PilotEdge Forums

Original wrote for the FSE Forum:

Brought the Reality Expansion Pack for the Carenado C210 for XP11. First time using this and tried it out on a flight from KVIS to KSNA on PilotEdge and FSE. I love XP11 for giving me a more realistic feeling pilot experience. Add in PilotEdge in VR and its about as close as one can get to the real thing on an enthusiast budget.

I was well on my flight getting close to my TOC of 11,000ft on my IFR FP. There was a thin layer of clouds I had climbed through and was above it with an overcast floor below me...basically VFR on top flying conditions. Thats when I decided to switch fuel tanks. The C210 does not pull from both tanks so its a balancing act of switching tanks. I had leaned the plane out a little bit to where it was showing 12gal/hr but didnt feel like I had leaned it for the altitude I was at.

After switching tanks the engine started to sputter and then shut off. Because I had unintentionally shut down the engine with the avionics on, I would shortly after learn that messed with my GTN750 GPS freezing the screen. I started a glide as I tried to restart the engine. I radioed ATC to let them know I had a fuel issue but wasnt declaring an emergency yet. Once I had lost about 1,00 feet altitude I decided to shoot for an airport and declare an emergency. I was still above the cloud layer and this was a night flight so I had no visual references.

The PilotEdge controller was a great resource to help me and directed me to the closest field providing me airport layout info as well as weather. I kept trying to restart the plane which drained the battery to a point that I still had power but not enough to start the plane. Once I got below the cloud layer I could spot the field which was at my 12 oclock and I was lined up for a straight in landing about 7 miles away. I felt I had plenty of altitude and was in away too high. When I nosed down to loose some altitude the prop started windmilling and I tried to get it started with the wind but that too didnt work.

Having felt I was going to make the field made my last call to ATC and focused on the glide in landing. I shorted the field by about 1000 feet and being night could not make out a safe place to land so in the trees it was. After I disconnected from PE and took my VR headset off I looked at the screen which gave me notes on everything that had gone wrong with using REP. Seems I had flooded the engine which must of happened when I switched tanks. As suggested by the notes I could of leaned it out with throttle full to try and fix that but I didnt. I also kept the power setting too high for too long on my takeoff which wore on the engine. To what affect this had on my flight Im not sure. Lastly the avionics was slightly damaged by the power loss which I knew about.

What I am most disappointed in myself about is that I shorted the field. I could of made that had I not descended to loose altitude. This is a simulation and the REP experience is new to me and I might of underestimated it since it was a Carenado plane and not an A2A. However, I have no excuse for shorting the field except I dont practice for emergencies enough. So I give credit to REP for giving me a more realistic plane and PilotEdge for the ATC services that played a huge part in both the realism and assistance in getting me setup for a power off landing...although I shorted it.

These are the best experiences. Learning by making mistakes that would, IRL, perhaps be fatal.
You also get to know yourself, and your knowledge of the aircraft systems, when in an emergency - what can you actually do, and what is a waste of time. How fast can you establish a safe landing spot while keeping the troubleshooting going? All fantastic things with the REP (or A2As magnificent fleet of Accusim-aircraft), combined with a good scenery that give you a realistic amount of fields/roads/landing spots.
Flight sim is so much fun!

Very interesting story. Two things seem off, though....why does swapping tanks cause the engine to flood?

Also, the prop does not stop when the engine dies in flight unless you get the plane quite slow (I've had two engine failures in the past and the prop absolutely kept going). Given that the prop is still turning, the alternator is doing its thing, so there should be zero change in the power being delivered to the avionics. The alternator is driven by a wheel that driven by a belt that is connected to nothing but the prop. If the prop is turning, the alternator can produce power. The alternator does NOT care if cylinders are having a combustion party, or are stone cold.

Something seems off in this modeling. It sounds like you're being punished in unrealistic ways. If we wanna just call it a random engine failure and a random avionics failure then that's ok. In that case, the scenario still has value. However, the systems modeling seems punitive to the extreme based on what you described.

The audio for the flight when things went south can be heard hear starting at 13:12
http://assets.pilotedge.net/recordings/ ... _17510.mp3

Keith Smith wrote:Very interesting story. Two things seem off, though....why does swapping tanks cause the engine to flood?

I'm trying to find out that from the developer for myself. The only thing that I can think of is that it wasnt leaned enough at the altitude I was at so when I switched tanks there was a moment when the fuel got shut off and then rushed back in a way that flooded it. I did fiddle with it but cant remember exactly what I did. Not sure how realistic it is to have the split second of actually shutting off the fuel as I go from one tank to the other as there should be fuel still in the line but also I didnt turn on the fuel pump so that too could of played a part. One thing is for sure is I would of never of guessed I had flooded it as to why it stopped.

As for the prop, once I got to a good glide speed of around 70-80 knots the prop stopped. I could see the prop vibrating and when I picked up speed it did start to windmill. I couldnt feather the prop or see any pitch difference pulling back on the prop lever. As far as the avionics go, that is a feature that I think is just a yes or no thing to help teach good practices of not having the avionics on when starting the engine to avoid possible voltage spikes on sensitive equipment. Where in the regular Carenado plane there is no penalty, the REP models it but doesnt take in case equipment is not going to suffer every time and get hit hard when it does.

After landing (if you want to call it that) I cycled the avionics power switch and was able to get control of my GTN again but was unable to radio APP to let them know I was down (in a tree...deadish). I did have to repair the radios via the REP IU hangar.

One last thing is when i landed since I stalled it and then bounced a bit, broke a strut and flatten a tire which is here nor there but the ELT went off. I never knew that actually worked or if its an unmentioned feature of REP or Xplane, not sure. It would of been interesting to know if that transmitted on PE as well.

I'm waiting to hear back from the developer but now I think of it, I might not of messed up my avionics when I lost the engine but my many attempts to try and start the engine with the avionics powered on.

My experience with the REP 172 is it is WAAAY more sensitive in producing engine problems than IRL.
As far as gauging your altitude and nosing down on a straight in, I was taught to preserve altitude and circle over the field if necessary. You can always shorten a downwind leg.