ABSTRACT
When the tower clears you for take off, they don’t mean to tell you that you have to take off, but that you are cleared to attempt to take off. It is unfortunate that almost all flight training take offs result in actually getting airborne. The student develops an expectation that when “cleared for take off,” they are actually going to take off, and no idea ever goes through the student’s mind about aborting the take off. Then, one day after receiving a pilot’s certificate, this new pilot may have something go amiss (door pops open, another aircraft attempts to land in the opposite direction, or the engine misbehaves) during the take off roll, and the new pilot will fail to abort the take off.
