PilotEdge Forums

First of all, I would like to say that I really like using PE. For me it really gives the sensation of flying and the real world pressures that go along side it. This is a big part of why I am now posting in this thread.

I wanted to work on my descent planning so I got in the A320, searched for a star and sid with lots of altitude restrictions and prepared for my flight.

The flight would be KLAS-KSAN via the boach3 departure tnp LYNDI3 arrival

My first little mistake was on the departure out of LAS, on the BOACH5. I got cleared to climb according to the SID, so I looked at all the altitude restrictions and got myself to boach intersection at 13000 ft. and now? I was about to ask the controller for higher when I saw the via transition maintain FL190, expect filed altitude in 10 minutes.

The initial descent planning went well but around Baret, on the LYNDI3 arrival for KSAN, I was high on the profile and it took me a bit too long to realize this and this was the beginning of a big problem.

I tried to get my speed and altitude down. Once established on the LOC, I was still high and fast. I tried to put the flaps down a moment too soon, and X-plane is very unforgiving in that regard and snapped the flaps of of my right wing. So hard left aileron and a go around.

But with the flight control issues and the switching to 119.6 instead of the previous approach frequency, I got more and more distracted from flying the airplane, and an uncontrolled turn and climb started.

As I finally made contact with ATC, instead of informing him about my problems and asking for present heading and an Altitude, I tried to find the fix for the missed and got more and more behind the airplane.

But as things calmed down and I was on a vector back for the field. I got the plane back under control, hand flying it back, be it with a higher than normal approach speed and no flaps.

Again an example of Aviate, Navigate, Communicate and not the other way around. I should have kept on going on present heading and a steady climb, asked the tower for runway heading and told him about my problems and that I couldn't switch to departure until workload permitted. Then when able I should have contacted departure, informed them about the flap issue and asked vectors back, or consider to divert to an airfield with a longer runway considering the higher approach speed.

I hope this will help some to not make my mistakes!

Greetings from Holland,

Milan.

Fantastic post, thanks for taking the time to share it!

Hi,

New to flying (two VFR solos and new to PE).

I have kept trying BKBP to KSBA in VFR flight following as I am amazed how the experience was different every time.

Yesterday was tough;)

Approach asked me to go maneuvre north of KSBA. I had checked ATIS and wanted to land 15L (initially I wanted 7).
Approach then said: "Ok you're fine go SE" (here something I did not know: I assumed I was in trouble as going SE put me in in the Charlie airspace and I had not yet contacted tower ... I was told it was OK as owned by approach ... need to ask instructor for details)

However, by the time the hand-off to tower was made I was 5 miles to the airport and going fast.

Tower tells me: OK to land right base 25 ... panic settled and I asked twice "do you mean 15" ? (got two "negative"). Of course I was then even closer to the airport and decided to get into the pattern downwind like a good student should.

The stress was so high that I did not realize that I was completely disregarding the command from tower ... he made that _quite_ clear

After landing I quickly disconnected and went through the appalling list of mistakes I had made that flight.


Thanks PE!

Regards,

Philippe

Hi Philippe, thanks for posting. You may want to try the workshops (http://pilotedge.net/workshops), and start from the bottom. That first workshop explains all the different types of airspace. It should clear up any future confusion for you

Keith

Will do Keith,

Thanks.

Philippe

I took my first stab at the V3 last night, flying in the dark to see all the pretty city lights. I didn't have any obvious issues transitioning the Costal Route and leaving Class B to the North of LAX. I put the AP on my Centurion into a descent from 6500 to 2500 while I figured out the radios and nav for the return South on the Mini Route.

The next thing I know I have crashed! I was at first in shock looking at my plane bounce around and make funny noises. I first assumed I had flown into terrain and kicked myself for not having the terrain up on Foreflight. Then on closer examination I realized that I had never restored power once the plane had reached 2500. I wasn't even looking out the window while I was tuning the radios and the plane just kept descending until we bounced! Oops.

I think I learned a couple of things. Maybe complete the descent before getting distracted or check in on it between every other action. This is where a simulator is harder than RW for me, the engines noises, sounds and seat of pants didn't give me any clues that something was astray.

Going to try it again today, in the daytime!

That's funny, I was discussing that on one of my recent live streams, talking about the perils of using the autopilot if you don't have auto throttle. Level offs are a killer if you're not keeping the scan going. It definitely takes more discipline to keep the scan going if you have the A/P on.

Keith Smith wrote:That's funny, I was discussing that on one of my recent live streams, talking about the perils of using the autopilot if you don't have auto throttle. Level offs are a killer if you're not keeping the scan going. It definitely takes more discipline to keep the scan going if you have the A/P on.

Glad to have supported that point!

Is it a fail if you don't hear "you have failed the V3"?

"Aviate, Navigate, Communicate"

Research Eastern Airlines Flight 401- L1011 slowly descends and crashes into the Florida Everglades due the crew's inattention to the automation while all 3 pilots troubleshot a gear not down light. Turned out to be a burnt out light bulb. Great study on CRM and automation management.

The other day I was reminded of two things:
- Sim flying is not the same as RL flying
- Familiarization is required before going online

Here's what happened:

After a hiatus of a year or so, playing mostly combat flight sims (IL2 BoS) and doing my 6 in RL with my safety pilot friends, I thought I'd go back to x-plane and shoot a few approaches on PE. It didn't go too well, actually it was quite embarrassing, and I'd like to thank the controllers on duty for their patience. Specifically...

(1) I thought that Warthog joystick was great, especially with that 15cm stick extension. For the first time in my flightsim life those Messerschmidts really felt like Messerschmidts. Not so on an ILS approach though... have you ever tried to keep the needles centered with such a stick while copying the clearance, switching frequencies, or tuning in a localizer? Ok, spent a few hours getting my trusty CH yoke back to work...

(2) That shiny combat flight sim has a neat feature that limits head movement when using a TrackIR, so that the head can never get out of the cockpit. Guess what, x-plane does not have this feature by default. Sandy Barbour's PilotView plugin allows me to establish limits for my head movements, but yes, I definitely should have read up on this before going online on PE... As it was, whenever I tilted my head down to copy a clearance, heading, or altitude, I could barely understand the controller because the outside noise kicked in; and once I was done I had a hard time reorienting myself since my head was still outside of the plane. Needless to say that I had also lost/gained 300 feet during all the mess.

(3) x-plane has this new GNS430/530 built in, and I thought I could use it without further testing so I plugged in /G when I filed my flight plan. Well, I should really have verified what this GPS device can do before going online... For whatever reason the CLR button didn't work so I was stuck with some old airports, and could not get to the procedures for the airport that I had filed for. The map view also refused to come up, so basically the entire device was worse than just using NAV and CDI. I'm sure it can't be fixed, but most likely not while the controller is asking for my intentions... you get the picture.

So, bottomline, I did go back and reconfigured everything, including my CH yoke, Sandy Barbour's wonderful PilotView, tested out a few of the add-on planes that I had purchased over the years, played with the 430/530, re-discovered Tom Kyler's MU-2 which I still think is the best add-on plane ever made, but - I did all this while I was offline. So, give me a few more dry runs between SBP and SMX, and you will hear me on PE once again, hopefully in better shape.

Cheers
A