You're an airplane pilot trying to get your bird off the ground. You have to attain a certain velocity to succeed. If your runway is short, you'd better open th

You're an airplane pilot trying to get your bird off the ground. You have to attain a certain velocity to succeed. If your runway is short, you'd better open the throttle wide -- and if it isn't working, you have to decide pretty quickly to give up and try again. But if the runway is longer, you have more time: continue building speed until you have enough force to lift off. You just want to avoid giving up when you had plenty of runway.