DC-10 Take off in bad weather

“Cleared for take-off” said the voice over the radio, so I advanced the throttles and slowly at first but with ever increasing speed the DC-10 began rolling down the runway., “V1” said the copilot. V1 is the speed that we are committed to take off. Suddenly, a red light illuminated, and a loud bell started ringing. “NUMBER 3 ENGINE FIRE” called my second officer. The next several seconds seemed to take forever as we lifted off the runway and I had to maintain precise directional and pitch control. “DO THE EMERENGCY CHECKLIST” I commanded when I knew the plane was under control. “FIRE’S OUT” said the second officer, “CALL THE TOWER AND TELL THEM WE ARE RETURNING TO THE FIELD AND HAVE THE EQUIPMENT STANDING BY” I said.

“We’re really heavy Captain, do you want to dump fuel?” asked my second officer. “Good idea” I said, “let’s dump to our minimum level.” The field is at minimums and there is no good alternate available.” Said the copilot, so now we are committed to return to the airport. 

“OH GREAT, THE AUTOPILOT JUST FAILED”. Now I must hand fly the airplane to our minimum approach altitude. “MINIMUMS” come the call, no runway in sight, “GO AROUND THRUST, FLAPS 15……POSITIVE RATE GEAR UP” I commanded as I began to climb the aircraft to 2500 feet above the ground.

Suddenly, with all this going on, I heard “LOOSING OIL IN NUMBER 2 ENGINE”, “BETTER SHUT IT DOWN” I replied. Thank God I dumped fuel I thought as I struggled to maintain altitude on one engine. “ONE ENGINE CHECKLIST” I ordered, then I heard the ominous comment, when the gear is lowered, we are committed to land.

Fortunately, the weather improved, and we started the approach, “RUNWAY IN SIGHT” called the copilot and I ordered, “gear down”. Boy, what a beautiful sight to see the end of the runway passing under the nose of the airplane. No time to reflect however, I still had to stop on a slippery runway and only had one thrust reverser available. 

Finally, after stopping on the runway a voice over my shoulder said, “nice job, now let’s reset this simulator and do another takeoff.” And so went my check ride for the next 2 ½ hours.

 Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, my last landing was on a slippery runway with strong crosswinds. I managed to stop the aircraft on the runway but then the nose wheel collapsed, and I had to order the evacuation, make sure the engines were shut down, notify the tower, and position the flaps to aid in the evacuation.

I passed my check and was good for another 6 months before I had to do it all over again.