Prop Feathering

I just had a crash. Not a FAFO crash as I was trying hard not to crash and still went in. Like most real crashes there was a series of small things that added up to the crash.

Flying the Barron into a random airport I haven't been to in random real world wx. Masterton NZ had IMC and I was unfamiliar with the display MFD which was HDG up and most of the other ones I flew that day were north up, minor inconvenience which caused only minor approach errors as I was not using the conventional approach procedures.

I decided to fail an engine for this flight and zeroed the mixture on the right engine. I stepped on the ball (well in a glass cockpit it isn't a ball so I'm not sure what the memory phrase would be, maybe support the pyramid?) and feathered the prop. I looked at the prop which was still turning and not stopped! I checked the control which was full back so I assumed the animation was not accurate. It is and this was a large mistake and major contributing factor in the crash.

My sim controls are set up for left throttle single engine and stick in the center since at least half the aircraft I have flown and fly in the sim are set up this way. I had to use the mouse to feather and this was the final contributing factor since I didn't know that there was an extra notch to pull through to actually get to feather.

WX was pretty bad and I estimate 500 ceiling with 1 mile or less. I was a bit high when I saw the threshold and subsequently long so I decided to go around. The aircraft would not climb and I hit some trees at the end. The crash was impressive as the trees launched the aircraft straight up after probably tearing off the empennage. I got no pics of this as I was a bit busy.

So I did it again and spent more time with the controls which actually do feather properly in the animation (impressively so). I made the approach correctly and did a subsequent trip from Masterton to Hastings where the wx cleared but the runway was fairly short and hard to see so I did another go around with the opposite engine failed. Pics below. Hasting airport is hard to see so I highlighted it.

The more I fly this sim the more I like it.