Im sure you guys remember that scary incident back in 2001 when an Air Transat A330 ran out of fuel over the Atlantic and the flight crew did a *terrific* job of gliding the thing to a safe landing in the Azores.I was just wondering if anyone on here who has the A330 on their FS2004 sim has ever recreated that incident. Did you make it to the Azores? Of course the flight-physics in MSFS arent that accurate & complex but nevertheless it would be an interesting experiment....I cant wait to try the Air Transat scenario when I get a new comp & the latest MSFS with A330 add-on!----------------------------------------------------------------------For those on this forum who are unfamiliar with what happened:The aircraft was scooting along at 39000 feet on a flight from Toronto to Lisbon when the right engine failed. The left engine decided to fail a few minutes later. Both engines lost power as a result of fuel starvation. Unknown to the crew there was a leak in the fuel system in the right engine. The crew opened the cross-feed valve to send fuel from the left wing-tanks to the right engine - of course the fuel promptly got spewed out and the left engine quit as well.The pilots displayed massive skill & glided the jet for 20 minutes for about 115 miles to Lajes airport on the Azores and avoided everyones worst nightmare - ocean ditching.Heres a picture of the A330 after the successful glide & landing

"The pilots displayed massive skill & glided the jet for 20 minutes for about 115 miles to Lajes airport on the Azores and avoided everyones worst nightmare - ocean ditching."The pilots were also very lucky that they were routed direct putting the airplane 200 miles closer to the Azores than planned. The pilots also displayed massively poor piloting skill by not believing their instruments and crossfeeding all their fuel overboard. Cheers,JohnBoeing 727/737 & Lockheed C-130/L-100 Mechanichttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpg

I just wanted to know if anyone had tried this scenario in their MSFS!Yes there were failings in how that crew performed (like u said relating to mistrusting the A330 computers) but I made that statement from an *aviating* point of view - actually gliding that A330 down to a safe landing took skill...Interestingly I heard that other pilots tried the glide to the Azores in full-motion Level D sims...and failed.

http://www.casa.gov.au/avreg/fsa/03jul/22-27.pdfThis was an Air Canada 767 that glided into Gimli. They ended up putting part of the blame on the pilot--well, bottom line is, you shouldn't run out of gas--but he got an award from a US fighter squadron. They paid his way down to the US and it was prolly some party. Note the sideslip on final. When you're sideslipping a 767 with no power on final I bet your heart would be pumping like mad....billg

I know I haven't tried it but I doubt the comment on other pilots not being able to make it. It's more likely a fault of the Level D sim not simulating the glide characteristics accurately. In reality they were quite high when they reached the airport and almost didn't get it down.*Aviating* also encompasses managing your aircraft and the Captain failed on that point alone.Cheers,JohnBoeing 727/737 & Lockheed C-130/L-100 Mechanichttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpg

<<<<....I doubt the comment on other pilots not being able to make it. It's more likely a fault of the Level D sim not simulating the glide characteristics accurately >>>>>Yeh I agree :) If Im not mistaken didnt they deliberately keep it high on the approach?

They did keep it high but in the end they lost their profile because of this. After the incident it was learned that the A330 had quite a remarkable glide ratio for a large airliner and this was in fact what saved the lives of the crew and passengers.Cheers,JohnBoeing 727/737 & Lockheed C-130/L-100 Mechanichttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpg

Yes the Brits do make efficient airfoils for the Airbus series :)

Sorry to ask this stupid question?What was the exact cause of the incident?Technical or Human mistake?

If memory serves me correctly, Air Transat had just replaced the RR engine with new ones sent to them but it was missing some components for the fuel pressure inside of it. Lacking this, the Air Transat technicians replaced it with spareparts - wich didnt fit perfectly becos of the older model of the part.It then sprung loose once airborne. I dont remember the exact part name though.AFAIK, Rolls Royce changed procedure after this as to always ship aditional spareparts with all their engines

It was a fuel line fitting. As mentioned above they put on a part that was not meant for the plane (managment for maintenance decided this instead of taking the lane out of action till the new parts came in).Pichet (SP) was the captain of the flight and won merit's for the feat he pulled off. As well experts say he should have taken the warnings he was getting seriously instead of assuming the were computer "glitches".They asked one of the passengers if they thought Pichet was a hero. The passenger replied "Is he a hero? No. He is one hell of a pilot? Yes!"See you in the fence...CYYZ