...after last night's debacle. First, I would like to personally apologize to the passengers and crew of Delta flight 007, who unfortunately took the red eye flight from KATL to KMIA last night. In my defense...I did get you there. And the ride in the A350 was pretty amazing MOST OF THE WAY. Yes, the landing was extremely bumpy (and scary!), and you did disembark on the grass. But the last report I heard was that everyone lived through the experience.

Welcome to Miami!  

So how did this flight go so terribly wrong? I prepare my flight plan with Simbrief, and start the flight from a Cold and Dark state. Everything goes smoothly, and I am supposed to land ILS on runway 27. Right before I start my descent ATC (BATC) instructs me to land on runway 9. Hey, no problem. I changed runways and saved the flight plan. But I noticed a Manual entry and ...oh god...a word not allowed DISCONTINUITY. I try deleting the DISCONTINUITY but the A350 will not allow it. Okay, I figure when I get to the last waypoint before the DISCONTINUITY I will just go direct to the first waypoint of the Approach. As I am descending, I think...what if I try deleting the Manual waypoint first? I do that, and then it also lets me delete the DISCONTINUITY! Woohoo! Everything is looking good, and my confidence is high. Unfortunately, so is the A350. I am a good 4000 feet above the ALT constraints for the current waypoint, and I am running low on waypoints.  I frantically deploy flaps, spoilers and drop my gear. The A350 HAL 9000 is screaming at me (I guess applying that much flap and spoilers simultaneously is a bad thing). My speed is solid (120-125), as I am now about 30 NM out of KMIA and making a right turn onto final. Incidentally, ATC instructed me to turn left at that moment, but I was way too busy to listen to anything those fools had to say. Besides, they caused this entire mess in the first place. Who are they to tell me to TURN LEFT? 

We fly over KMIA, probably 2000 feet too high, when it occurs to me that I should have spent a little more time planning for an ALTN airport, understanding how to use the GO AROUND feature, or just basically how to program the FMS when something like this happens on this beautiful Airbus. I did tell the FMS to go DIRECT to Runway 27, because why not? Unfortunately, I was not lined up well with the runway on final, and that's where the scary part comes in. I touched down (okay...bounced) about halfway down the runway, after some pretty dramatic swings to the right and left, and thanks to the A350's full reversers we only overshot the runway by 200 feet. 

So help me understand where I went wrong.  

Edited February 22Feb 22 by RobJC

Rob:

Whenever you were finally ready (and cleared to) land on ILS Runway 27 (KMIA), did you get the LOC/GS signals on the PFD, along with “ILS Runway 27” indication?

Many can do here, but I wouldn’t try myself to land the A350 w/o ILS guidance, on my first try.

With (correct) ILS signals identified and functional, it’s easy to get to the threshold of the runway, for you to take control, and land.

(Disclaimer: No RW pilot, speaking here…)

As a Delta Air Lines retiree I'm just thankful that you were not referring to the real airline. 😁

11 minutes ago, northtexas said:

As a Delta Air Lines retiree I'm just thankful that you were not referring to the real airline. 😁

And fortunately, I was also relieved to note that the thread started here in MSFS2024, not in the Hangar Chat.

Rob is learning to fly the (iniBuilds) A350. That’s all, so no real class-action lawsuit is expected…🙂…a virtual one, maybe…

Edited February 22Feb 22 by P_7878

I did my first ever flight as cabin crew to Miami on the VS5 many many moons ago with one young first officer called Danny....who started a website called I believe called pprune 😁. Who'd ever of known 

 

Pardon me if I state the obvious, but you likely went wrong when you deleted the manual entry and then forced the deletion of the discontinuity. In my experience with the Fenix bus, the inclusion of the manual entry prior to the initial approach fix is quite purposeful. Often, you will want to proceed on the track associated with the manual entry, or follow other vectors, until you have bled off enough energy and altitude to commence the approach. Then would be the time to proceed direct to the IAF. Sometimes you can get away with deleting the manual entry and the related discontinuity, if there is sufficient distance to the IAF to lose the necessary altitude, but if not, you will almost certainly come in hot and heavy. 
Rich

As a long time Miami resident and child of UAL flight crew, I have to say I don’t see much out of the ordinary here…? 🤣

1 hour ago, P_7878 said:

Rob:

Whenever you were finally ready (and cleared to) land on ILS Runway 27 (KMIA), did you get the LOC/GS signals on the PFD, along with “ILS Runway 27” indication?

Many can do here, but I wouldn’t try myself to land the A350 w/o ILS guidance, on my first try.

With (correct) ILS signals identified and functional, it’s easy to get to the threshold of the runway, for you to take control, and land.

(Disclaimer: No RW pilot, speaking here…)

Yes I did (I think). The GS was green and the plane was descending. Just not fast enough! 

1 hour ago, rlashier said:

Pardon me if I state the obvious, but you likely went wrong when you deleted the manual entry and then forced the deletion of the discontinuity. In my experience with the Fenix bus, the inclusion of the manual entry prior to the initial approach fix is quite purposeful. Often, you will want to proceed on the track associated with the manual entry, or follow other vectors, until you have bled off enough energy and altitude to commence the approach. Then would be the time to proceed direct to the IAF. Sometimes you can get away with deleting the manual entry and the related discontinuity, if there is sufficient distance to the IAF to lose the necessary altitude, but if not, you will almost certainly come in hot and heavy. 
Rich

Ah. That makes sense. I basically ignored HAL and just forced it, with predictable results. ATC was trying to give me vectors, so apparently, they knew I was in deep doodoo even though I was oblivious. Thanks Rich! 

Edited February 22Feb 22 by RobJC

1 hour ago, UrgentSiesta said:

As a long time Miami resident and child of UAL flight crew, I have to say I don’t see much out of the ordinary here…? 🤣

I feel so much better lol. 

20 minutes ago, RobJC said:

Yes I did (I think). The GS was green and the plane was descending. Just not fast enough! 

(I think) is unfortunately not good enough...🙂...You have to be absolutely sure. If you had a screenshot of your PFD display, we could tell for sure, sharper eyes than mine here, included...

Regarding discontinuity in the FMS, if something does not look right, I would, as a virtual flyer, would first stabilize the airplane, breaking off ATC if needed, with e.g., a manual heading hold (there are no mountain near Miami, as far as I know...🙂...), and then try to sort out the Route entries on the FMS.

One thing, you could also do, is enter the ILS APP for Runway 27, and do a Dir-To to the IAF waypoint. You said you did a Dir-To Runway 27, but that is not going to place you on a stable glidepath.

Try this next Rob for a test flight. Take off from KMIA Runway 09, climb to 3,000 ft, and then set yourself up for an ILS APP to ILS Runway 27 using the IAF (HENDN INT) as a reference, and see if you can make a smooth touchdown.

Edited February 22Feb 22 by P_7878

I need pics!!!

5 minutes ago, P_7878 said:

(I think) is unfortunately not good enough...🙂...You have to be absolutely sure. If you had a screenshot of your PFD display, we could tell for sure, sharper eyes than mine here, included...

Regarding discontinuity in the FMS, if something does not look right, I would, as a virtual flyer, would first stabilize the airplane, breaking off ATC if needed, with e.g., a manual heading hold (there are no mountain near Miami, as far as I know...🙂...), and then try to sort out the Route entries on the FMS.

One thing, you could also do, is enter the ILS APP for Runway 27, and do a Dir-To to the IAF waypoint. You said you did a Dir-To Runway 27, but that is not going to place you on a stable glidepath.

Try this next Rob for a test flight. Take off from KMIA Runway 09, climb to 6,000 ft, and then set yourself up for an ILS APP to ILS Runway 27 using the IAF (TUBBZ waypoint) as a reference, and see if you can make a smooth touchdown.

I will see if I can take some pics on the flight today. Going to try and figure out the Go Around feature so I can deal with these unpleasantries lol. But I am almost positive I was on the GS because it went green and the plane was descending and aligned. Just too high. But I will try to get some evidence! 

2 hours ago, fluffyflops said:

I did my first ever flight as cabin crew to Miami on the VS5 many many moons ago with one young first officer called Danny....who started a website called I believe called pprune 😁. Who'd ever of known 

 

I used to fly along side him hauling night freight at his previous airline, when he’d just set that up.

Edited February 22Feb 22 by jon b

Did it ever occur to you to just turn off the autopilot and flight directors and, you know... Fly?  That's the first thing I'll always ask a crew when I see something like this develop in training or on a line check.  "You got into this business because you like flying, right?  It's ok to be a pilot every once in a while".  😁

Edited February 22Feb 22 by Stearmandriver