As Real As It Gets

[snglecoil 1,828]

2018 Nall Report

For great analysis of General Aviation accidents, check out the Nall report linked above. The majority of accidents occur in daytime visual conditions and are attributed to pilot error. While continued flight into instrument conditions is not as high as a percentage of total accidents as one might believe, those accidents are nearly always fatal. It is a killer and the pilot in this video is lucky to have had an instrument rating to fall back on.

I tell my clients that learning to fly a plane is not difficult, but it can be unforgiving of mistakes. That’s why we teach building safety margins into every opportunity we can. 

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

Would you mind pointing me to that App? Sounds quite intriguing. Thanks in advance!

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

12 hours ago, kakihara123 said:

Also I really recommend using the random failures Program from Github.

I set up mine so that I have a low chance for a failures on any part of my flight.

One time all the electrics failed on my TBM while I was hauling fragile stuff via OnAir.

I was about 20 or 30 nm away from my destination high up some Mexican mountain.

I only knew the Airport was to the right under some clouds.

The failure caused every screen to go black. Only the compass worked, but that didn't help much. I also could not lower the flaps and landing gear because it is all electric and at least for the default plane I don't think there is an emergency gear extension.

I also could not bank too hard or my load would get damaged. Somehow I found the airport on sight only. Since I had no way to check my speed and I was on several thousand feet, which I also could not see without gear and flaps I came in way too fast. I touched down on the runway and overshot it by 300 meter or so into some trees. Luckily those didn't trigger a crash since they were too thin I guess. 

Quite intense in VR but also very fun. 

Double post but somehow my quote failed. Would you mind pointing me to that app?

[kakihara123 144]

6 minutes ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Double post but somehow my quote failed. Would you mind pointing me to that app?

https://github.com/kanaron/RandFailuresFS2020

[Bobsk8 12,557]

14 minutes ago, snglecoil said:

2018 Nall Report

For great analysis of General Aviation accidents, check out the Nall report linked above. The majority of accidents occur in daytime visual conditions and are attributed to pilot error. While continued flight into instrument conditions is not as high as a percentage of total accidents as one might believe, those accidents are nearly always fatal. It is a killer and the pilot in this video is lucky to have had an instrument rating to fall back on.

I tell my clients that learning to fly a plane is not difficult, but it can be unforgiving of mistakes. That’s why we teach building safety margins into every opportunity we can. 

One of the most frequent killers of pilots is power failure, and the pilots slow reaction to it. Especially on takeoff, if the engine quits, you have to get the nose down immediately. If you hesitate, and are thinking about what do to next, by the time you react, you are already in a stall ( nose high, AOA high, airspeed decaying rapidly. ) It only takes a second or two of inaction, and you are headed for the ground. 

[Noel 4,486]

6 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

One of the most frequent killers of pilots is power failure, and the pilots slow reaction to it...It only takes a second or two of inaction, and you are headed for the ground. 

Makes perfect sense.  As a motorcyclist I am always rehearsing in my mind what to do when there is little time to brake, for example when deer or other obstruction suddenly appear in my path.  Last year I averted disaster when a bicyclist suddenly made a U-turn directly into my flight path leaving me almost no time to react.  I was ready enough to brake and swerve just enough to clip him w/ my right-side rear view mirror.  He went down but fortunately I didn't.  He had minor injuries but his $10K bike bit the bullet, at least its carbon frame.  

[snglecoil 1,828]

19 minutes ago, Noel said:

 As a motorcyclist

Wait....you are a motorcyclist and worried about the dangers involved general aviation!?! 😮

At least pilots are more or less responsible for their own demise, not left to some driver on their cell phone that decides to pull out in front of you without giving a second look 😉

Edited April 11, 2021 by snglecoil

[Noel 4,486]

56 minutes ago, snglecoil said:

Wait....you are a motorcyclist and worried about the dangers involved general aviation!?! 😮

At least pilots are more or less responsible for their own demise, not left to some driver on their cell phone that decides to pull out in front of you without giving a second look 😉

Wasn't 'worried' in the slightest.  Motorcyclists are very close to being more or less responsible for their own demise as wel but perhaps you might not know that if you aren't instrument rated on a motorcycle, but it's very true.  I am not saying that is always the case of course, however as w/ piloting aircraft there are other factors that can nail you beyond what you're capable of responding to--bird strikes, engine failure, wind sheer, mid-air collision w/ other aircraft, being caught off guard in weather as in the video.

[ThomseN_inc 1,128]

3 hours ago, kakihara123 said:

https://github.com/kanaron/RandFailuresFS2020

Thx alot!

 

[Farlis 2,278]

20 hours ago, marsman2020 said:

My thoughts as a sim-only pilot.

One can't really compare reality to the sim. Even in VR when your brain is convinced you are in the air in an airplaine you stay stationary in your seat firmly on the ground. So you will never experience spatial disorientation, because you are actually not moving through the air.

And as long as this is absent, you will not panic and think much clearer.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

6 minutes ago, Farlis said:

One can't really compare reality to the sim. Even in VR when your brain is convinced you are in the air in an airplaine you stay stationary in your seat firmly on the ground. So you will never experience spatial disorientation, because you are actually not moving through the air.

And as long as this is absent, you will not panic and think much clearer.

 

There are plenty of jokes around about how "full real" in an open cockpit biplane needs you to wear googles and point a fan at your face and have a friend spray water into the fan when it is raining and hit you over the head with a bat if you crash on landing.  However there is some degree truth to those jokes. An analogy might be riding a roller coaster versus watching a movie in 3D of the same experience. Something is definitely missing when watching the movie.

Surprisingly a lot of pilots say the sim experience can quite realistic.  My hunch on this is that if you have real life flying experience a good sim will invoke some of the physical sensory memories that the simulation cannot provide. If you have never flown other than in an airline with the strict limitations on bank and attitude they have, you will lack those memories to draw upon.

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Glenn Fitzpatrick

[Jetman67 517]

Very impressive attitude for a pilot to have and I'm sure valuable lessons were learnt from that flight, I have done some really stupid this in a plane but I learnt a hell of a lot and that makes me a very competent and cautious pilot today, thank you for sharing this you may have just saved somebody's life

Wayne

 

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by Jetman67

[Jetman67 517]

On 4/11/2021 at 6:51 AM, ryanbatcund said:

It's a good video to show that sometimes the attitude of "get there itis" can be dangerous.  I watched the video and this guy was totally fine because he's already instrument rated.  You'll hear him tell ATC that he's capable and qualified for instrument flight or something like that.  I'm guessing there would be no video if this was a non IR pilot.

Yes for sure that's what saved him the fact he had an I instrument rating otherwise he would have been toast, I had a similar experience at about 70 hours straight into IMC with no IFR rating but luckily it was calm and I didn't loose control but it was scary and was totally a case of get there it's and to top it off i landed with little to no fuel, so when it happens it compounds. These days I have 400 hours and am very cautious and have learnt many valuable lessons from my poor airman ship decisions of the past 

[enright 496]

22 hours ago, marsman2020 said:

My thoughts as a sim-only pilot.

[...]

Later on, when the pitot freezes up....I'm not sure I'd go right to pulling equipment circuit breakers in IFR conditions.  Probably should have checked all of the "normal" switches first. 

I'm glad you brought that up. He built the aircraft, so you'd imagine he'd be intimately familiar with every single fuse, but still - in a high pressure clouded judgement state, pulling fuses seems extreme. What if you pull the wrong one because you thought your hand was one row higher than it really was? What if you attempt to reset the avionics and the system doesn't reboot? You've already lost airspeed, but what if you lost altitude indication over that rough terrain? I had to pause the video a few times right here thinking "I can't watch this..." because I could feel his panic.

Then again, I don't know anything about aircraft fuses -  they are positioned right in front of the pilot for a reason - and he did manage to reset the stall warning without resetting the avionics. For real pilots out there, is it ever advisable to pull fuses when you aren't 100% sure what's wrong? There's no "pull this and plane turns off by accident" fuse in one of those rows, is there?

Nothing but respect for this pilot - everyone makes mistakes, it's a rare breed that learns from it, and even rarer to swallow ones pride to teach others. 

[RandallR 444]

23 minutes ago, enright said:

For real pilots out there, is it ever advisable to pull fuses when you aren't 100% sure what's wrong? There's no "pull this and plane turns off by accident" fuse in one of those rows, is there?

Yes and No... as long as you're keeping your head and don't stop flying the plane, checking out such things as fuses/breakers, etc. can make a real difference.

My instructor and I were on a night instrument flight with inclement weather moving in - everything was going fine in our fully-instrumented 172 and we had everything on.  Then, all the lights went out.  The aircraft was running fine but we couldn't see anything.  My instructor pulled out the flashlight and I flew with him lighting the basic panel - no Nav instruments were functioning and we barely had a workable radio.  He called ATC and declared an emergency and they began to vector us into O'Hare.  We were doing OK, but it wasn't a great feeling.

Then, he got the great idea to start turning off all of the "extra" electronics (2nd Com, 2nd VOR, ADF, etc.).  All of a sudden, everything lit up again.  We canceled the emergency, reestablished our FP and made a successful ILS approach at our destination.  Turns out a mechanic had installed an automobile generator in the aircraft instead of the proper aircraft unit - when the extra load was added that night with everything running, it couldn't handle it.