>whole crew was silent the entire time besides the navigator's radalt readings
>flight engineer had his boot on the throttles just to make sure they were maxed out
Turns out we took off into a microburst :^) oh and I noticed just as we rotated that the windsocks on each side of the field were fully erect and pointed in opposite directions :^)))
