Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Physiological - Other; Human-Machine Interface; Confusion; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Maintenance Action
Chart Or Publication; Procedure; Human Factors
On takeoff roll. Captain called out 'rotate'. I began to rotate and noticed airplane didn't feel ready to fly; so I slowed the rotation rate until I felt the main gear liftoff. I then resumed to rotate to target pitch attitude. At that point I noticed the airspeed was right around V2. Climbed out of terminal area and then reviewed takeoff data. We determined the Captain's airspeed bugs were set lower than the performance data called for. I concluded that was why the rotation felt mushy. Upon arrival; a walk around revealed a scrape on the tailskid. No other damage found by mechanic. Believe the event was caused by Pilot Monitoring (PM) setting wrong Vr speed bug; Pilot Flying failed to catch that error and had already transitioned visual scan to outside the aircraft and failed to verify speed when PM made rotate call. Flaps 5 takeoff; reduced thrust made tail clearance minimal to begin with and margin for error was small. I feel proper adherence to standard rotation rate helped identify an irregular condition and subsequent action of slowing rotation rate prevented any damage from occurring.
Paint scape on tail skid noticed on through flight inspection. Slightly early rotation on takeoff may have been a factor. Rotation rate was not excessive and no unusual attitudes noted on takeoff or landing. No cockpit indications of tail strike occurred. Maintenance inspection revealed no damage to tail skid other than paint scrape. Aircraft returned to service. Being even more vigilant on flaps 5 reduced thrust takeoff rotation speeds and rate may prevent this in the future.
A B767 flight crew reported that the tail skid contacted the runway on takeoff because a Vr speed lower than the performance data specified was entered in the FMC.