Yet Another Other MSFS Adventure

You know, I've been to a *ton* of places over the years. But as I racked my brain, I didn't think I've ever been to Harrisburg before. It's totally different from anywhere else on Earth!

 

I'm kidding, you've seen one town, I won't say they're all the same but a lot are. I'm sure Harrisburg is a great place for people who live there, but that day was grey and dreary, pretty miserable.

 

 

With the pandemic raging around the world, I had a good idea why I was there, even before I walked into the office of the squat building on the northern part of Harrisburg International.

 

I was greeted by a man of about fifty in a grey suit, who brought me inside. We walked down the brightly lit hallway and stopped at a door on the left. He opened it and ushered me inside. The room was small and sparse. There was a wooden desk, which took up most of the space, along with a beige filing cabinet in the far corner. A few charts were pinned to the walls, and there was a cheap, plastic chair, where I sat.

 

"Things are slowly getting better in this part of the world," he began, I still didn't know his name. "But other places haven't been so lucky. The vaccines are in high demand, and we need to get them out as quick as possible."

 

"I take it that's why I'm here?"

 

He smiled, a little, "Yes."

 

It seemed pretty straightforward, a flight to drop some much-needed medical supplies, how could I say no?

So I was taken to a nearby hangar to meet my new ride, a big cargo aircraft, which I was informed would take on it's load of cargo in Los Angeles. At the same time I was introduced to my co-pilot, Paul. I admit I was shocked. Paul was a child.

 

Well okay, not really. But he was very young looking.

 

We climbed into the cockpit and started going over checklists.

 

"So Paul," i said. "Tell me about yourself."

 

Paul told me where he'd grown up nd went to school. All the things I didn't care about, and I finally had to pry some information out of him. "How much experience do you have flying aircraft like this?"

 

He looked at me with a sheepish grin. "I just finished my training."

 

"So...none?" Great, I'll be doing all the work.

 

I fired up the engines and nudged the throttle forward to get us moving. I lined up with the runway and applied full power. The rain was still coming down, and it was heavy enough I couldn't see all the way to the other end. but part way along I eased the controls back and the big plane lifted into the sky.

 

The life of a pilot is all glamour. Nope, the truth is it's more boring than anything. Those few seconds at takeoff, and a few seconds at landing, in between it can be dull. And that was the case that day.

 

We left Harrisburg and flew out to Los Angeles. Somewhere along the way, the clouds parted, and by the time we landed it was a pretty stereotypical California day. The sun was shining and it was gorgeous. We didn't have time to enjoy it though, because we were there only long enough to refuel before we were back in the air.

 

We repeated the procedure in Honolulu before heading back out over the ocean for Japan. That was when things started to happen.

 

We were well into the leg when the aircraft shifted suddenly. At first I thought it was a sudden sharp gust of wind that had caught us, and it was Paul who immediately checked the EICAS and noticed that our number three engine had cut out. I tried to get it restarted, but had no success. We continued on our way as I wondered what to do next. As we arrived in Japan, we had to make a sharp left turn, and as we did so we felt another shudder.

 

This time my attention jumped to the display as well, and we could see that the number four engine had cut out as well. Not good.

 

The remaining two engines were forcing the aircraft to pull to the right, and I had to use a good amount of rudder to compensate. I was in control while Paul managed our power, and we got the plane down and off to one side. There's no way I was going to continue with things in that shape!

What happened to your other thread on this? Could you not use that same one you started for these a while back?

Hi Johnny, that adventure ended.

I got on the phone and made a call to our home base. At first there was a little disbelief that this had happened, but then I was told to sit tight and I'd get a call back.

 

It took a while for arrangements to be made, but there was a 747 sitting at the airport, waiting for its next job, and the good people back home were able to use the excuse of medical emergency to take it over. Everything was transferred over, Paul and I were back in the air by nightfall.

 

We flew over the mountains and made the dangerous approach into Kathmandu. We were all over the place trying to get down, and despite the urgency I insisted we wait until morning before heading out again.

 

I'm so glad we waited until morning. With that heavily loaded plane, we needed every inch of the runway in order to get off, and even then we had to fly through the mountains. I think we clipped a couple of trees there!

 

Other than that, the flight was pretty smooth all the way to Indira Ghandi. I admit, somehow I was way too high when we arrived and I had to go around to lose some altitude. We taxied in, and I've never seen a crew jump into action as fast as they did. They were pretty desperate for those supplies, and I'm so glad we could help out.

 

It was pretty simple compared to some of the other things I've had to do, but since there were lives at risk, this was no less important.