B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Confusion; Workload; Distraction; Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory; Flight Crew Rejected Takeoff; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Weather
Preflight planning revealed no weather at the airport. Upon taxi out heard ground/tower controller (combined) comment to an air carrier airplane waiting to takeoff about a storm cell that had popped up west of the airport and had moved south. He indicated to the air carrier airplane that the departure corridor was now clear. The air carrier airplane took off. We noticed a flash of lightening out to the southwest. No LLWS advisories were shown on the ATIS. With the slight gusting winds; we elected to go max power for takeoff. The controller cleared us for takeoff while we were still taxiing to the runway. I elected to turn on the weather radar approaching the runway. As we lined up; the radar showed the reported cell in the distance to the southwest of the airport with the departure path and SID track clear. At approximately 90 kts we got a predictive 'wind shear ahead' warning. I rejected the takeoff at about 100 kts and taxied clear. As we were executing the abort; the tower controller broadcast an airfield wind shear alert. We had not even told him we were aborting yet. We taxied back to the gate for the high energy abort inspection. We also consulted the brake cooling chart and saw an approximate 22 minutes cooling period. It took maintenance a while to do the inspection and they cleared us to go again. Upon engine start after push out the second time the right engine reverser light came on and stayed on. We consulted with Maintenance Control and taxied back to the gate a second time. Maintenance could not find any fault codes and reset the light. We then taxied back out and departed for [destination]. The rest of the flight was normal.This weather cell came out of nowhere in a very short period of time. Luckily we overheard the transmission to the airplane [in front of us] and had a heightened sense of alert. As the tower controller said; the departure path appeared clear. It just goes to show how unpredictable and fast these weather phenomena can be. You expect this type of thing when severe weather is all around the airport; but not when it is pretty much severe clear. We never thought that this one isolated cell southwest of the field was going to be a problem.It just goes to show anything can happen. When there is any type of convective activity in the vicinity; it would be a wise idea to plan for and set up for the worst. I'm convinced that our training and preemptively turning on the weather radar gave us some extra seconds of scan to detect the wind shear or we may have not gotten the warning due to it being inhibited above 100 kts. We could have then been in an escape scenario with a very heavy weight airplane. It was a little surreal as the wind shear warnings and training we practice in the simulator were now occurring right in front of us in real time. Your mind does not want to believe it is happening. There is definitely a startle factor there and it pays to run through all the abort scenarios each time you take the runway just in case.
Recommend turning RADAR on prior to taking the runway as a precautionary measure anytime you suspect something in the area. We had no indication there was anything in the area; nothing on ATIS or from the previous departing aircraft off Runway 26. The only indication was the one flash of light which we suspected was lightening.
B737 flight crew reported rejecting takeoff at PHX after receiving a predictive windshear warning.