Hello Bill:

We were so happy to hear that everyone is OK. A real shame about your plane but it sounds like its fixable.

Some of the planes in the OSH airshow had wingtip smoke generators that would leave a dramatic record of wake vortex speed and duration.

I don't think you'll get very far with the "controller told me to" argument, what with the "Pilot is the final authority" and all.

I would be interested to hear what Vr speed you used. When I was trained by Ike Issacson I was taught to rotate at 65 KIAS and wait for the plane to decide to fly. I have been told that Tony Druzzi used the same technique. This never made sense to me so my usual procedure, runway length permitting, is to hold the plane down until reaching 95-100 KIAS (110 KIAS in a wake turbulence situation) and then lift the nose. The reason I do this is to have the additional control authority the extra speed gives you.

If you lift the nose early you are increasing the drag  and increasing the takeoff roll. In a perfect world, for a short field takeoff, you would rotate at the moment you reached flying speed for that particular load and configuration. I only use this technique on short fields where wake turbulence is not an issue.
Your feedback would be appreciated.

Again, I was so very relieved that you are OK.

Regards
Brent Regan