Headlines: Major airplane crash at Shanghai Airport

[Legend 0]

A horrible crash occured today at Shanghai's HONGQIAO International Airport. The airplane, a Boeing 747-400, can be considered a total loss. Miraculously, no people were killed during the disaster.The pilot, Mr Gert Wijbrans, declared, "I was doing a standard landing. All three autopilots were engaged, everything looked normal. Flare and rollout mode were armed. Flaps were set at 30, speed was at 149 knots - VREF + 5. Then at the moment of landing, the nose suddenly came down too fast at the runway, resulting in the loss of the aircraft. Landing weight was at approx. 562k pounds, so well within structural limits. Only seconds before landing, Mr Wijbrans made the below picture, showing everything seems normal. http://xs101.xs.to/xs101/06231/Land.jpgAn committee, led by PMDG and several helpful people of the famous AVSIM forum, will conduct an investigation to the causes of the crash.

[downscc 1,327]

likely story.... who was flying when you were taking pictures? Remember the number one rule of flying is fly the airplane number one.The only time it's not pilot error is when he/she is a hero.

[Orlaam 306]

I'll throw in a vote for hand-flying. After all, what fun is a long flight if the challenge of landing good is removed at the end?

[Jeff Nielsen 1,385]

Sounds like another case of having "wake turbulance" checked "on" in your weather settings somewhere. Active Sky most likely.

[Guest B1900 Mech]

Your supposed to be "guarding" the yoke at all times when "Otto" is flying:-)

[Orlaam 306]

Jeff's right. I remember that issue with the Aeroworx B200 when I first got it. I turned it off, and I've never had a problem since. The issue wasn't/isn't reversible even if you're on the yoke and handling all systems manually. It sends your plane into the ground so fast that only being a couple hundred feet off the ground makes it too late. I think it trims the plane so far out of neutral that pulling back is useless.

[Guest t288msd]

I'll bet the FS9 runway sufarce is bitumen rather than asphalt, like the default WSSS, VNKT, NFFN etc. Fs9 bitumen runways inevitably causes the Queen to crash as soon as the nosewheel hits the runway. Use AFCAD to change it to Asphalt and you'll not have any problems.Matt

[lostmoon 0]

goog lead matt. i do believe the surface could be a problem as discussed in the forum in the past.i just turned off crash detection. :()tomas

[Jeff Nielsen 1,385]

having WT on will affect any airplane in that manner assuming that's your problem. It usually occurs when you're crossing the fence.

[Legend 0]

Dan... I thought that's why the company had an autopilot installed. So the pilots have time left for "pleasurable distractions". I use Snapper, which doesn't take much resources, and have a button programmed on my throttle to take the shots - never have to leave the throttle and stick alone.Chris, I had the autopilot on to save this from happening. After all, we'd just spend 9 hours flying - didn't want to botch it. And a 9-hour flight looks nice in my logbook ;)Jeff & others - I thought the Queen only caused turbulence :( the airplane ahead of us - a B727 - had just taken off, maybe a minute earlier, I don't know if it creates a lot of turbulence at the beginning of the runway. IIRC, the nose came down only a second before touchdown - it landed nose-first I think - but it happened so quickly that I didn't realise if main gear had touched down already or not. However, it could be the cause - sounds logical. And yes, I do have ActiveSky installed and active.Matt, will check later, but as I said, I think it happened slightly before touchdown - and in that case it was probably wake turbulence. Isn't it a bit strange that only the Queen can't land on bitumen? Never had any problems with other aircraft. I really must find this discussion. Thank you all!

[Jeff Nielsen 1,385]

What I mean is; most people who install active sky leave the WT on. If that's the case then at the approach end of the runway you will nose down. You will think you have a runaway trim problem, but it is in fact the WT being simulated.

[VHOJT 167]

Until we get some decent air traffic control in flight simulator I'd turn wake turbulence off in ActiveSky if I were you!

[Jeff Nielsen 1,385]

Isn't that what I've been saying...rofl.

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Gents-The Wake Turbulence simulation in Active Sky causes the airplane to PITCH?Wow.... I've done my share of wake turbulence in my life... Filled out forms for injured passengers- even smacked my own noggin on the window post because i happened to be leaned over reach for something at the time we encountered it...but uh.... Never saw it 200' AGL and never saw pitch as the primary influence.... Doesn't sound very realistic to me.(To get WT that would cause you to pitch down at 200'AGL while landing, you'd have to be hit by a vortex generated by an airplane landing on a runway that is perpendicular to yours, located off your right wing with a threshold 3nm displaced from your final approach course....)I don't know many places where that might happen. But that's just me- looking at the silly details and comparing them to the real world. :-)

[Jeff Nielsen 1,385]

Robert,This has been a well know fact in FS for quite sometime now with AS installed. It's just a quirk. Try it sometime. Everytime at the approach end of the RWY it will happen regardless of the a/c you're in.We're using FS here not out flying 737's burning thousands of dollars practicing non authorized approaches costing our tower controllers numerous deals by flying to close behind heavier aircraft---rofl.IF--And I say again, IF, you have AS installed, turn off WT in the options box.