Actual simulated emergency

[bbuckley]

I've recently started flying an A2A C172R to match a RW C172SP I fly now. Tonight I did the pre-flight and start and took off from KSFO VFR to the north for a little sightseeing then go inbound to KOAK for a full stop. After getting switched to KOAK TWR I discovered I couldn't get any left aileron. I couldn't decide if it was a USB control issue or a "real simulated" issue so I told KOAK TWR I was having control issues and may need to declare an emergency. The controller swiftly cleared me to land 28R and offered 10R or L for a quicker approach and landing. I took the 10R but I was too close to safely make the rudder only left turn from base to final so I told him I needed to land on 12. He immediately cleared me on 12 and I made an uneventful landing using rudder for left lateral control. After clearing the runway I told him I was going to shutdown and disconnect to figure out what had happened.

In the "maintenance hanger" the A2A guys said I should have done a better preflight and that the left aileron hinged was bound up. Since it was all simulated and all ended well, this is pretty cool! I did do the pre-flight but I didn't notice any changes in the pictures of the hinges. I'll check with the A2A forum to see what I should have noticed.

But the combination of the high fidelity A2A C172 and the outstanding ATC of PE made this a great training experience for RW flying. I should have actually declared an emergency (not sure that would have meant anything different in this case) but especially I should have requested right traffic since I was able to fly the airplane just fine straight and level and make right turns but not left. Using a LOT of rudder low & slow could have been very bad, but I extended enough to go to Rwy 12 so that it was all controllable.

THANKS to the controller in WUS for the excellent assistance. 1730 - 1800 PDT.

[Kilstorm]

Good Pirep. On the A2A plane, they store a history of the last five flights. You might be able to pull up your previous flight and reload the damage allowing you to better look at the hinge. You would want to back up the current file or move it out of the folder it is in and then rename the one prior to what the one is that you moved and you should be good to go. Then just do the reverse once your done looking to see if there was damage you missed before the flight.

[bbuckley]

Thanks. I tried going back (with the C172RLog.dat.bak files) to see what the hinge pic would look like misaligned or binding but no luck. I know what to look for IRL. This was a great training experience in any event.