I was at Gate 40 at KSAN and struggling to keep my on time record.  I use FS2Crew with the NGX and I typically run thru the entire Pre-flight procedure including listening to the briefings and trying to adhere to all steps.

 

This particular day, I was running 7 minutes behind schedule and not looking forward to a crowd at the departing runway and so in what I recognize as a stupid oversight I was rushing thru the procedures and trying to combine steps in order to save time.

 

at 18 minutes behind schedule I climbed away from San Diego only to almost immediately see the master warning light come on with no indications on the annunciator though.  I quickly scanned the overhead and to my horror I noted that the equipment door warning light was on.  I could have sworn I scanned the whole overhead for things like this, but now I think in my haste, my mind considered the orange glow as the Altitude and landing pressuruzation setting readouts.  I use TrackIR and actually look and manipulate almost all the controls from the left seat eyepoint for realism; including looking at the overhead, which as a consequence is at a fairly sharp angle so that you have to move your head around to see the far side of the overhead.

 

Anyhow, justifications aside, I was also lulled into a false state of readiness because in FS2Crew, part of the voice package clearly has the ground crew say "All hatches and doors are closed ready for pushback, release parking brake"

 

I know ultimately the responsibility is mine, and in this case, I declared an emergency (virtually) and returned to KSAN where I landed successful (though a bit hard) in order to do the taxi of shame back to the gate.

 

All ended well, but I was curious at the time; what would be the real world consequences to me as a pilot if this were a real world event?  Suspension?  Disciplinary action? Fired?

 

Just curious...

 

 

Incident Investigation by Aviation Authority and from their report the airline would decide

At a minimum once the incident has been reported and the appropriate paperwork filed, you would likely have a conversation with the Chief Pilot or the Pilot Standards group. Disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment for cause could also be a potential depending on whether this is a first time incident report or this is reoccuring behaviour.

 

I think you're safe for this incident!

I am exactly like David, I fly "by the book" with FS2Crew ASN and all that good stuff, sometimes I've made dumb decisions but I learn from them and it's fun because no one gets hurt. 

I somehow doubt you would be in position to take off with door wide open IRL. If no one else, cabin crew member sitting beside that door would notice wind in her/his hair.

 

EDIT: I see, my mistake, I should read slowly next time. :blush:  Anyway, although it may pass unnoticed by ground crew, walk around inspection, cockpit preparation, and all other checklist, I still think that would be a highly unlikely event. Beside that FS2Crew may be a good help, it provide extra pair of hands, but cockpit still missing one more set of eyes and at least half of brain (FOs, to be clear).

 

You can always say, your intention was to cool down equipment 

Always at some point before take off, press the 6pack annunciation in for a last minute check.

Just to give you a hint at how serious this would have been in real life (and also how unlikely), if the engineer leaves the equipment compartment light on, you can just see it through the rudder pedals mechanism Just supposing you didn't notice the extreme noise, you wouldn't have been able to pressurize.

 

If the light came on after departure, just a bad day in the air, back to HQ for tea and medals. If you didn't notice before departure time to polish up your resume for McDonald's :wacko:

Having ramp experience, I would argue that some of the responsibility is shared, but ultimately (in the States) most of the hit would be taken by the crew.  There's an indicator in the plane for those types of doors.  Rampies are taught to not walk under the aircraft unless a job duty requires it: plugging in the GPU (if that's where it goes - so, not on the 737), plugging in pre-conditioned air (true for the 737), and so on.  The equipment door would be something that rampies would be taught to leave alone, but if they noticed it open prior to push, report it to the crew.  All that to say a few things:

1. Don't trust your rampies too much - always do your own checks (they may not even have to go under the plane at all, so they wouldn't notice it)
2. Never rush - on time doesn't matter if you're dead (though, in this situation, it likely wouldn't be life or death)

...but my main question is: what the [heck] was the equip door doing open anyway?  That doesn't normally get opened unless you're on maint.  Just because there's an option to open it doesn't mean it should be opened. :wink:

 

There are, however, certain panels that don't have indicators, like the Deck-to-Ground comms.  At Independence Air (and back to ACA), we painted the inside of those doors dayglo orange (think black box, or ramp wands) so that it would be pretty obvious to others that it's open.  We actually got a return to gate (RTG) because IAD tower spotted the door open as the aircraft was taxiing, and on a CRJ, it's not that large.  Those are the doors that are all on the ramp to ensure they're closed.  You'd have no idea.  I had a few aircraft show up to IAD with them open as they taxied in.

I guess you didn't notice the MASTER Caution, DOOR light on your after start recall check?  It takes multiple mistakes for something like that to slip through.  You would have to miss the item on the before starting engines checklist and miss it again during the recall.

It might be worth reporting this to FS2Crew support to see if they can add functionality to the ground crew call that all doors are secure and delay it until they are. FS2Crew can only do what it's programmed to do and you missing a key step in the procedure has exposed a gap in the logic. It shouldn't have told you the doors were secure when they weren't.

I guess you didn't notice the MASTER Caution, DOOR light on your after start recall check?  It takes multiple mistakes for something like that to slip through.  You would have to miss the item on the before starting engines checklist and miss it again during the recall.

Obviously, but as David said in his OP, he was rushing and didn't follow procedures properly. If you cancel master caution and don't do a recall there is no DOOR light.

 

I'm in the habit of never cancelling it. That way I'm always reminded of an open item. Which is good for me as I don't get any enjoyment out of following checklists (apart from in the 777 to exercise the automatic system).

 

 

I'm in the habit of never cancelling it. That way I'm always reminded of an open item.

 

That technique is frowned upon in the real world.  If you don't reset the master caution light the system will not alert you if there is another problem.  If you do that in the sim the check airman is guaranteed to give you another, more serious problem.  Something like an exhaust fan failure and since you didn't reset the master caution the first indication you will get is the ground call horn going off because your electronics are overheating, that or your IRUs failing because they overheated.

That technique is frowned upon in the real world.  If you don't reset the master caution light the system will not alert you if there is another problem.  If you do that in the sim the check airman is guaranteed to give you another, more serious problem.  Something like an exhaust fan failure and since you didn't reset the master caution the first indication you will get is the ground call horn going off because your electronics are overheating, that or your IRUs failing because they overheated.

Yes, but this isn't the real world is it? In the real world I'd have to follow the checklists properly too. Anyway, I was primarily talking about during preflight. If the OP hadn't cancelled his Master Caution at some point he would still have had a DOOR caption illuminated.

Probably the end of your career at that airline!

Thanks so much everyone for all the great insights!  You may all laugh, but I actually feel pretty bad and embarrassed  about my error.  I might take the sim a little too seriously than I should :(  But you may all laugh again because as penance, I've imagined that the review board has slapped me with a pretty harsh reprimand and a notation on my permanent record, and that my airline has bumped me down in seniority and now for the next month or so I'm flying a J41 on the shuttle run back and forth from LAX to SFO. (Another PMDG aircraft, that I don't like as much as the NGX)

 

More specifics of the comedy of errors that I allowed myself to get complacent about.  I completely wrote off the idea of any door or hatch being open because on the second phase of the FS2Crew pre-flight checks the FO will bring it to your attention if there is a doorlight on, but only the passenger and cargo doors, not the equipment hatch because he allowed me to continue with checks when he would have said "Hang on, we have a door light, we need to check that" if it had been a passenger or any of the cargo doors.  Still not a justification for my not checking, but just another reason why I let things just "go"

 

Also, I actually DID get a master caution light light on the taxi to the active, but it was right in the middle of 1) FS2Crew pre-takeoff checklist (flaps and stabilizer trim) which I was performing while taxiing to save time, and 2) my concern about an Eagle flight that was on a crossing taxiway that I HAD to get in front of or lose even more time :(  The master caution light went off, I cancelled it with quick looks over the engine operating stats, the hydraulic pressures, and electrical stats.  I did look up quickly at the overhead to check that altitude pressure was set to auto, and inexplicably I must have again not seen the equipment hatch door light.  I have no idea how other than to imagine that I was so overloaded with doing things correctly "too" quickly that I saw it but it did not "register" :(

 

So now I have a blemish on my on time record after 60 consecutive on time departures, a permanent blotch on my flying record, and the virtual flight attendant I was going to dinner with this weekend called and she cancelled our date :(

 

*sigh*

 

 

 

p.s.  My virtual cousin is the virtual Director of Operations with Delta Virtual Airlines who I fly with.  Thank God for Virtual family!

Remind me never to ride pillion on your motorcycle!