One way to lighten the workload

[flyingdrill]

27 or so pilots on PE. KS doing some controlling. I was going on a short VFR flight, and was to receive flight following. Taxiing to the runway, when there was a sudden lurch and my left engine was on fire

Hmmmm

Taxied back to the ramp and went to bed! See ya!

[Keith Smith]

I'm flattered that you feel as though I'd have the ability to look up the codes to fail your engine under that workload!

[flyingdrill]

Oh, I dunno , Keith. I thought you had the critical ones in your head

Actually, I was taxiing, viewing from outside, behind and slightly above the plane. Nicely on the centre (or center!) line, and faster than walking pace but virtually idling the engines. As I said, I saw a lurch. Maybe there was a bump in the taxiway and I had a prop. strike, but the problem was an engine fire.

I just thought it was so funny.

[stevekirks]

Yesterday, dual engine flame out at FL280 in the FlyJSim 732 on my first flight with Excel as a new captain. KLAS to KLGB with a standard MCRRN4 HEC KAYOH5 routing. While over Hector, I bumped the Saitek trim wheel by accident--I never use it for the jets in X-Plane--and the plane went instantly to what must have been >60 degrees positive pitch.

I killed the autopilot, stabilized the pitch problem and started cross checking things. Speed had dropped enough (and was still dropping) so the engines had flamed out during the see-saw ride. It's amazing what the basic training is the sim has already taught me: pitch for best glide speed, stabilize the heading, scan for traffic and a place to land, THEN call ATC and calmly report the situation. Also, Keith and Chris' video where they had an engine out really helped.

After ATC was informed (was that Marcus?) I should have pulled a checklist but here's what I did:

* Fuel switch to cutoff, throttle to idle
* APU started to get bleed air and stable electricity
* Switch the elec bus to APU
* disable the packs, switch the bleed air tot he APU
* Start both engines, still idle thrust
* Elec and bleed air back on the engines, packs on, reset cabin pressurization controls.
* Stablize speed and heading again. Call ATC and clear the PAN condition

Overall, I lost about 4500 feet and it took me about 5-7 minutes to complete the cycle. All of this is with failures "off"

Yesterday must have been Computer Gremlin Day on PE.

[flyingdrill]

Well done, Steve. Kept a cool head. Also, you knew your systems.

I suppose if you really do something stupid, the no failures setup makes no difference. Probably, Jack has written the code for a flameout condition, and it over-rides X-Plane.

That trim wheel can be difficult. I must admit that I often leave it on the shelf..........

[Nelson L.]

Steve, out of curiosity, what do you mean "reset the pressurization controls"? If the thing ever goes to manual for me, it's because the engines are idle on the descent and there's not enough bleed air (in which case I either open the APU valve or add in a bit of thrust). I've never actually used manual pressurization. Are you just referring to switching it back to "auto" or some other procedure?

[Ryan B]

I once had a dual engine failure in XP10 - flying the Avanti II, after applying Full Rental Power (I think this is Keith's term haha) on takeoff both engines died a few thousand feet in the air. I was able to land which for me is pretty amazing!

Gotta love PE and the ATC aspect of flying!

[stevekirks]

Steve, out of curiosity, what do you mean "reset the pressurization controls"? If the thing ever goes to manual for me, it's because the engines are idle on the descent and there's not enough bleed air (in which case I either open the APU valve or add in a bit of thrust). I've never actually used manual pressurization. Are you just referring to switching it back to "auto" or some other procedure?

Yes, basically that setting it back to auto because it switched to standby.

The the flameout question, yes, I'd say Jack cleverly has flameouts. I tried cycling the fuel switches but when it didn't work, I went back to what I knew without pulling out a manual. I'm wondering if cycling the start switch to flight would have restarted the engine since the it was rotating at about 35-40% RPM

I'm firing up the sim to test, but it's 9PM here and I'm late in turning in a report for work, so I might not get it done.

As far as the compliments, I'll accept them with the caveat about Keith/Chris videos. If it hadn't been for repeated viewings of the one with the engine loss, I wouldn't have been that calm.

[flyingdrill]

Mystery solved.

I flew the same trip today, but "stayed" in the cockpit for the taxi. All of a sudden, I saw a discontinuity in the center line, and realised I was looking at a bit more than a dip! Very gingerly, I taxied forward , and the plane dipped (almost dropped) down, but continued with no damage. So, I said there was a lurch the other day, and now I know why. Looking at my rendering, when I was in a run-up area, I saw that the "runway follows terrain contours" was ticked - which it normally (for me) is not. I don't remember altering this, but maybe it set itself after a crash, or whatever.

So, Keith was totally innocent, as he pleaded! I did indeed strike a prop! Serves me right.

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FAA PPL ASEL IA
Alphabet Challenge - all legs completed

[Keith Smith]

Someone managed to trigger a vacuum failure on me during my flight yesterday. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the sim! ForeFlight's synthetic vision definitely came in handy.