Narrative:

Early in the morning I flew from my home airport to visit another airport. There was substantial wind this day; and it was blowing directly down runway 23. Upon landing on runway 23 and during the taxi roll out I noticed that the aircraft had the left wing lower than the right. I stopped. The aircraft sat on the runway with the left wing low. I quickly realized that I had a flat left main tire. However; due to the strong winds; I was able to simply apply right aileron and thereby lift the left main and taxi to the FBO on the right main and the tail wheel. The flat tire did not seem to negatively affect handling except for requiring some extra power to get going; and once the flat tire was lifted; taxiing on one main and the tail wheel was not an issue. I was late to my appointment so I parked the airplane at the FBO and left the airport. I returned later that afternoon. I had obtained a can of 'fix a flat' while I was out and I applied the 'fix a flat' to the tire. The 'fix a flat' failed to stop the leak and didn't inflate the tire. Because the aircraft is an experimental and it uses 'unusual' wheels; obtaining a replacement tire from the FBO was not an option. Also; a replacement tire would have to be ordered taking a week or so. My options were to fly the airplane home or leave the airplane at the FBO and get a replacement tire. I began seriously considering flying the airplane home. My thought process was as follows: my aircraft is a tail wheel aircraft. It is also an excellent STOL performer well-known for its ability to takeoff and land at very slow airspeeds and very short distances. With a touch of flap; and lightly loaded; it can lift off at approximately 20 KTS. This day I had 20 KTS of wind directly on my nose. I would be airborne with a ground speed of less than five knots. Takeoff would not be a problem; even with the flat. Further; my home airport was reporting winds of over 25 KTS down the runway; and so landing would also be a very slow ground-speed event. I would easily be able to set down on the right main and then gently set down the left main at a very slow ground speed. Having already landed at laf with the flat earlier in the day; I knew that landing and ground-handling during and after landing was not an issue. I elected to fly the airplane home. I want to emphasize that there were two very important factors that went into this decision: 1) this aircraft was the only airplane that I would have even considered doing this with because of it's extremely slow airspeeds and it's excellent STOL performance; and 2) on this particular day the fact that I had a headwind on takeoff and landing in excess of 20 KTS made the situation feasible. I would not have even considered taking off and landing any other aircraft. I contacted ground and was cleared to taxi to runway 23; which I proceeded to do; albeit slowly. Halfway to the end of 23 ground asked me if I was aware that I had a flat left main tire. I said that I was. Ground said that they would call the FBO to come out and help me. I mentioned that I thought that departing was feasible and that I was ok with departing if he was ok with letting me depart. He said; 'wait a minute'. Then he came back and cleared me to taxi to the runway 23. I continued my taxi to runway 23; did my run up; and contacted tower. Upon contacting tower; I was told something similar to: 'call sign enter the runway at your own risk.' I had no idea what this meant as I had never heard anything like this before. I asked if I was cleared for takeoff. The tower controller came back with something like 'no takeoff clearance will be granted. Enter the runway at your own risk.' (these are not exact quotes but they are as close as I can remember to exact quotes.) I said something like 'I don't want to enter the runway if someone else is on final. Am I cleared?' the tower controller said something like; 'no traffic is observed in the area; enter the runway at your own risk.' I asked the controllerstraight out: 'are you going to issue me a takeoff clearance.' he replied 'no'. I was not about to cross the hold-short line without a clearance. 'Enter the runway at your own risk' was not a clearance in my mind. So; since he was not going to issue me a takeoff clearance; I decided that this flight was now over. I informed the controller that I would like to taxi back to the hangar. He told me to contact ground; which I did; and ground guided me back to the ramp. Upon going home and thinking about this situation for a while; I started to wonder if I had violated any regulations. I have no idea if I violated a regulation by taxiing with a flat tire. I don't know if I violated a regulation by considering taking off with a flat tire. I'm also not exactly sure why the controller didn't issue me a takeoff clearance. I do know that my judgment of the aircraft; it's capabilities; the fact that the flat tire did not substantively effect the ground-handling capabilities of the aircraft; the fact that I had a substantial headwind; the fact that I wanted to get home and not leave the aircraft at the FBO; all contributed to my decision to attempt to takeoff in this situation. In the end; I am glad that the tower controller did not clear me onto the runway; and I am also glad that I elected not to cross the hold-short line without a clearance. Ultimately; not taking off and putting the airplane back in the hangar was the right decision. There is just no sense in increasing risk; and while I was sure that both I and the airplane could handle the situation; there is no question that the risk level of taking off and landing with a flat tire is higher than without a flat tire.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A general aviation pilot described an attempted take off with a known flat tire. ATC issued a confusing instruction unfamiliar to the reporter resulting in a change of plan.

Narrative: Early in the morning I flew from my home airport to visit another airport. There was substantial wind this day; and it was blowing directly down Runway 23. Upon landing on Runway 23 and during the taxi roll out I noticed that the aircraft had the left wing lower than the right. I stopped. The aircraft sat on the runway with the left wing low. I quickly realized that I had a flat left main tire. However; due to the strong winds; I was able to simply apply right aileron and thereby lift the left main and taxi to the FBO on the right main and the tail wheel. The flat tire did not seem to negatively affect handling except for requiring some extra power to get going; and once the flat tire was lifted; taxiing on one main and the tail wheel was not an issue. I was late to my appointment so I parked the airplane at the FBO and left the airport. I returned later that afternoon. I had obtained a can of 'Fix a Flat' while I was out and I applied the 'Fix a Flat' to the tire. The 'Fix a Flat' failed to stop the leak and didn't inflate the tire. Because the aircraft is an experimental and it uses 'unusual' wheels; obtaining a replacement tire from the FBO was not an option. Also; a replacement tire would have to be ordered taking a week or so. My options were to fly the airplane home or leave the airplane at the FBO and get a replacement tire. I began seriously considering flying the airplane home. My thought process was as follows: My aircraft is a tail wheel aircraft. It is also an excellent STOL performer well-known for its ability to takeoff and land at very slow airspeeds and very short distances. With a touch of flap; and lightly loaded; it can lift off at approximately 20 KTS. This day I had 20 KTS of wind directly on my nose. I would be airborne with a ground speed of less than five knots. Takeoff would not be a problem; even with the flat. Further; my home airport was reporting winds of over 25 KTS down the runway; and so landing would also be a very slow ground-speed event. I would easily be able to set down on the right main and then gently set down the left main at a very slow ground speed. Having already landed at LAF with the flat earlier in the day; I knew that landing and ground-handling during and after landing was not an issue. I elected to fly the airplane home. I want to emphasize that there were two very important factors that went into this decision: 1) This aircraft was the only airplane that I would have even considered doing this with because of it's extremely slow airspeeds and it's excellent STOL performance; and 2) on this particular day the fact that I had a headwind on takeoff and landing in excess of 20 KTS made the situation feasible. I would not have even considered taking off and landing any other aircraft. I contacted Ground and was cleared to taxi to Runway 23; which I proceeded to do; albeit slowly. Halfway to the end of 23 Ground asked me if I was aware that I had a flat left main tire. I said that I was. Ground said that they would call the FBO to come out and help me. I mentioned that I thought that departing was feasible and that I was OK with departing if he was OK with letting me depart. He said; 'Wait a minute'. Then he came back and cleared me to taxi to the Runway 23. I continued my taxi to Runway 23; did my run up; and contacted Tower. Upon contacting Tower; I was told something similar to: 'Call sign enter the runway at your own risk.' I had no idea what this meant as I had never heard anything like this before. I asked if I was cleared for takeoff. The Tower Controller came back with something like 'No takeoff clearance will be granted. Enter the runway at your own risk.' (These are not exact quotes but they are as close as I can remember to exact quotes.) I said something like 'I don't want to enter the runway if someone else is on final. Am I cleared?' The Tower Controller said something like; 'No traffic is observed in the area; enter the runway at your own risk.' I asked the controllerstraight out: 'Are you going to issue me a takeoff clearance.' He replied 'No'. I was not about to cross the hold-short line without a clearance. 'Enter the runway at your own risk' was not a clearance in my mind. So; since he was not going to issue me a takeoff clearance; I decided that this flight was now over. I informed the Controller that I would like to taxi back to the hangar. He told me to contact Ground; which I did; and Ground guided me back to the ramp. Upon going home and thinking about this situation for a while; I started to wonder if I had violated any regulations. I have no idea if I violated a regulation by taxiing with a flat tire. I don't know if I violated a regulation by considering taking off with a flat tire. I'm also not exactly sure why the Controller didn't issue me a takeoff clearance. I do know that my judgment of the aircraft; it's capabilities; the fact that the flat tire did not substantively effect the ground-handling capabilities of the aircraft; the fact that I had a substantial headwind; the fact that I wanted to get home and not leave the aircraft at the FBO; all contributed to my decision to attempt to takeoff in this situation. In the end; I am glad that the Tower Controller did not clear me onto the runway; and I am also glad that I elected not to cross the hold-short line without a clearance. Ultimately; not taking off and putting the airplane back in the hangar was the right decision. There is just no sense in increasing risk; and while I was sure that both I and the airplane could handle the situation; there is no question that the risk level of taking off and landing with a flat tire is higher than without a flat tire.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.