Narrative:

During taxi out to runway (short taxi; no line) with temperature around minus 12 degrees C; as we were cleared to line up and wait; the captain called for the before takeoff checklist. When the checklist was complete; he stated that the autothrottle would not arm. We thought this might be due to the very cold temperature; and elected to do a manual throttle takeoff (same as in the older aircraft) which is smoother anyway; due to the 3;000 feet level off. During takeoff roll; after I called for setting takeoff thrust; the captain quickly elected to reject. When I noted the airspeed; we were decelerating through 67 knots. We then stopped; checked brake cooling requirements in the opc (there were none); and taxied back to the gate where maintenance met us and noted our tat probe was erratically changing and wanted to further investigate.if the autothrottle will not arm in an new model aircraft; pilots should investigate further instead of continuing takeoff without them like we do in the older model aircraft.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The Captain of a B737-700 had been unable to arm the auto-throttle during taxi-out; but attributed the fault to the very cold ambient air and elected to depart using manually set max thrust. The decision to do so was predicated on the incorrect assumption that a previously noted broadly fluctuating TAT reading was merely the result of the cold OAT and the fact the probe was heated thus producing unreliable readings. They rejected their takeoff at ~70 Knots when their max takeoff thrust setting failed to produce calculated N1 levels.

Narrative: During taxi out to Runway (short taxi; no line) with temperature around minus 12 degrees C; as we were cleared to line up and wait; the Captain called for the Before Takeoff Checklist. When the checklist was complete; he stated that the autothrottle would not arm. We thought this might be due to the very cold temperature; and elected to do a manual throttle takeoff (same as in the older aircraft) which is smoother anyway; due to the 3;000 feet level off. During takeoff roll; after I called for setting takeoff thrust; the Captain quickly elected to reject. When I noted the airspeed; we were decelerating through 67 knots. We then stopped; checked brake cooling requirements in the OPC (there were none); and taxied back to the gate where Maintenance met us and noted our TAT probe was erratically changing and wanted to further investigate.If the autothrottle will not arm in an new model aircraft; Pilots should investigate further instead of continuing takeoff without them like we do in the older model aircraft.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.