It all started with an innocent and ordinary takeoff.

Myself and two friends had just finished eating dinner. I had a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich, which was sure to improve my flying skills, but the fun filled day needed to come to a close and we needed to get back and rest our heads for the night. A long day of flying and a tour at the Boeing Factory will do that to you.

As I increased the throttle and held the brakes for the takeoff, all lined up with the runway, I scanned the instruments and then observed everything ‘sounded’ right. All good to go.

I released the brakes and aircraft began to surge forward, lightly loaded with an eagerly powerful prop. She wanted to go flying.

I called ‘airspeed alive’, as I observed the airspeed tape rising.

‘Engine in the green’ as I quickly scanned the instruments again, talking to myself in methodical and reassuring cadence.

Looking for that rotation speed, I started to feel vibrations. “thump, thumP, thuMP, thUMP, tHUMP, THUMP, THUMP”

“POP!”

The aircraft began to swerve erratically, but not totally out of control.

I simultaneously pulled out the power and began to take pressure off of the left wheel, which was now causing a LOT of drag and had obviously been the source of our problems.

Full right aileron pressure to try and take pressure off the wheel, and no use of the brakes, and I just encouraged her to go where she wanted to go.

While we were rolling off the runway and into the grass I made a radio call “Arlington Traffic, Bonanza 30V will be off the left hand of the runway in the grass, we uhhhh, have a blown tire and could use some help out here if anyone is available”.

We came to a rest in the smooth grassy area off to the left of runway Three Five, shut everything down, and we got out to observe the damage.

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A few minutes later we were met by a couple of local guys that just shot the breeze with us while we tried to figure out what to do, where to get a tire, how to get the blown tire off, etc.

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Klaus, a mechanic at Out of the Blue Aviation then came to our aid. We all manhandled the aircraft and lifted the left wing enough for him to get a jack underneath the landing gear so we could jack it up, get the tire off, and put a temporary (smaller, but still functional) tire on.

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We eventually had her all fixed up and I taxied the aircraft, alone, to the ramp where we would then leave it for the night and search for a tire in the morning.

This was my first real huge issue in an aircraft, as I’ve never had to veer off into the dirt or anything. But, everything was fine in the end, we got a new tire of the right size, and I am back home in good shape.

It’s a great learning experience, but something I don’t want to have to go through again. It’s not that it was really scary, because it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I just hate hurting my pretty little airplanes.

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Here’s to you, 30V, for being cool under pressure and for a speedy recovery.

Throttle On