Interesting stuff Xplanes will do

[arb65912]

I think, I will set mine to 5 min based on what you said about updates from weather stations.

Like everybody else, I am waiting to see new weather in X-Plane v 10. Thank you for replying.

[Tony Rogers]

Yep, X-Plane has a failure titled "engine separation". Found that out while flying a 737 Tokyo to Hong Kong. Winds gusting 53 at Hong Kong....we all died that afternoon.

[curtis008]

I am glad to see it was not just me. Flying the V2 test from KSNA to KONT and I had an engine failure. 2 hours of fuel in the tanks and 20 min to KONT.
When I landed in the desert, XPlane in the aircraft equipment failure section said number 1 2 3 fuel vents were inoperable.

[Steven Winslow]

I have a little plug-in called RealEngine that induces engine failures based on how you are flying the plane, not just random failures. I have my MTBF set to 97,500 hrs in X-Plane, but if I firewall the throttles and don't watch my temps, I'm going to blow my engine. Last night I had an engine overspeed and lost oil pressure while flying my first attempt at the I-7 rating. I had to ask for vectors to the closest airport and did an emergency landing at KLGB just as the engine lost all power. They had to send the trucks out to get me off the runway

[Daddy O]

I have torn off so much stuff in xplane, engines in the canyon, wings, empenage parts, I love the failure modes. Ingesting birds is the best. With multi pcs you actually get bird guts on each display. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a programmed sw failure, and an actual hardware problem in my simulator. About every 6 weeks the UHID device that controls my extra switches goes out so I have to land flapless, or cannot go active transponder.
That engine plugin sounds pretty cool. A lotta sim pilots get in the habit of flying around full throittle or with a bad mixture because the sim let's them get away with it. I have never been able to get xplane to simulate carburator ice (but it will do wing icing).

[Keith Smith]

Fly a piston aircraft that doesn't have fuel injection around the traffic pattern, go to idle abeam the numbers. I've had the engine die plenty of times in the sim doing exactly that.

I had a discussion with Steve about that plugin. Wide open throttle in normally-aspirated pistons up at altitude is completely standard, and is not fundamentally harmful to the engine. Where you get in trouble (unless you have variable timing through electronic ignition) is if you are wide open, down low, and leaned out. The combination of those three things can be devastating on the engine. Being a wide open throttle at 8000ft in a normally aspirated piston is like running with the throttle pulled back down at lower altitudes. If you pull the power back when you're up high, it's like pulling back on the throttle twice.

[Steven Winslow]

Keith, that's precisely what happens with the RealEngine plugin. At cruise in my Mooney, I almost always fly full throttle and leaned appropriately. It's after take off and into my climb where I usually get into trouble and my engine temps rise. I just try to keep all the needles in the green as much as possible. I realize there will be periods of time when I'm in the yellow, but as long as I don't extend those times, I can usually avoid blowing an engine.

[Daddy O]

I would be interested in trying that plugin, but with XP10 coming out soon, I would be interested to see how much the new software will improve engine functions.