NOTAMS.... checking them is good!
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 7:55 pm
Me and XPlane just aren't getting along...
Flew my BK117 from BUR to POC. Attempted the visual and controller pointed out the field. Of course there were two right around where he pointed (actually they were farther apart I just screwed up) and I called it in sight. Haha... little did I know I was actually entering the class C to ONT whoops! I knew from the preplanning that ONT and POC look familiar. What I didn't check was the NOTAMS. Usually I don't in FS because they aren't normally aligned with RW stuff but tonight it would have helped a lot. POC and ONT both have twin parallels, oriented the same direction... and coming from the west they both look identical (except ONT is offset to the south a bit). The NOTAM @ POC says the RY26R is closed UFN. I saw the correct airport but only one runway was lit, so I thought it might be EMT (even though EMT is oriented differently, should have been my first red flag). The 2nd red flag was when tower had me remain south of runway 26L centerline. As I approached ONT I had to fly through the extended centerline of the south parallel, (granted I did this about 8 miles out), which should have set my brain in motion... but I just thought to myself "meh." lol
When POC tower asked my position I said "about 4 west." Yeah I knew that meant I SCREWED up and was going for ONT... I calmly asked for a vector to POC then got it insight... with the Ry26L CLSD UFN (AND UNLIT!) just like the NOTAM said *sigh*
To make matters worse I tried a quick descent out of 1000 AGL to the ramp and the helicopter apparently doesn't like descending in a hover so rapidly... I then sank to the ground like a rock past 500 AGL... total crash for sure... I'd be dead yep! I did read XP exaggerates the rapid descents with low forward speed in the helos in the sim... so it could be partially that... but either way, a horrible approach followed by a horrible landing.
Ugh
I'm gonna chalk this whole episode (and the last two weeks of failure on PE) up to me losing sleep each night due to new little man in the house
Flew my BK117 from BUR to POC. Attempted the visual and controller pointed out the field. Of course there were two right around where he pointed (actually they were farther apart I just screwed up) and I called it in sight. Haha... little did I know I was actually entering the class C to ONT whoops! I knew from the preplanning that ONT and POC look familiar. What I didn't check was the NOTAMS. Usually I don't in FS because they aren't normally aligned with RW stuff but tonight it would have helped a lot. POC and ONT both have twin parallels, oriented the same direction... and coming from the west they both look identical (except ONT is offset to the south a bit). The NOTAM @ POC says the RY26R is closed UFN. I saw the correct airport but only one runway was lit, so I thought it might be EMT (even though EMT is oriented differently, should have been my first red flag). The 2nd red flag was when tower had me remain south of runway 26L centerline. As I approached ONT I had to fly through the extended centerline of the south parallel, (granted I did this about 8 miles out), which should have set my brain in motion... but I just thought to myself "meh." lol
When POC tower asked my position I said "about 4 west." Yeah I knew that meant I SCREWED up and was going for ONT... I calmly asked for a vector to POC then got it insight... with the Ry26L CLSD UFN (AND UNLIT!) just like the NOTAM said *sigh*
To make matters worse I tried a quick descent out of 1000 AGL to the ramp and the helicopter apparently doesn't like descending in a hover so rapidly... I then sank to the ground like a rock past 500 AGL... total crash for sure... I'd be dead yep! I did read XP exaggerates the rapid descents with low forward speed in the helos in the sim... so it could be partially that... but either way, a horrible approach followed by a horrible landing.
Ugh
I'm gonna chalk this whole episode (and the last two weeks of failure on PE) up to me losing sleep each night due to new little man in the house