Thank you all, and, a question

Hello to all of you. I'm brand-new here but not to MSFS, I've been playing with it off and on since the days of 4-color CGA graphics on a 4.77 Mhz PC-compatible. I gave up on it for quite a while, but last year, after a long haitus, I re-discovered sim flying with FS2004 and I've been hooked since. I think the last one I'd seen was FS95 and things have improved almost beyond belief since then. A few months ago all I knew about panels and gauges was how to change the 2D bitmap and re-arrange them to suit my tastes in panel.cfg. But I wanted more, so I set out to craft a set of XML gauges to make my favorite virtual airplane (the DC-3) act more like the real thing systems-wise. I'd still be puzzling over the weirdness of FS's XML if not for the great tips and examples I've found here. The project is about nearly to the point where I can upload it, and I'd like to thank all the talented people here who made that possible. I'd be nowhere without what I've found here.I have what seems like it should be a simple question, but I haven't found the answer yet. Maybe it isn't simple. Is there a way from within a gauge (C or XML, doesn't matter) to detect when the user crashes his airplane?I've tried various ideas, such as looking at vertical speed on ground impact, etc; but nothing seems to cover all the possibilities -- such as banging the airplane into a tree on takeoff (positive normal VS and not even on the ground). I'm hoping there's just some bool or state variable MS turns on when the CRASH appears onscreen so that I'll know when it happens.Many thanks again,Dutch