Disaster recovery advice?

[BadDylan]

I hope I'm not asking the 'bleeding obvious'...

I'm still a new pilot but nevertheless want to fly realistically, so am playing the default FS Passenger set-up with 5% failures.

And I've had one! Complete systems failure in heavy cloud - no navigation, no instruments, and no radio. I didn't know what to do. The
FSPax guidance does mention that a savvy flier will be able to work around these failures and land safely following correct procedures,
but I just circled round and round like a complete dummy, unable to see the airport and no chance of an ILS landing, all the while
randomly clicking every switch I could find in my lowly Cessna. I know: this is NOT what we should do, but I didn't want to admit to my two
passengers that I'd not done this before! In the end, I had no idea what combination of switches I'd changed, and no sign of a cure.

In the end, I confess I quit the flight (hoping my stranded passengers wouldn't mind too much). But what I really want to do is learn how to
resolve these problems. Is there any info about handling failures, what to do etc anywhere? And if anyone says 'FSX Learning Centre
has all the info', that will simply be embarrassing so please be kind!

Thanks,
Sue

[whiskey-zulu]

www.simviation.com has a section where you can find checklists for aircraft; might be worth seeing if they have one for emergency procedures
for whichever Cessna you're in.

[BadDylan]

That's a cool site I'd not yet found! Thanks very much.

[EmmaAtkins]

Never had total systems failure in IFR,IMC . I've had total, and backup attitude, and speed indicator failures together. This necessitated
flying by the numbers using published aircraft data for using VSI as my primary instrument with my magnetic compass. I use it now for
training scenarios,flying from the approach chart. Needless to say it IS possible but exhausting sat there with stopwatch n chart for 20
minutes staring at 1 big cumulonimbus

On a small note, I can't remember the aircraft where all the sensors had been covered with gaffer tape or something similar, so
somehow they managed to takeoff ,without any useful flight data. Needless to say it didn't end well, I think 10degrees pitch down into the
ocean its hard to recall. But running these scenarios I find increases my understanding of abnormal procedure instigation, and thought
processes/decision making.

Emma

p.s. I would say good luck, but good preperation, with easy access to printed emergency procedure data , and charts is always a help . . .

[whiskey-zulu]

On a small note, I can't remember the aircraft where all the sensors had been covered with gaffer tape or something similar, so
somehow they managed to takeoff ,without any useful flight data. Needless to say it didn't end well, I think 10degrees pitch down into the
ocean its hard to recall

That was an Aero Peru Boeing 757 where the maintenace crew had failed to remove the tape after washing and deicing the aircraft, and the flight crew
had failed to notice it during their walk round. They had to rely on RAdar control for their flight data because the static ports were giving false
readings due to the tape. Also the flight was a red-eye job, so VFR wouldn't have been much good to them.



Post Edited ( 03-31-09 02:42 )

[Unfaced]

I have had my first failure in FSPax 2 Weeks ago:

When I was on Final in an Airbus 319 on a flight from Vienna to Zurich, I extend the gears, but the left mein gear did not extend properly. The FO
said, that a hard touch and go would be possible to fix this failure. So I did one after declaring an emergency and it worked fine. I flew then the
missed approach and landed safe in zurich - altough I had to repair the gear, which costs aboutr 1.5 million Euros.

So I never had a failure with a Cessna before, but isn't there any advice from the F/O too?

[BadDylan]

LOL - I can see I have a lot to learn! I would certainly not be amused to land a jet minus a gear (I'm bad enough landing WITH them)!

I can't recall now, but I think my VSI indicator was still working, and of course there is that little compass glued to the dash - that would
have been working, and so it's highly probable that an experienced flier (Emma - I am in total admiration) would have made it.. The FO
seemed to suffer the same electrical failure because he too went silent - he didn't even mention the failure! I guess the best thing to
have done would have been to use the map to navigate to a nearby airport, and then somehow get low enough to be below cloud for a
VFR landing, and then hope the airport would not mind my unannounced landing. I doubt I would have had any success though!

I'm just trying out a demo of FS FlyingSchool 2009. Maybe I need to start out with a little more education first!