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Tail strike during takeoff rotation.... had many consequences


Piotr007

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Hi guys,

 

I rotated a bit too fast during my takeoff with a 777-200F out of Dubai to Athens.

 

I had a warning light and sound a few hundred feet above ground level, I thought it was a configuration warning. 

Suddenly I noticed TAIL STRIKE on the screen.

 

I thought it would not cause any problems later in flight.

 

When I reached FL320, cabin altitude warning starts to sound, I immediately descended to 10,000 feet and below.

And returned to Dubai. During the descend I dumped as much fuel as possible. Luckily I was flying over sea, so a kerosine shower was not that bad..

 

Only to find out, the FMC whining about a runway/ILS freq. mismatch. And nevertheless I had to perform the landing manually.

 

Here's the video:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56DRBHKoejM&feature=youtu.be

I9 12900K @ 5.1ghz P-cores/ 4.0 ghz E-cores fixed HT off / Corsair iCue H150i Capellix Cooler/ MSI Z690 CARBON WiFi / 32GB Corsair DDR5 RAM @ 5200 mhz XMP on / 12GB MSI 4090 RTX Ventus 3 / 7,5 total TB SSD (2+2+2+1+0,5 all NVMe)/ PSU 850W Corsair / 27" (1080P)

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Hi guys,

 

I rotated a bit too fast during my takeoff with a 777-200F out of Dubai to Athens.

 

I had a warning light and sound a few hundred feet above ground level, I thought it was a configuration warning. 

Suddenly I noticed TAIL STRIKE on the screen.

 

I thought it would not cause any problems later in flight.

 

When I reached FL320, cabin altitude warning starts to sound, I immediately descended to 10,000 feet and below.

And returned to Dubai. During the descend I dumped as much fuel as possible. Luckily I was flying over sea, so a kerosine shower was not that bad..

 

Only to find out, the FMC whining about a runway/ILS freq. mismatch. And nevertheless I had to perform the landing manually.

 

Here's the video:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56DRBHKoejM&feature=youtu.be

Your lucky, if the pressure bulkhead had failed you could have blown the tail off or something similar!!

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Your lucky, if the pressure bulkhead had failed you could have blown the tail off or something similar!!

Lol,

 

FSX is such a big shame. If the realism took over, this would be EPIC!

 

It would be a new episode of Air Crash Investigation.

 

"Ripped apart above the Persian Gulf"

I9 12900K @ 5.1ghz P-cores/ 4.0 ghz E-cores fixed HT off / Corsair iCue H150i Capellix Cooler/ MSI Z690 CARBON WiFi / 32GB Corsair DDR5 RAM @ 5200 mhz XMP on / 12GB MSI 4090 RTX Ventus 3 / 7,5 total TB SSD (2+2+2+1+0,5 all NVMe)/ PSU 850W Corsair / 27" (1080P)

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Lol,

 

FSX is such a big shame. If the realism took over, this would be EPIC!

 

It would be a new episode of Air Crash Investigation.

 

"Ripped apart above the Persian Gulf"

Yeah I can just imagine the over-dramatization already...

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Ps there is a TAILSTRIKE CHECKLIST for this!

 

It would have prevent the additional damage (that is so realistically simulated by PMDG) that you caused by climbing to FL320.

(your tailstrike caused the pressure bulkhead to be weakened. Pressurizing it caused it to crack).

Rob Robson

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Shortly after getting my new yoke I was greeted with the tail strike warning (guess I got too excited).  I fumbled around and managed to bring up the tail strike checklist.  I decided I had too much time invested in prepping the 8 hour flight etc. to return, so I took the easy way out Rob by hitting the reset failures button lol.  Had it been a shorter flight I may have done what the OP had done and headed for the hard deck.

 

I have not had any since, but it's always on my mind when taking off.

Chris Sunseri

 

 

 

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Thats ok too Chris.

 

In fact, since FSX is for entertainment only, I find even Schnautserz way, of doing nothing, ok.

At least we now all got to read about an interesting experience and we now know how well this particular case is simulated. (which is I guess the reason the OP posted in the first place).

Rob Robson

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Very informative and interesting.

As the above posters noted, hitting the Checklist Button would have brought up the corresponding checklist, which makes things easier.

A few things I noted:

How did you disconnect the A/P? It looked like you used the bar, which is a very loud option ;)

Off the top of my head, I think the recommended way to descend is an IAS descend at Vmo (or current speed, if structural damage is suspected), Speedbrakes full, throttle idle.

And as always, there is more to be learned from videos where something goes wrong than from those where everything goes fine.

I liked the video!

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First he got the EICAS "Cabin Altitude" warning which comes with an aural warning.

If you press that square button in the left hand top corner, that says Caution (yellow light)Warning(red light), then that would have silenced that (purposefully) annoying aural alert.

 

He pushed on the yoke and by doing so over ruled the AP.

(in real life you need a certain force for this, in the PMDG777 a certain yoke deflection.)

this connects the AP as can be heard by the AP disconnect aural warning.

This can be silenced by a click on the yoke AP disconnect switch.

 

aaaah,....silence....now we can concentrate :-)

 

 

Oh and although it was a good reaction to dive down asap, there is no need to disengage the AP for an emergency descend.

Set lower altitude, press FLCH, pull TL to idle (is faster than waiting from them to move there), extend speedbrakes, increase speed (unless you think your airplane is damage so bad that it might fall apart).

And then as the AP is flying down you can do the Cabin Altitude checklist!

Rob Robson

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Oh cool, I'm glad someone found this :P  I got nailed by it during beta testing too and ran to Michael going "Did you seriously program an aft pressure bulkhead failure that happens at high cabin psi after tailstrike?" and he just laughed.

 

It's actually a randomized thing too - you might get away with it a few times but do it enough and you'll eventually get the failure.

Really a serious thing in real life too - the worst single aircraft disaster in aviation history was caused by an aft pressure blowout that resulted from a tailstrike and improper repair many years earlier:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_123

Ryan Maziarz
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