As Real As It Gets

[enright 496]

This was fascinating, stressful, and difficult to watch at times. I though you all might appreciate it, since I *guarantee* you've encountered the same exact issue in MSFS that this pilot did in the real world. In fact, you will instantly know what the root cause of the issue is - long before the pilot does. The difference that this video brings into sharp relief is - in MSFS you don't get a primordial "fear of death" shot of adrenaline that clouds your judgement. Occasionally, I've had the sensation that I'm really flying in MSFS - but there's an extra dimension of emotions that comes with being alone at 10,000 feet in the clouds in the real world. 

 

[Paladin2005 421]

Thanks for the video.

Yes, i can only imagine what this guy felt like when everything happened.

[snglecoil 1,828]

It’s is so easy to Monday morning quarterback these types of videos when sitting comfortably on the ground. Glad everything worked out. On the other hand if things had gone terribly wrong, he was sooo far behind the plane he could have walked to the crash site. 

Edited April 10, 2021 by snglecoil

[Bilbosmeggins 217]

Wow! That was some adventure. Glad he pushed through, and came out safe and sound. Also a brilliant job by the ATC guy. Although somewhat disconcerting when asking the identifier questions. The pilot’s blood must have run cold at that point.

[Will Fly For Cheese 1,710]

3 minutes ago, snglecoil said:

On the other hand if things had gone terribly wrong, he was sooo far behind the plane he could have walked to the crash site. 

He flew that right in to his own crash opportunity.

Divert and Divert and Divert.

[ryanbatc 12,800]

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.

[sd_flyer 6,031]

Bug stuck in pita tube would produce the same effect BTW 🙂

[kakihara123 144]

VR can kind of replicate this feeling. At least night flying in IFR can be really eerie in remote places. If you want to feel "behind the plane" take a short ifr trip  (40nm or so) with the CJ4  and try to enter frequencies and stuff after take off. 

[ryanbatc 12,800]

Just now, kakihara123 said:

VR can kind of replicate this feeling. At least night flying in IFR can be really eerie in remote places. If you want to feel "behind the plane" take a short ifr trip  (40nm or so) with the CJ4  and try to enter frequencies and stuff after take off. 

Pilot Edge will make you behind real quick hehe.

[SAS443 1,714]

Wow. that was intense. 

Glad he lived to tell about it. But this photage serves as reminder to everyone from pilots to student pilots & flight simmers of how easy it is to get lost and disoriented. That was an experienced GA pilot with instrument rating but he got task saturated within minutes.

Edited April 10, 2021 by SAS443

[Stealthystevie 21]

1 hour ago, 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.

This happened to me whilst I was on my solo Navigational Flight Test for my PPL.  My total flight time was around 25hrs and I'd had only 5hrs IMC training.  To make matters worse, I was overhead the Northern Pennines at the time (..in NE England), which - I found out later - is a graveyard for inexperienced/non-IFR pilots, and merely an hour before this I was grounded at Carlisle Airport nervously twiddling my thumbs awaiting a repair to the old Tomahawk's alternator.  (..unbelievably, it had failed half way through my NFT!)

Having left Carlisle after the alternator repair (an hour behind time), the weather had closed in.  I tried to stay beneath cloud, but was scraping the road-signs so eventually had to bite the bullet and climb into thick cloud to reach my safety height.  A minute or two of spacial disorientation followed (..or what might better be called 'panic', as I watched the pointers on most of the instruments wind & unwind) - but I eventually regained 'straight and level' flight.  At this point, I made a PAN call to Teesside Airport and informed them that I, a student pilot, was flying totally blind a little above the height of the highest Pennine peak, and I needed urgent assistance.  

To cut a long story short, I was vectored thereafter (..very gently) all the way back to Teesside through cloud, where - I found out later - the flight school instructors were huddled nervously around their radios awaiting the worst!  Needless to say (..since I survived to write this) I confounded their expectations and directed the Tomahawk unerringly on instruments for over thirty minutes, to break cloud at last on fairly short finals.  My touchdown was a 'greaser', but as you might expect (..given their trepidation) no-one in the club house slapped my back.  My only reward for surviving this folly was a Navigational Flight Test pass-stamp on my log book (..and the suggestion that I should have been awarded an IMC rating as well!)            

[bean_sprout 1,201]

1 hour ago, Stealthystevie said:

spacial disorientation followed (..or what might better be called 'panic

All that was needed was a VR Headset.

bs

[Emerson67 248]

5 hours ago, enright said:

in MSFS you don't get a primordial "fear of death" shot of adrenaline that clouds your judgement.

On MSFS we get the fear of CTD instead

[united001 126]

Wow, that was super-intense. I think I'll stick to MSFS with my PC. Real world aviation is waaaaaay above my head. Literally.

United001

[Chock 17,769]

3 hours ago, Stealthystevie said:

This happened to me whilst I was on my solo Navigational Flight Test for my PPL.  My total flight time was around 25hrs and I'd had only 5hrs IMC training.  To make matters worse, I was overhead the Northern Pennines at the time (..in NE England), which - I found out later - is a graveyard for inexperienced/non-IFR pilots, and merely an hour before this I was grounded at Carlisle Airport nervously twiddling my thumbs awaiting a repair to the old Tomahawk's alternator.  (..unbelievably, it had failed half way through my NFT!)

Having left Carlisle after the alternator repair (an hour behind time), the weather had closed in.  I tried to stay beneath cloud, but was scraping the road-signs so eventually had to bite the bullet and climb into thick cloud to reach my safety height.  A minute or two of spacial disorientation followed (..or what might better be called 'panic', as I watched the pointers on most of the instruments wind & unwind) - but I eventually regained 'straight and level' flight.  At this point, I made a PAN call to Teesside Airport and informed them that I, a student pilot, was flying totally blind a little above the height of the highest Pennine peak, and I needed urgent assistance.  

To cut a long story short, I was vectored thereafter (..very gently) all the way back to Teesside through cloud, where - I found out later - the flight school instructors were huddled nervously around their radios awaiting the worst!  Needless to say (..since I survived to write this) I confounded their expectations and directed the Tomahawk unerringly on instruments for over thirty minutes, to break cloud at last on fairly short finals.  My touchdown was a 'greaser', but as you might expect (..given their trepidation) no-one in the club house slapped my back.  My only reward for surviving this folly was a Navigational Flight Test pass-stamp on my log book (..and the suggestion that I should have been awarded an IMC rating as well!)            

Sounds like you did well. I fly around there a fair bit and can tell you that you are fortunate to have not collided with the hills because as you say it is a veritable graveyard of controlled flight into terrain wrecks up there. The hills themselves are not especially high, I think the highest peak is only 2,940 feet above sea level, but it's the weather and low cloud base is what makes them dangerous,

In more recent years it has been Cessnas and Pipers crashing up there, but there's lots of wreckage on the hills from all sorts of crashes, including P51s, Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancasters, Ansons, Dorniers, B-17s, B-24s, B-29s, DC-3s, DC-4s, Meteors, Wellingtons, Mosquitoes, Halifaxes and so on.

It's not just WW2 warplane wrecks you can find up there though, there's F-86 Sabres, F4 Phantoms, Panavia Tornadoes, Jet Provosts, Chipmunks, Javelins, Venoms etc. You could probably make your own airliner if you collected up all the bits off those hills.