Emergency and accident! help me figure out what went wrong

Ok..

so I wanted to do a flight from Cancun intl airport (mmun) to Merida airport (mmmd)

Cessna 172 skyhawk, VFR, 4500ft en route, ETE:around 1hr 50 mins.

I play with: mouse and keyboard (pitch and roll (the stick) control with mouse)

what happened?

the flight was going great, I did my take off from Cancun with ATC and everything, turned West, climbed to 4,500 ft, dropped the throttle a little for cruise speed, I messed a little with the elevator trim(never more than 0.4 up or down) so my VSI would be neutral all the way.

At some point around ETE 1hr I felt a little bored so I decided to speed up the game (gradually until x32) and turned back to normal speed at ETE 20 mins, I kept on flying and about ETE 11 minutes I contacted Merida ATC, got instructions for intercepting downwind leg for runway 10 so I began my descent. dropped the throttle a little more, flaps 10 degrees, and here it all went to shit.

Descent seemed normal, of course I was watching my VSI, speed indicator, etc.. when my altimeter read 1000 ft I was comfortably close to the airport, so I was ready to turn a little to the left to intercept downwind leg, but OH SURPRISE.

Yoke won't respond. 1000 ft seemed good enough altitude for the pattern (Merida is Sea Level) so I wanted to pull the stick a little to lift up the nose to cruise attitude but I found my self pulling the stick ALL THE WAY BACK and the plane was still descending!!

I was still trying to fight it, pulled the stick to the right (to intercept the downwind pattern) but nothing! so I tried pulling up, down, left and right... nope! said my plane, I gave up and tried to land the plane in the runway even with tailwind (meaning runway 28 instead of 10) but since the stick to the right and left (the ailerons) wouldn't respond either, I went straight to the houses!

I don't have crashes activated ( I don't know if it can be done I'm new to FSX) so I didn't "die" and when I was on the ground I inspected the plane to see if something was out of the ordinary...

The elevator trim was ALL the way up (nose down) and when I tried to correct it it (get it back to take off position) it wouldn't move! fuel was good and everything else too.

So what the hell do you think happened?

elevator trim failure? or is there a button on the keyboard to set it all the way to "nose down" position that I could have pressed by accident?

a little later I took a 172 to a good altitude and made the elevator trim go all the way to nose down on purppose, but the plane could still climb and the stick was still working.

what about a keyboard command to lock the stick/yoke? maybe I could have pressed something like that by accident.

I fly with my mouse, I even remember trying to use the arrow keys when the emergency happend but still no response.

I personaly dont think that a stall or something along those lines was possible since the nose was down and I remember speed was good.

I'm a real life private pilot that's new to fsx so basically that's why I'm so concerned with this! :P

any help and ideas are appreciated!

Sounds like you accidently pressed the 'A' on keyboard. That activates auto pilot. So when something like what you describe is 'happening' just press the 'A' key to regain control. Preferably at 1000 ft and before you 'go into the houses' so you can do a 'go around'.

Chuck B

Napamule

How did he get x32 rate in FSX??? x16 is my max.

Cheers,

Your situation intrigues me a little bit because there are a few possible explanations to your "accident" but your description of the event provides details that rule these possibilities out...

First off, it is a known issue that FSX tends to "drop off" joystick/hardware inputs after a long time of inactivity. I used to do long-haul flights in FSX and would leave the airplane on autopilot for a few hours then come back only to discover that FSX wouldn't recognize any hardware controls. BUT you're flying with a mouse, and I know that mouse inputs don't have this problem...

Secondly, others have suggested that the autopilot may have caused your plane to lawn-dart into the ground. BUT ... autopilots don't do that. They might cause the airplane to drift down into terrain at a steady V/S, but not cause the plane to become a ballistic missile...

Therefore, I have only one idea left, and given that you said that you are "new to FSX", I think you just *might* have forgotten to toggle the mouse yoke. As you might already know, you press Ctrl + Y to toggle the mouse controls on/off. When the mouse yoke is on, your cursor will be a crosshair; when your mouse yoke is off, your cursor will be a typical arrow.

Thanks for your reply!

I still don't wanna dismiss the auto pilot idea, because my plane didn't become a "ballistic missle" haha it was descending probably at 500 ft/sec or maybe less.

about your suggestion that I maybe forgot to press Ctl+Y I can assure you that's not the case, I know this because of this piece of info that I forgot to mention.

as I moved my mouse THE VIRTUAL STICK/YOKE IN THE PLANE DID MOVE, the problem was that the plane wouldn't respond to the stick movements.

¿ is that a thing that happens when the auto pilot is on?

I never turned the auto pilot on so "forgetting to turn it back off" is not an option, but somebody mentioned maybe I turned it ON by accident on my descent.

I know my A button doesn't turn the autopilot on tho, what my A button does is toggle cockpit view, but whatever the autopilot button is in my keyboard, it is totally possible that I might have clicked it by accident, if my description of the emergency fits how the autopilot behaves.

looking forward to your reply!

but not cause the plane to become a ballistic missile...

Yet he said it descended into the ground, not anything about diving into the ground. So the AP is possible...

I did miss the part about using the mouse, though.

Drat! I did say 'A' key,eh? Sorry. It's the 'Z' key (toggle) that activates AP. Then 'Ctrl+Z' (toggle) for Alt Hold at present altitude. I use that combo to 'auto set' my pitch trim when I get to cruise speed as I fly Locked Spot view a lot (no need to go to panel). When I want control back I press 'Ctrl+Z' then 'Z' and I am back to hand flying.

Chuck B

Napamule

yeah it's totally possible that I clicked any of that by accident!

So guys... if you have AP ON, if you move the yoke (and the virtual yoke in the plane moves too) the plane simply doesn't respond to the movements?

if so, I think we found the answer!

UPDATE FOR EVERYONE!!!!

I finally figured it out thanks to your help.

(I recreated the situation in FSX)

IT WAS THE AUTOPILOT.

what happened was I clicked CTRL+T

that does Attitude Hold (on/off)

T is right next to the Y in the keyboard!

(CTRL+Y is for going back to flying with the mouse)

when descending and hitting the attitude hold, the stick moves as your mouse does but the plane won't respond because it is in AUTOPILOT ATTITUDE HOLD (DESCENDING)

so yeah the answer was all of your ideas combined!

FUN FACT:

doing the Cessna emergency landing procedure would have restored the airplane control,

since it involves turning the Master switch off (which would deactivate the AP)

Lesson learned!

fly safe.

Yeah. Thanks for the feedback. That's the way to 'do' the forum. Plus I learned something today..I learn something every day it seems (12 yrs simming). So much to learn. But please note that pushing the 'Z' key to deactivate the AP won't deactivate the Auto Throttle (Ctrl+R) in case you are doing an ILS approach and hand landing. Don't know if you have this but it is a very handy guide to keep handy. It's 'fsxcmnds.zip', 1.98 mb, compiled by 'Radarman' and avail here at FltSim Library that prints out on one 11/8 (letter) page (landscape). Get it.

Chuck B

Napamule