So I join a multiplayer game and my plane appears in the air in the middle of a gigantic fog bank. This was a shock, as 99% percent of the games I join are in perfectly clear skys."What the....!!!" I am thinking, as I try to figure out where the heck I might be. This musing was interrupted a few seconds later as my apparently plumeting plane slammed into the ground, aditionally alerting me to the fact that I was also somehow upside down........... :Monkey:What I want to know is, barring radio contact with an airport, and finding yourself in such conditions (and what about at night!) how do other people handle the situation of sudden dense fog, other than holding the stick in a death grip and trying to be straight and level while hopefully not hitting the side of a mountain or something?

how do other people handle the situation of sudden dense fog, other than holding the stick in a death grip and trying to be straight and level while hopefully not hitting the side of a mountain or something

hit ESC and exit the MP session :Just Kidding:seriously, I really like how the fog is simulated but I avoided dense fog so far in the absense of a nice GPR with moving map and a working autopilot.

What I want to know is, barring radio contact with an airport, and finding yourself in such conditions (and what about at night!) how do other people handle the situation of sudden dense fog, other than holding the stick in a death grip and trying to be straight and level while hopefully not hitting the side of a mountain or something?

That is the prefered method...LOL :LMAO:You could try gaining altitude and try to get above the fog, all the while keeping a close eye on your instruments or you could hit the map key and see where you are. If needed you can move your aircraft away from any mountains. Also while in map view you can check for nav aids to help guide you where you want to go. Hope that helps-others will post addional help I'm sure.

Hopefully you aren't flying an Icon because that lack of instrumentation will make things tough! :Waiting:The first step is to use your instruments and make sure you can keep the plane in control and just as Mikro said you can climb over the fog.If you ran into thick clouds and climbing or descending (into the ground) isn't going to work, then turn around 180 degrees and try to head out of it.The goal is to watch your instruments and maintain control.IRL, you would have planned ahead (hopefully) and know what a safe altitude is for the area you are in

Hopefully you aren't flying an Icon because that lack of instrumentation will make things tough! :Waiting:The first step is to use your instruments and make sure you can keep the plane in control and just as Mikro said you can climb over the fog.If you ran into thick clouds and climbing or descending (into the ground) isn't going to work, then turn around 180 degrees and try to head out of it.The goal is to watch your instruments and maintain control.IRL, you would have planned ahead (hopefully) and know what a safe altitude is for the area you are in

My second attempt, I did try to head for altitude, but there were also some ferocious winds throwing me around like a toy and I was losing speed. In real life (If I was a pilot) I would probably have been wondering where the parachutes were. Once above the clouds, all I saw was fog in every direction, and some sort of mountain far in the distance.In the game it was all intriguing, and a bit eye opening, but I suspect in real life my adrenaline would have been pumping hard.

So I join a multiplayer game and my plane appears in the air in the middle of a gigantic fog bank. This was a shock, as 99% percent of the games I join are in perfectly clear skys."What the....!!!" I am thinking, as I try to figure out where the heck I might be. This musing was interrupted a few seconds later as my apparently plumeting plane slammed into the ground, aditionally alerting me to the fact that I was also somehow upside down........... :Monkey:What I want to know is, barring radio contact with an airport, and finding yourself in such conditions (and what about at night!) how do other people handle the situation of sudden dense fog, other than holding the stick in a death grip and trying to be straight and level while hopefully not hitting the side of a mountain or something?

A coworker of mine is in the final stages of getting his PPL. One thing they taught during flight school is that the average lifespan of an untrained pilot going through clouds (or fog in this case) is 8 seconds. Your experience is a good example of this. In the real world, flying into clouds can invoke some sort of spacial or equilibrium disfunction in your head causing you to feel like the plane is pitching or rolling (when it's flying perfectly straight), thus you ignore instruments and stall and/or crash into the ground.

In the game it was all intriguing, and a bit eye opening, but I suspect in real life my adrenaline would have been pumping hard.

Pretty awesome simulation isn't it? If you have the ILS Challenges purchased (Hawaiian Pack), those are a great starting point for learning to deal with conditions like fog or clouds. You can then add VOR navigation combined with ILS landings while in Free Flight for more education/practice with flying in weather. It's pretty sweet to navigate to and land with instruments when you don't have the ground as a reference. Breaking out of the fog at a couple hundred feet with a runway dead ahead is a fun accomplishment, but it ain't easy :)

If your aircraft has an attitude indicator, you're pretty well set. Just keep the horizon level.In the Stearman, it's "needle, ball and airspeed." As long as the ball is in the center, the turn needle is vertical, and your airspeed is constant (for level flight), you're flying reasonably straight and level, just keep an eye on the altimeter and compass as well. It's possible to fly in fairly nasty turbulence with this method.In the Icon, it's down to airspeed and the compass on the moving map display. Still ok in lighter turbulence, but if you're getting tossed around, you're probably gonna be toast.If you're trying to climb above fog, go full throttle and keep your airspeed at the normal climb rate.Hook

For those interested in Fog:Early Contributions to AviationFlying Blind: A Brief History of Aviation Advancements, 1918-1930http://www.fathom.com/course/10701016/session1.htmlAviation Hazard of Foghttp://www.free-online-private-pilot-ground-school.com/of-fog.html

I get a very strong banking/leaving sensation when I close my eyes or fly with foggles as party of training.It takes concentration to ignore what your body is saying and trust the instrumentation. I'm 100% certain that I wouldn't last very long if I didn't follow my training.

For those interested in Fog:Early Contributions to AviationFlying Blind: A Brief History of Aviation Advancements, 1918-1930http://www.fathom.co...6/session1.htmlAviation Hazard of Foghttp://www.free-onli...com/of-fog.html

Well........ FSX fog certainly does not prepare you for all that! Thank you for the info. Should I ever actually find myself with a real vfr pilot who wants to go up on the fog, I now know enough to give him a good whack on the side of the head! :LMAO:

I now know enough to give him a good whack on the side of the head! :LMAO:

Before you do that. Be sure to know how to land the thing. :Just Kidding:

A coworker of mine is in the final stages of getting his PPL. One thing they taught during flight school is that the average lifespan of an untrained pilot going through clouds (or fog in this case) is 8 seconds. Your experience is a good example of this. In the real world, flying into clouds can invoke some sort of spacial or equilibrium disfunction in your head causing you to feel like the plane is pitching or rolling (when it's flying perfectly straight), thus you ignore instruments and stall and/or crash into the ground.

Very much true. When I got my glider license, my instructor let me fly into a small puff of cloud without the proper instruments, just to show me what would happen. We came out about 15 seconds later, in a 45 degree bank, while I was convinced we were still straight and level!

What I want to know is, barring radio contact with an airport, and finding yourself in such conditions (and what about at night!) how do other people handle the situation of sudden dense fog, other than holding the stick in a death grip and trying to be straight and level while hopefully not hitting the side of a mountain or something?

As you can see, it's quite easy to hit the side of a mountain in these situations. Of course pilots are taught to avoid this scenario, and be on instruments (IFR) when in these situations. On the other hand, there are cases of where fog & whiteouts have taken place in night time conditions. The pilot was following lights on the surface, and ended up in a low lying cloud, loosing all reference to the ground. With a very dark night, all reference to the horizon can also be lost, if city or highway lighting suddenly disappears. Some of these flights are VFR, while others are IFR, yet the pilot has quickly lost situational awareness. The answer, which is becoming popular is "synthetic vision". Many of the new glass panels have it. It uses the same terrain databases that form the visuals in our flight simulators.........except the GPS is synced to it, to show the terrain, as if it's out the windscreen. However, in real life, it's not an excuse to be scud running in marginal conditions. But it's another great tool..............if the situation gets to the point, of where you really could use it. Your passengers will thank you for it...L.Adamson

Flying in fog or cloud in Flight is really well modelled - it is very disorientating. I find I cope by zooming the cockpit view so that the primary instruments almost fill my view, and I look up only occasionally, say once every 30 seconds for a quick glance to see if runway lights are visible for instance.Your instrument scan technique is vital... google "instrument scan practice" for some helpful sites. The basics centre around the Attitude Indicator and go something like AI-altitude-AI-airspeed-AI-RoC-AI-heading-AI-bank/yaw-AI-engine-AI-... at a rate of once a second.You need to know what numbers or attitude you expect to see at all times, and what to do if the numbers don't add up.E.g. plane is level, but altitude is not right, airspeed is decreasing, RoC is descending - check throttle is OK? then check oil pressure is OK? then check engine temp is OK? No? CARB HEAT ON! (carburetor or air filter is icing up). If engine temp was OK, the next thing would be wing icing, turn on wing de-ice, etc. While doing all that, increase revs, look to gain airspeed & altitude. That whole sequence of checking and implementing solution should take less than 4 seconds or so - remember what the previous post said about lifespan of an untrained pilot? Decreasing airspeed & lift due to ice - you'll have about 8-10 seconds before stall in a light plane. Ice builds up very quickly in cloud... it's a lot to juggle at once, and is why any pilot needs practice, practice, practice.Also try to avoid flying into clouds-with-rocks-in-them.