Shocking flight in FSX!

**sanh** · 11-04-2008, 05:05 AM

Hi all

I just had the most shocking flight in FSX. Quite amazing really. I started off at New Delhi, India at midnight. I jumped into the superb IFLY 747-400 and planned a route to Adelaide Australia. After completeing all startup checks i taxied to the runway. Visibility was a miserable 1/4 mile which is not unusual here in India because of the pollution.

Take-off was uneventful and i cruised to 35000ft and prepared for my 8 hour flight. I set the simulation rate to 64X because i have a life! Anyway, all seemed fine until i was over Malaysia. All of a sudden there was a warning sound that told me the autopilot had disengaged. I quickly set the simulation rate to 1X and tried to switch on the autopilot again. It would not work! I then noticed i was decending and my speed was slowing. My engines had switched off! Immediately i checked the fuel and i had 100,000KG of fuel so no problem there. I have "emergencies" and "failures" switched off so i knew this was not an FSX action. The IFLY 747 is quite a complicated piece of machinery. You cannot just hit CTRL+E and expect all the engines to fire up! I tried to restart the engines but they would not start. This is partly because i dont real manuals and therefore was unsure of what buttons or switches i needed to press! I looked around out of the window. There were a couple of large islands dotted around me but i was flying over the ocean. I looked at the Map and there was no airport within 50 miles of me. I was preparing myself to make an emergency landing when some of my CRT screens switched off and the plane began to nose dive. I pulled up violently on the stick but i could not bring the nose level. I managed to get it close to level but it began to dip violently again. I think the flight control system that manages the elevator/rudder was going haywire. I used the elevator trim to force the plane level as best i could. Then, while trying to keep the plane level i looked up at the overhead switches and switched off the hydraulics and bleed switches. I then switched them on again and the plane seemed back to normal. No more sudden dips. I still had no engines. I tried switching on the engines and managed to get one engine running. I set the thrust to 100% but it was not enough to keep me level without the speed dropping. I was too heavy. I began an emergency fuel drop. Its the first time i tried this in the IFLY 747 and did not even know if the switch would work! Fortunately it did and the fuel began to drain from the tanks. The nearest airport had a single 5000ft runway. I didnt like the sound of that. To the West there was an International Airport. It had two runways but it was an obscure airport i had never heard of. It would do. I headed towards it, descending down to 4000ft. As i approached the airport engine No.2. started up by itself. I now had two engines (all be it both on the same wing) which would enable me to land safely. I landed at the airport (text book landing) and taxied to the gate. Saved. I saved the situation and will try to figure out where i am and continue my flight to Adelaide. Also, get the plane looked at by some engineers

Its quite ironic really because 2 weeks ago, in real life, i was flying from London to Delhi on a plane that had to make an emergency landing in Berlin after a burning smell was discovered in the cabin. The pilots had to do a fuel dump to land. It turned out one of the tv screens had become a little toasty.

I was all over the place trying to fly my plane while on the real flight the pilots were as cool as cucumbers

SanH

**JBnTX** · 11-04-2008, 05:35 AM

Maybe it was those pesky Gremlins?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlin

I hope you figure out what happened?
Sounds like you handled it just right.

**sanh** · 11-04-2008, 06:20 AM

It did raise an interesting question. If i have only one running engine what flap configuration should i use for landing? With two engines i comfortably used 30 degrees of flap but one engine may not be able to power the plane with too much flap. Guess it depends on the planes weight/fuel etc.

**jlongstreet** · 11-05-2008, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by sanh

Hi all

I just had the most shocking flight in FSX. Quite amazing really. I started off at New Delhi, India at midnight. I jumped into the superb IFLY 747-400 and planned a route to Adelaide Australia. After completeing all startup checks i taxied to the runway. Visibility was a miserable 1/4 mile which is not unusual here in India because of the pollution.

Take-off was uneventful and i cruised to 35000ft and prepared for my 8 hour flight. I set the simulation rate to 64X because i have a life! Anyway, all seemed fine until i was over Malaysia. All of a sudden there was a warning sound that told me the autopilot had disengaged. I quickly set the simulation rate to 1X and tried to switch on the autopilot again. It would not work! I then noticed i was decending and my speed was slowing. My engines had switched off! Immediately i checked the fuel and i had 100,000KG of fuel so no problem there. I have "emergencies" and "failures" switched off so i knew this was not an FSX action. The IFLY 747 is quite a complicated piece of machinery. You cannot just hit CTRL+E and expect all the engines to fire up! I tried to restart the engines but they would not start. This is partly because i dont real manuals and therefore was unsure of what buttons or switches i needed to press! I looked around out of the window. There were a couple of large islands dotted around me but i was flying over the ocean. I looked at the Map and there was no airport within 50 miles of me. I was preparing myself to make an emergency landing when some of my CRT screens switched off and the plane began to nose dive. I pulled up violently on the stick but i could not bring the nose level. I managed to get it close to level but it began to dip violently again. I think the flight control system that manages the elevator/rudder was going haywire. I used the elevator trim to force the plane level as best i could. Then, while trying to keep the plane level i looked up at the overhead switches and switched off the hydraulics and bleed switches. I then switched them on again and the plane seemed back to normal. No more sudden dips. I still had no engines. I tried switching on the engines and managed to get one engine running. I set the thrust to 100% but it was not enough to keep me level without the speed dropping. I was too heavy. I began an emergency fuel drop. Its the first time i tried this in the IFLY 747 and did not even know if the switch would work! Fortunately it did and the fuel began to drain from the tanks. The nearest airport had a single 5000ft runway. I didnt like the sound of that. To the West there was an International Airport. It had two runways but it was an obscure airport i had never heard of. It would do. I headed towards it, descending down to 4000ft. As i approached the airport engine No.2. started up by itself. I now had two engines (all be it both on the same wing) which would enable me to land safely. I landed at the airport (text book landing) and taxied to the gate. Saved. I saved the situation and will try to figure out where i am and continue my flight to Adelaide. Also, get the plane looked at by some engineers

Its quite ironic really because 2 weeks ago, in real life, i was flying from London to Delhi on a plane that had to make an emergency landing in Berlin after a burning smell was discovered in the cabin. The pilots had to do a fuel dump to land. It turned out one of the tv screens had become a little toasty.

I was all over the place trying to fly my plane while on the real flight the pilots were as cool as cucumbers

SanH

Great post, SanH. You had me reaching for pen and paper to write my last will and testament AND looking for my airline barf bag! Very detailed, interesting, and informative post.

Tighten those seatbelts!!

Regards,

Jlongstreet