PilotEdge Forums

Just had my first in-flight emergency on PE since moving over to X-plane about a month or so back and damn, was it scary!

Departed KSAN IFR for a "normal" FSE flight to KPOC and just as I am cleared direct OCN the altimeter gets stuck at 4400, the airspeed indicator jumps between 60 and 10 knots and V/S also stuck on 0. I just sat there not knowing what the hell is going on and the controller then asks me to maintain my assigned altitude....I could feel the stress levels increasing.

I called Socal informing them of my situation and asked for some time to troubleshoot. So now I am trying to figure out what instruments I can trust and exactly what attitude the plane is in and with no visual references outside all I could see is myself going for a swim in the ocean. After a while of some extremely erratic flying I noticed the attitude and heading indicator is working as well as the backup altimeter. I called Socal, declared an emergency and asked for vectors to the airport as well as an altitude and speed check. The moment I turned the airplane around and I saw the San Diego lights I got my visual reference back and things got a bit easier to manage. If this was a cloudy day, things would've ended much worse....

Thanks to the PE controller/s at KSAN for the assistance and the speed checks on finals and landing, excellent service as always.

Nicely handled!

That sounds like a static port blockage which makes me realize I never tried the alternate static in the planes I tend to fly. Thanks for sharing!

I think this is also where something like Foreflight suddenly becomes a very useful backup to quickly confirm which instruments might be at fault and even to help get back on the ground.