So.

 

Here is a stupid random challenge I set for myself.

 

1) Choose a likely plane for flying in Alaska

 

2) Set some up some nasty (windy/rainy) weather in winter conditions (psychological effect)

 

3) Pick a random area with mountainous terrain and plenty of trees (Set scenery to dense)

 

4) Coast around enjoying yourself at below FL 3000

 

5) Choose a random moment to cut your engine (and keep it cut!)

 

6) Can you find an open spot and land without crashing?

 

Hey, I said it was random!    :blush:

 

Interesting the tension factor you can get at a few hundred feet up with airspeed dwindling while you frantically scan for an open spot that is not also the side of a mountain. It makes me think a bit about the people who have faced such situations in real life...........

 

One manner I used in FS9 to work on my situational awareness would be to take off in the default 172, set the autopilot for a good long climb to about 10K feet and turn the motor off. Then I'd start working on finding a place to land, speed and the other assorted worries.

 

One night, a good while later, I was making a flight in the Kingair 350 at night up across the desert of Southern California. Then the engines did die, not a planned thing! Made it to about 300' from an airport I had seen way below. Might have been a survivable touchdown, out in the cactii?

 

Still don't know why those engines quit on the KA350!

The BASys challenge!

This is something I have always done with a simulator. It is just more fun and nerve wracking with MS Flight because of the feeling you are really there.

One thing my flight instructor always drilled into me was to always look for a possible landing spot. One interesting way to do it in Flight is to take off on a job when you know there will not be enough fuel to reach the destination. Use the skip key and you will find your self five miles from the air port with a dead engine. It has been my experience with Flight that you will never make it to the airport, so start looking for a spot to but down. The exception is the C-46. You will arrive with enough attitude to make the airport if you can manage your energy correctly. When to deploy flaps and but the gear down, etc. It is fun and really buts you on the spot, give it a try. Another fun one is to make a normal climb out to about 3,000 ft or so, cut the engine and do a 180 and try to make it back to the runway. Course my instructor always told me if the engine ever quit to maintain flying speed above all else and land straight ahead. Have you ever seen a Bob Hoover flight demonstration of energy management? Just amazing.

 

Steve

Losing your engine in the Stearman is the worst. As soon as you lose power, you begin to fall like a rock. Definitely the plane to try if you're up for a real challenge. You don't have much time to react at all!

Losing your engine in the Stearman is the worst. As soon as you lose power, you begin to fall like a rock. Definitely the plane to try if you're up for a real challenge. You don't have much time to react at all!

LoLz! I will give it a try.

 

 

Another fun one is to make a normal climb out to about 3,000 ft or so, cut the engine and do a 180 and try to make it back to the runway. Course my instructor always told me if the engine ever quit to maintain flying speed above all else and land straight ahead. Have you ever seen a Bob Hoover flight demonstration of energy management? Just amazing.

 

I will give this a try too!  ^_^

I'm not sure how flight training goes today, but mine was just like Steve's. One of the primary scans other than the six primary instruments was the terrain. You should always have a landing area in mind. Some CFI's back then were notorious for pulling the throttle back on occasion. Good training.

 

This is something I still do in Flight or FSX. I'm always aware of any possible landing sites in case of an engine out situation.  Always maintain airspeed, be aware of the wind direction, and have a spot in mind.  I do enjoy autorotation in the 206 in FSX. Shame we can't do that in Flight.  But who knows? Perhaps one day?

Still wish we had a Bell 47 Bubble. It is going back into production you know. Up dated engine and new panel with new carbon fiber blades. Some where around 800,000 bucks US. For a two seat chopper, but still a very versatile machine. I would settle for the original model for Flight. As you say Rick, maybe someday.

 

Steve

Getting enough access to flights internals to create working instrument panels and etc would probably require access to some sort of sdk, unless those internals are so similar to FSX that some rules of thumb, wags, and sheer brilliant deduction (with a dollop of luck) allowed somebody to make some sort of workarounds......

 

I have a bit more hope for things like mesh modification, building placement, and general texture modifications.

 

I would love to be surprised (one day) though.

 

I have been giving some thought to Flights method of switching continents though. Kind of like Orbx's region switching tool, but better, huh? I wonder if it actually segregates textures in such a way that completely different ones (trees and etc) can finally be applied at will per region without necessarily having to share.........

Losing your engine in the Stearman is the worst. As soon as you lose power, you begin to fall like a rock

The trick with the Stearman is to immediately pull the prop control all the way back as soon as you lose your engine. This will almost double your glide distance.

 

Hook

 

Getting enough access to flights internals to create working instrument panels and etc would probably require access to some sort of sdk, unless those internals are so similar to FSX that some rules of thumb, wags, and sheer brilliant deduction (with a dollop of luck) allowed somebody to make some sort of workarounds......

 

MS seem to have washed their hands of it so we should get one of the ex devs to ask their permission to make an SDK as a hobby project with us all chipping in a couple of hundred dollars to cover the dev's time and sundry expenses. At least that's how it works out in my fantasy world...

I do this for each of my flight sims. I use Flight, Aerofly FS, and P3D. If I hear a real siren from an emergency vehicle, I pull the power back to under 2000 RPM. Then when I never hear the siren anymore I yank back the mixture to kill the engine(pull the throttle to idle in aerofly fs). This simulates the  engine dying to dead engine failure. More common in real life to know your engine is in trouble for a few seconds before it is completely gone. Because it is a source outside my control for initiating this emergency, it truly keeps me on my toes.

 

Moe

I'm surprised at how far the C46 will glide with no fuel. It also brings out some interesting comments from the co-pilot.

4) Coast around enjoying yourself at below FL 3000

Few years ago at VATSIM, some guy wrote at unicom "climbing to FL10000", few sec later, someone else answered "contact Houston space center" :smile:

 

anyway, its a good practice to always have landing options spotted, and even more important, the places where you do not want to land due power lines, ditches... spotted

I do this for each of my flight sims. I use Flight, Aerofly FS, and P3D. If I hear a real siren from an emergency vehicle, I pull the power back to under 2000 RPM. Then when I never hear the siren anymore I yank back the mixture to kill the engine(pull the throttle to idle in aerofly fs). This simulates the  engine dying to dead engine failure. More common in real life to know your engine is in trouble for a few seconds before it is completely gone. Because it is a source outside my control for initiating this emergency, it truly keeps me on my toes.

 

Moe

 

Moe, that's a great idea. Thanks for passing that on.

 

Peter