Your worst experiences with a PMDG aircraft

[Roadburner426 19]

I know with me on numerous occasions with the MD-11X I have forgotten to turn on the ignition, and then chased my tail in circles with the checklist. Another big one is not hitting the proper buttons on the FMC when doing the INS alignment and then waiting forever and it never aligns. Another big mistake I make is coming in high/fast and then trying to deploy the speed brakes only to get the EICAS message saying I can't, and remembering that is a MD-11 limitation (facepalm).

[Joel 10]

I remember flying my PMDG 747 into KLAX on VATSIM and there wasn't a tower. I just so happened to be flying the same approach as this other guy with the 747 and I cut RIGHT in front of him. He failed to communicate that he was on the same approach and as he was directly behind me, he quickly turned off the autopilot and flew into another runway. After landing, he told me that I really screwed him up due to the wake turbulence coming from my engines.

[Cras 6]

A similar situation on VATSIM, flying the 744. At KSFO, with no radar coverage, so monitoring on UNICOM, I check the winds, determine to takeoff rwy 19 (dont remember left or right). I enter the runaway, finish up my checks with FS2crew, announce I am taking off, all goes well, then I get a TCAS warning as another plane is landing runway opposite. Not only was the guy not paying any attention at all, nor doing his job on unicom, be he was also landing with what would have been a 15kt tailwind.Led me to give up on VATSIM for a long long time. Too many pilots who seem to just plug in their route in the FMS and never change things, dont pay attention to the winds.There was one time with the 744 that I could not get the gear to go down flying into Auckland. Flew a few laps in the holding pattern going over every thing I could think of trying to get them to come down. I ended up having to belly land on the runway (successfully too I might add). Didnt enjoy that too much.

[Turbine777 13]

My worst experience was also one of my funnest. I had just departed KORD and had a full MD-11 (Pax and cargo full not fuel) and had multiple FSPassenger failures. At first it was electrical so my systems were cutting in and out. I didn't have the option for selecting nearest airport so had to find one visually. Once I found one big enough I remembered my Landing weight was too high so had to abort until I dumped a little fuel on the community below. During approach to what looked like an adequate airfield my gear also failed to come down so like a scene in the movie "Executive Decision", I overshot and took the closest thing I could find. I don't remember what it was but managed to do a succesful belly landing and came to a stop right at the end of the RWY. It was pretty cool and for the 1st time ever watched sparks flying from the underbelly as I screeched to a stop. I have tried numerous belly landings in the MD-11 since then and after stop it always ends up flipping straight up and I get a crash detected crap. I have still had some success though where I just wait until stop, pause it, set the ebrake (Needed to do in FSP) and open the door. Then unpause and pause again and exit FSP via their menu, before you rock into the ground.I hope the NGX has a corrected airfile to allow belly and water landings, there are some aircraft that do, like the RealAir Duke B60. It also leaves large scrapes down the runway which is pretty neat as well.

[Roadburner426 19]

Cool Dan. You couldn't even get the gear to manually deploy? Whenever I have had a landing gear failure I was always able to manually deploy the main gear, and the center gear using the levers located under the pilot/co-pilot seats in the cockpit. Just have to re-load the airplane on your next flight though cause the doors remain fully open and do not re-close (simulating needing maitenance action I would imagine).

[Turbine777 13]

Hi Steve, Back when this happened I didn't know about the manual method, but not sure if it would work. FSP disables certain things like when my flaps didn't deploy I was unable to do them manually and I think FSP disables it completely. I actually not so long ago learned about the alternate gear extension method and plan to try it next time, but again, think it is completely disabled. Hopefully it isn't since that would be too cool.

[1kris007 0]

I remember flying my PMDG 747 into KLAX on VATSIM and there wasn't a tower. I just so happened to be flying the same approach as this other guy with the 747 and I cut RIGHT in front of him. He failed to communicate that he was on the same approach and as he was directly behind me, he quickly turned off the autopilot and flew into another runway. After landing, he told me that I really screwed him up due to the wake turbulence coming from my engines.

I wasn't even aware that FSX simulated wake turbulence :|. I learnt something new today.

[WestAir 2,411]

There was one time with the 744 that I could not get the gear to go down flying into Auckland. Flew a few laps in the holding pattern going over every thing I could think of trying to get them to come down. I ended up having to belly land on the runway (successfully too I might add). Didnt enjoy that too much.

If FSPax ever gives you a gear failure, or for some reason the PMDG Gives you one, using Shift+G (or is it Ctrl+G?) a thousand times will gravity drop the gear in any fs aircraft - for when you don't want to have to perform a belly landing on VATSIM. :( Epic story, though!

I wasn't even aware that FSX simulated wake turbulence :|. I learnt something new today.

It doesn't. However, some payware weather programs (Such as Active Sky) do simulate wake turbulence - but I won't say it does it very well. It will throw your plane into a semi-uncontrollable bank that, if on final approach, could crash you, but there's no attention to detail as far as the gross weight of the aircraft in front of you is, winds pushing the wake, and it seems the wake turbulence doesn't last longer than 30 seconds to 1 minute behind the aircraft that spawned it. These are all my own visual notes, and I could be wrong in the limitations I just mentioned, but that's what I've encountered so far.It has caused me to crash before in the MD11 though. I hit the wake of a taking off A320 while departing LAX. Once I rotated and got to 30 feet or something the wake turbulence threw me into a sliding 35 degree+ bank. According to FSPassengersX, me and my FO were some of the only survivors. Live to fly again! :(

[Cras 6]

It has caused me to crash before in the MD11 though. I hit the wake of a taking off A320 while departing LAX. Once I rotated and got to 30 feet or something the wake turbulence threw me into a sliding 35 degree+ bank. According to FSPassengersX, me and my FO were some of the only survivors. Live to fly again!

So morbid. But I did laugh at this. Any landing from which you can walk, crawl, or be carried off in a stretcher of some kind, is a successful landing...

[1kris007 0]

If FSPax ever gives you a gear failure, or for some reason the PMDG Gives you one, using Shift+G (or is it Ctrl+G?) a thousand times will gravity drop the gear in any fs aircraft - for when you don't want to have to perform a belly landing on VATSIM. :( Epic story, though!It doesn't. However, some payware weather programs (Such as Active Sky) do simulate wake turbulence - but I won't say it does it very well. It will throw your plane into a semi-uncontrollable bank that, if on final approach, could crash you, but there's no attention to detail as far as the gross weight of the aircraft in front of you is, winds pushing the wake, and it seems the wake turbulence doesn't last longer than 30 seconds to 1 minute behind the aircraft that spawned it. These are all my own visual notes, and I could be wrong in the limitations I just mentioned, but that's what I've encountered so far.It has caused me to crash before in the MD11 though. I hit the wake of a taking off A320 while departing LAX. Once I rotated and got to 30 feet or something the wake turbulence threw me into a sliding 35 degree+ bank. According to FSPassengersX, me and my FO were some of the only survivors. Live to fly again! :(

A320's wake affecting you so badly? I can see what you mean by limitations. haha

[Jefferson 3]

Worst Experience... Hmm.. Hard to say...But I think that the worst... Ever.. is this...Waiting for the NGX to come! Seriously, It's killing me! hahahThx God that now I've got DCS A-10C to spend my time with, even being a Beta, that Sim is just awesome, it outranks the Black Shark easily.

[Balint 18]

Worst Experience would definitely be my latest visit to MMMX.It was Lufthansa's flight to Mexico, I was already in descent phase, and the Sun was already done for the day over there. Engine #3 suddenly blew as I was descending through 10.000' AGL and had to shut it down. Had a rather smooth approach (the Queen flies like a steady rock even on 3 engines!) but had to do a G/A due to traffic not vacating the runway in time.Long story short, the Queen ended up in pieces on a mountain wall. Lesson learned: Always go through missed approach procedures before entering final approach, study the obstacles of the airport surroundings and double check whether missed approach procedures can be safely executed with engine-out configurations or not...Honestly, it was the only time I ever did harm to the Queen and I was literally shaking afterwards, and did not fly for about 9-10 days...