X-Plane Update...

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So last we left off I was in Grand Junction. A couple of days ago I made a dusk flight from Grand Junction to Las Vegas(KLAS). Pretty uneventful flight. I had a landing gear indicator fail. The desert is pretty from 15,000 foot. Later that same day I made the flight from Vegas to Onterio California(KONT). About 30 minutes after take off I has a complete autopilot failure. I wasn't up for flying the last hour and a half by hand. I didn't really want to go back to Vegas so I divered to a small private field 0L7 and fixed the autopilot. After that little fix I continued on to Onterio with no further problems. After landing and thinking I was done for the night I changed my mind and did a little sight seeing flight around the L.A. area. Just wanted to look at the lights at night. It was nice...

Today I made the trek up the coast to Sacremento(KSMF). I know it's too close to be a good alternate but I HAD to use Rio Linda as my alternate. Wouldn't do it in real life, but in a sim it's ok. I may shoot a touch and go there before I leave on my next flight. The flight up was very smooth. Nearly no wind the entire way. Landing wasn't as pretty as it should have been but I was looking at the canals and the river rather than paying attention to landing. I know, not good... Don't know where I'll head next, but I'm sure it'll be good. :)

Below is a snippet of my logbook on this trip.

Date Dep Arr Landings Tot Time Night Inst X-Cnty Tail # Acft Type

80316 KADM KADM 0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 N172SP Cessna_172SP
80316 KADM KOKC 1 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.7 N172SP Cessna_172SP
80316 KOKC KDEN 1 7.5 1.0 0.3 2.0 N13PC Piper Malibu
80316 KDEN 1V5 1 0.8 0.8 0.3 0.4 N13PC Piper Malibu
80317 1V5 1V5 1 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.0 N13PC Piper Malibu
80317 1V5 1V5 1 0.5 0.0 0.2 0.0 N13PC Piper Malibu
80317 1V5 KEGE 1 1.1 0.0 0.1 0.6 N13PC Piper Malibu
80317 KEGE KGJT 1 1.0 0.1 0.0 0.8 N13PC Piper Malibu
80321 KGJT KLAS 1 2.5 0.0 0.0 1.9 N13PC Piper Malibu
80321 KLAS 0L7 1 0.4 0.0 0.0 0.3 N13PC Piper Malibu
80321 0L7 KONT 1 1.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 N13PC Piper Malibu
80321 KONT KONT 1 0.4 0.4 0.0 0.2 N13PC Piper Malibu
80323 KONT KSMF 1 2.4 0.0 0.0 1.4 N13PC Piper Malibu

X-Plane Update...

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Last night I had a very nice flight in the Malibu from Eagle County to Grand Junction(KGJT). Had just some light icing on climb out but after the previous days flights I was happy to see just the light icing. It was just before dusk so it was a very pretty flight. Landing at night in the mountains is a little scary but fun. You know those mountains are 12,000 feet and you are descending below 8,000 foot is a weird feeling. The approach controller handed me off to the tower way to high so it made getting on glide slop very interesting. It was ugly, but i made it by the middle marker. Landing was smooth and technically nearly ideal. Don't know where I'm headed tomorrow, most likely further west.

X-Plane Update...

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Late last night after the weather let up a bit I finally made the flight that last 8 miles from Erie to Boulder. It was interesting, the weather was not bad but I landed with the greatest crosswind I've ever landed with. It was scary but fun.

So today the plan was to fly from Boulder Muni to Eagle Co Regional(KEGE). I had some pretty serious icing on climb out. It cleared out just over FL150. I settled in just a bit over that. It's a pretty short flight so it wasn't too long after I was in the mountains I was looking to descend.

Decent was fun. You have to descend with the mountains so it always look like your close.  There was some pretty heavy fog on final but I broke out on short final and was able to make a very pretty loc ils landing. My glide slope was a little goofed with the mountains and not a full ils, but it wasn't too bad. Nice airport. I'll fly out either later tonight or tomorrow. Don't know where I'm going just yet.

X-Plane Update...

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This morning I made the flight in a Piper Malibu from Oklahoma City(KOKC) to Denver(KDEN). It was pretty uneventful. I had a generator button malfunction but other than that it was a nice flight.

Tonight I was going to make a little hop from Denver to Boulder Muni(KBDU) just to be a little closer to the mountains. The weather was looking pretty bad but I figured it was only 28 miles. I had 2 degrees C and heavy rain. Knowing that standard day you loose 2 degrees C for every 1,000 ft of altitude I knew there was going to be some serious icing. Well it's a simulator so I guess it's OK to take a few more chances.

I took off from Denver with my malfunctioning   generator button and headed NW. I tried to go as fast as possible and keep my alt low to limit the icing. Literally just minutes after take off I started having issues. Less than two minutes after TO I hate the anti-ice in the prop fail. That's when I knew I needed to do anything. I had already flown through some pretty heavy stuff and I was just over half way so I turning back wasn't really an option. I decided to continue.

I was just coming up on Erie Muni(KEIK) when the plane got really mushy and I iced the pitot completely casuseing some crazy indications. Visabiltiy was near zero and making it to Boulder was looking ugly. I decided to land short at Erie Muni just to be safe. I hate crashing even in a simulator.

Luckily I had sight of the runway so I just locked on to it, declared an emergency, and landed with out incident.

So I've been surfing around...

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I stumbled across crash data from the C-5 that crashed at Dover a while back. I'm not sure what the official "cause" was, but I'm sure it was pilot error with the mis-handling of the 3 engine landing. There were a couple of mistakes I noticed, but as usual it's not just one thing going wrong, it's many things at once. I think the last straw was the switching of the #2 and #3 throttle. This turned a mis-handled three engine landing into a horribly mis-handled two engine HEAVY landing. Pretty sad to put a perfectly flyable aircraft on the ground like that.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI5xTmmPbsY&feature=related]

Very cool video of a BAE Hawk after taking a bird strike. Notice how calm they are as they gain altitude, attempt a restart, point the acft to a crash location, talk to the tower and eject.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=56c75_4507

Interesting video of a 757 taking a bird strike and then coming around for a emergency landing.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=332_1196865686

Super awesome video of an emergency landing. Skill or crazy luck, you call it.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=447_1185485297

Cool video of a landing on a very short and tight runway. This is at Princess Juliana Int.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7b6_1182319292

F-16 "dead stick" landing. I guess that's a pretty big issue in a single engine aircraft.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=db5_1179571951

Interesting video of a guy in a car flying an RC Airplane through a very long tunnel.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=86a_1181938978

Video of a guy flying a 4 engine electric RC inside a small gym type building.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3000e91d0b

Video recorded from an RC flight over the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4c3_1189725456

Short runway, big aircraft. Do the math...
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d26_1178779173

VERY large 4 eng RC aircraft. It's a nice one as well.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9ee_1189701632&p=1

Scarry Stuff...

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As someone who once wore the blue and gold wings of the 9th AS video like this always scares me. Thank goodness it was just at take off and that it was a helicopter. Imaging this happened on a fixed wing aircraft and you couldn't just sit back down. You had to go around and attempt a landing while dumping fuel and running checklist.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a26_1190194748

Birds and Aircraft don’t mix…

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So I'm out for a little local ILS training in X-Plane. I'm taking off to the south out of Addison (KADS) towards downtown Dallas. On take off roll I notice a large flock of birds dirfting towards the runway. Well, you know what happened next... Pictures below. Then with all the carnage out of the way I start a little practice. I'm flying ILS 15 at addision and what do you think I see on short final. Birds, this time I was able to execute a missed approach. I stayed in the pattern and landed with out incident. I parked it for the evening.

Just after take off and passing through the birds.
screenshot_5.png

Just after take off and passing through the birds.
screenshot_6.png

Still in flight after taking bird strike. Trying to acessing the situation.
screenshot_7.png

After landing. Lost all engine power at about 50 feet AGL. Luckily I had about 80 KIAS.
screenshot_8.png

Birds over threshold on short final. Declaring missed approach.
screenshot_11.png

Another short final pic. Thinking of landing short. Ultimatly I continued to go around. Best choice I'm pretty sure.
screenshot_12.png

Holy Crap….

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C-5 Crashes in Delaware...

From what I can tell just watching CNN is that #2 engine flammed out. The declared an emergency and attemped a return to KDOV. CNN says that they "Came Down" short of the airfield. I'm thinking that it was much more than just a simple engine flame out. Being a former Flt Engineer with the 9th AS I know how much training is geared towards engine out operation. The C-5 will fly fairly well with only three engines. Looking at the video it looks like they did have a load onboard, but even with that I don't know that three engines with a full load would be enough to cause you not to be able to make the airport. Now as far as the flame out is concerned there are really only two things that would cause that. Lack of fuel from any of many possibilities, or catastophic engine failure. If an engine was to come apart, which they have been known to do in the past, it could throw fan blades and other parts through the aircraft causing a much greater emergency. Looking at the video on TV it looks as if #2 engine looked to be intact. #1 engine was not on the aircraft and there is evidence of a fire on the outboard left wing area. This could easily be post crash damage. It did look like the aircraft was in landing configuration. The flaps aren't visiable in the pictures I've seen but the slats indicate they were at least extended to 40. The gear did appear down. The aircraft ended up in a field, my questions now would be were they not able to make the airfield or did they make a decision to put it down in the field. The good part about this is all 17 crew members are reported to be alive. The scary part is from the video and pictures I've seen the aircraft split in the forward part of the crew compartment. Forward of #5 Service Door but aft of the Avionics Bay. This of course would be right where any crew, other than loadmasters that may have been in the troop compartment, would have been located. Hearing that a C-5 crashed litterally made me sick at my stomach. I'm still not 100% but knowing that everybody made it out is really great news.

Very Scary Video

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Check out this video. It's of a RAF F-16 taking a bird strike just after takeoff. They make a turn towards an unpopulated area and then eject. Notice how calm the pilots are (2 seater F-16). I don't think I ever real seriously considered going down in a C-5 due to a bird strike. Maybe the ensuing fire and loss of systems due to the strike, but never the strike itself. Very interesting video.

Tuff Evening

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Crash Photo's
So tonight I'm flying around SoCal in X-Plane, just playing in the mountains... In a 747 no less. I was just minding my own business when I got a fire warning light and the master caution started screaming at me. I had a fire in number one engine. The sim doesn't have fire handles or extinguishers but I still managed to get it shut down. I killed the start switch, batt, gen, fuel boost pump, and evenentially the throttle. The fire looked to go out, but there was still quite a bit of smoke from the engine. I declared an emergency. I didn't know the area very well and didn't have any of my charts out. ATC directed me to KPOC (Brackett Field Airport, La Verne). It's a halfway decent size run way. Lil' bit narrow, but still landable. I kicked on the autobreaks and spoilers, kicked out the flaps and gear and headed down. It was a straight in approach landing on 26L. I couldn't have made a prettier approach. Nearly a direct head wind I thought would give me a nice slow ground speed for touchdown. It wasn't so. It was VERY gusty even if it was right now the runway. I had to carry a bit more speed than I would have liked. This of course casued me to float long. With just barely 4800 feet of runway I didn't have much room to spare. I floated and finally touched down about 1/3 of the way down the runway, with nose gear finally coming down about 1/2 way down. I jammed on the binders and tried to stop. I probally should have dumped fuel on the way in but I didn't. I was pretty heavy. I didn't immediatly throw back the thrust reversers with an inop engine. That could be problems. I finally, about 3/4 down, decided to at least extend the TR's and about the time I went past the overrun and through the lights I went to full reverse. I finally did stop, about 10 or 15 foot from a rather large embankment. I'm sure that wouldn't have been very good on it. Anyway, here's some pics of the aftermath. Crash Photo's

P.S. Notice how far off center I drifted after using the reversers with an engine out.

I’m in LOVE!

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If you have a little time and a little bandwidth, check out this ten minutes quicktime movie of C-5 crosswind landings in X-plane 7.61. It's incredible. Your watching it and forgetting that your looking at a game. It looks very realistic. I can't wait to see what it looks like in 8.40 on the ole iMac. This is the best C-5 I've ever even seen on a flight sim. Have I found things that are not quite correct, sure, but I'm anal like that. This movie is about ten minutes and just over 55MB's. http://x-plane.org/home/Caboclo/Galaxy/Present/Crosswind_320.mov

BoneYard…

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So last night I'm watching this show on the History Channel called "Boneyard". It's about the destruction and recycling of old airplanes and ships and stuff. I recorded it because a large portion is filmed at the AF Boneyard in AZ. I spent some time there and got a big tour so I thought it'd be cool to watch. As just about everybody knows I'm pretty much obsessed with aviation in general. When it comes to C-5s and stuff it's not uncommon for me to tear up cuz I'm sooooo into them. So anyway I'm watching this show and they are talking about tearing down all the air planes and stuff. Then they start showing these 141's they have retired and are tearing down to recycle. It kind of started to hit me when I was noticing the tail flashing and paint jobs. They added those flashings and paint jobs while I was still in. So I know they have been retired since then. Then in the background I notice something that looked familiar. It was the aft cargo doors and ramp of a C-5. I hadn't expected to see C-5's there. Talk about a pit in your stomach. I had to just stop watching. I later came back and fast forwarded through it just in case they were crunching up any. Luckily for me they didn't. They are just using them for spare parts. I can deal with that. I know from experience that some of those parts are really hard to come by so at least I know they are going to good use. Anyway, that's just a glimpse into my freakish obsession... or at least this one of many freakish obsessions.