Post by peter on Feb 18, 2015 4:46:54 GMT -5
Flying is hours of boredom, punctuated by moments of stark terror.
That's what came to my mind yesterday night after a lucky landing at Keflavik (BIKF). It started as a quiet nighttime flight on Vatsim from Oslo (ENGM) to Iceland. Flight preparation indicated a strong wind at BIKF (25 gusting to 35), but it was mostly a headwind for runway 11 and visibility was good, so I wasn't worried. Reykjavík Center was online, so I had good ATC for most of the time. When I was above the Faroe Islands he advised me to proceed direct to the first waypoint of my STAR, which was an excellent opportunity to test FSCaptain's new waypoint advancer. It worked like a charm.
Just as expected, ATC advised me to pass the waypoint at 10000 and expect vectors. I switched on anti-ice because of rain at BIKF, but as soon as I passed that waypoint things started to go wrong. Quite wrong.
The first little issue was that ATC lifted the speed restriction for me. Excellent, I thought, and passed 10000 at about 270 Kts, only to realize that I just lost 5 points for exceeding the speed limit of 250 Kts in FSCaptain. Duh.
Transition altitude was at 7000 and I was preparing to set the pressure, when suddenly the expected strong winds kicked in. ASN is known for its realistic weather, but I've never experienced anything like this. The 777 was kicked around like a Cessna. The autopilot couldn't handle the violent turbulences: sink rate varied between -2500 and +1600 and speed varied between 210 and 150 Kts, so I had to disconnect it and fly the plane by hand. That was still pretty rough, but at least more or less under control as I could keep the altitude at 5000 +/- 500 and the speed around 180 +/- 20.
Of course I kept the old proverb "aviate, navigate, communicate" in mind and concentrated on flying safely. As "navigate" comes second I only changed the pressure when the plane was under control, well below the TA. Another 5 points down the drain. As for "communicate", somehow Vatsim ATC was on and off and I was unable to inform him of the situation aboard. The last thing I heard from him was "pretty strong winds out there", then I was on my own for the last 20-30 nm. Did I mention that the weather had changed a bit as well? Visibility was down to 1 nm, so I prepared to fly the ILS approach manually as good as I could.
I am now convinced that Dutch and Travis are evil
, because FSCaptain had to pick that moment to kill my left engine (mechanical fault). The plane went into a dive and when I recovered I was around 3000 and only 10 nm out on final approach. At least I was at the right spot. I then had to fight against the turbulences. The wind tried to push me upwards, so that I had to push the yoke far forward to descend. By the time I saw the runway I was about 500 feet above the ground and was able to land safely. Taxiing with one engine wasn't easy and I think my brakes where overheated when I got to _some_ gate, but I completed the flight and FSCaptain was kind enough to award me 10 points for completing the flight with a mechanical fault. SO the score of 90 was OK.
After the flight I realized that the strong winds that I experienced must have been the winter storm that battered New England and Atlantic Canada on Sunday and Monday. I live in Atlantic Canada and the real storm was about as violent as what ASN produced. All flights to or from Halifax were cancelled. Our province was on shutdown and people where advised not to leave their homes if they could for the next 24-36 hours. Prince Edward Island, a Canadian Province, was isolated for 1.5 days because the only bridge that connects it to the mainland was closed (they measured winds of 165 km/h on the bridge). Moncton received about 1 m of snow (on top of 1m already on the ground) and I've seen pictures of snow drifts that touched the roofs of houses in that area. We were comparatively lucky: only 25 cm of snow, followed by 30 mm of rain, followed by a temperature drop to -15C. De-icing, please!
Peter
That's what came to my mind yesterday night after a lucky landing at Keflavik (BIKF). It started as a quiet nighttime flight on Vatsim from Oslo (ENGM) to Iceland. Flight preparation indicated a strong wind at BIKF (25 gusting to 35), but it was mostly a headwind for runway 11 and visibility was good, so I wasn't worried. Reykjavík Center was online, so I had good ATC for most of the time. When I was above the Faroe Islands he advised me to proceed direct to the first waypoint of my STAR, which was an excellent opportunity to test FSCaptain's new waypoint advancer. It worked like a charm.
Just as expected, ATC advised me to pass the waypoint at 10000 and expect vectors. I switched on anti-ice because of rain at BIKF, but as soon as I passed that waypoint things started to go wrong. Quite wrong.
The first little issue was that ATC lifted the speed restriction for me. Excellent, I thought, and passed 10000 at about 270 Kts, only to realize that I just lost 5 points for exceeding the speed limit of 250 Kts in FSCaptain. Duh.
Transition altitude was at 7000 and I was preparing to set the pressure, when suddenly the expected strong winds kicked in. ASN is known for its realistic weather, but I've never experienced anything like this. The 777 was kicked around like a Cessna. The autopilot couldn't handle the violent turbulences: sink rate varied between -2500 and +1600 and speed varied between 210 and 150 Kts, so I had to disconnect it and fly the plane by hand. That was still pretty rough, but at least more or less under control as I could keep the altitude at 5000 +/- 500 and the speed around 180 +/- 20.
Of course I kept the old proverb "aviate, navigate, communicate" in mind and concentrated on flying safely. As "navigate" comes second I only changed the pressure when the plane was under control, well below the TA. Another 5 points down the drain. As for "communicate", somehow Vatsim ATC was on and off and I was unable to inform him of the situation aboard. The last thing I heard from him was "pretty strong winds out there", then I was on my own for the last 20-30 nm. Did I mention that the weather had changed a bit as well? Visibility was down to 1 nm, so I prepared to fly the ILS approach manually as good as I could.
I am now convinced that Dutch and Travis are evil
, because FSCaptain had to pick that moment to kill my left engine (mechanical fault). The plane went into a dive and when I recovered I was around 3000 and only 10 nm out on final approach. At least I was at the right spot. I then had to fight against the turbulences. The wind tried to push me upwards, so that I had to push the yoke far forward to descend. By the time I saw the runway I was about 500 feet above the ground and was able to land safely. Taxiing with one engine wasn't easy and I think my brakes where overheated when I got to _some_ gate, but I completed the flight and FSCaptain was kind enough to award me 10 points for completing the flight with a mechanical fault. SO the score of 90 was OK.After the flight I realized that the strong winds that I experienced must have been the winter storm that battered New England and Atlantic Canada on Sunday and Monday. I live in Atlantic Canada and the real storm was about as violent as what ASN produced. All flights to or from Halifax were cancelled. Our province was on shutdown and people where advised not to leave their homes if they could for the next 24-36 hours. Prince Edward Island, a Canadian Province, was isolated for 1.5 days because the only bridge that connects it to the mainland was closed (they measured winds of 165 km/h on the bridge). Moncton received about 1 m of snow (on top of 1m already on the ground) and I've seen pictures of snow drifts that touched the roofs of houses in that area. We were comparatively lucky: only 25 cm of snow, followed by 30 mm of rain, followed by a temperature drop to -15C. De-icing, please!
Peter
