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Slick9

Things that cause high pucker factors...

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This weekend i was enroute from KLAX to KBOS in the captains seat of Polar Air Cargo flight 001 heavy, a boeing 744. It had been a routine flight so far out side of some thunder storms over Colorado that caused a slight deviation from our flight plan. Our current location was approximately 250 kts due west of KBOS and about 30 miles from TOD, at FL330 Mach .85. The first officer and I were briefing on the the Gardner 3 approach into KBOS and life was "as usual". Out of the blue, the TCAS goes off "Traffic, traffic". I immediately looked at my PFD TCAS display, for the conflict information. The good news was that the conflicting traffic was designated in yellow. The bad news was that the altitude separation read "00", meaning there was no separation. Now I knew we had a serious problem. I immediately went outside the cockpit to visually ID the conflict aircraft, and there she was, a silver spec off our port (left) wing traveling at what appeared to be a 45 degree angle to our flight path. Right at that moment the TCAS started issuing aural instructions to climb. So i go back into the cockpit to see the VS recommendation from the TCAS for the climb. Initially I engage VS on the MCP and dial in 1000fpm, then i do another visual check outside the cockpit. As soon as I look outside I say "oh sh**", the silver spec has now become a Delta 767, and eventhough we are climbing the collision still seems imminent. So I use the autopilot button on the yoke to disconnet the AP and manually start trying to get out of that Delta captains way. I am now in the situation where I am doing all i can, and only time will tell, so I go back outside and watch that 767 get bigger and bigger. I start to think wow the Delta captain is going to shear the back half of our 747. Luckily though, they go barreling under us, so close we can see the Delta crew in thier cockpit. I then looked off to the starboard side and watch the 767 start to get smaller and smaller. By the time i look at the altimeter were are now blowing through FL370, so I ease the control column forward and adjust the trim a little bit and bring her over the top. For a minute there we feel like those people do when they fly in NASA's weightlessness 727. Needless to say this experience combined with the fully automated CAT IIIb landing at KBOS (visibility was 1 mile) made for an extremely high pucker factor - but then, that is why i sim.To the whole PMDG team and all the contributors on the forum here, A BIG THANKS for keeping the hobby great!!!!!!!!!!!!

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You're lucky. I actually smacked into a small Mooney on an ILS approach into KDEN a while back, which jammed the right landing gear of my 737-700 at a 45 degree angle, no up, no down. I didn't have a TCAS at the time and I was in the clouds, stupid ATC. That was a landing with a HUGE pucker factor. No crash detection went off upon landing either, just a nice slight spin to the right, with my right wing lying on the runway.Kim

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Hey Kim,I didn't realize FS allowed partial damage, I thought anytime there was a collission it was all over? Yeah with the FS controllers the sky can be an unfriendly place.Richard

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Richard,I didn't know partial failures could happen without being set up before hand either. When it happened, I was astounded that my aircraft didn't become a smear on the ground. It's also never happened again, but oh boy was it fun to land a crippled aircraft. I posted a screen shot of the landing awhile back, but it appears to be gone from the screen shot forum now.Kim

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