Video Wall : Post'em Here

[kiofka]

Check this out. Why does it remind me of The Flintstones? Yabbadabbadooo!

[AADX]

That looks great Mario. what happened to the engine on the route? running it too lean?
and something tells me you're going to do most of the whole trip in the dark. hehehehe

[mariodonick]

That looks great Mario. what happened to the engine on the route? running it too lean?
and something tells me you're going to do most of the whole trip in the dark. hehehehe

Honestly I really don't know what happened. I was flying in 15.000 ft and the autopiloted had just started slowly descending for the approach to Sydney, with about -3 degrees.

Suddenly the engine sound changed, and the speed decreased. I checked fuel flow, it was good. The "fails" page in the Avidyne was not telling me anything useful, so I checked in the X-Plane failure settings and some engine components were blinking red. But the reason...? I don't know. Maybe the mixture was not too lean, but too rich for 15.000 ft. I felt a little bit helpless. I was still above the sea and too far away from a landing spot. Using the parachute was not an option, so I "repaired" the failed components and restarted the engine. So I was able to gain back control over the plane and continue the flight to Sydney.

But I was worried that this could happen out of nowhere again. And indeed, it did!!

On my next trip, from Sydney to Dulkaninna (a small desert airfield), when the weather was good, and in daytime, the plane was flying wings level, following its GPS. I did not touch the controls since hours. All gauges where in green range, fuel flow was good, too. Again in 15.000 ft, suddenly speed decreased and the autopilot stupidly trying to hold altitude, making the plane nearly stall again. Same game as during the last incident: Checking the Avidyne's failure page did not tell me anything, but X-Planes failure settings told me again about failed engine components. Okay, I "repaired" it again, and started to regain control, but this time I was too hard on the controls, causing the wings to fail, making the plane uncontrollable.

So I decided to use the parachute. Pressed the button, suddenly everything was becoming red, and then it got all quiet. Slowly and slowly turning I sank to ground, hearing only the winds of the Australian desert, and the PFD still showing me altitude and speed. With the rudder, I was able to control the descent so the plane was not spinning all the time.

After about 10 minutes, I softly touched the ground, survived.

It was nearly a romantic experience.


I also made a movie of this event, which I will post on YouTube and in my weblog as an outtake of the journey.


In general, I wonder why on two flights following after another I had engine problems, although all the gauges did not show anything critical. Also, 15.000 ft is well in the service altitude of the Cirrus. Of course I had active pitot heat, windshield heat and propeller heat. Fuel was okay everytime, I also used the fuel pump when switching between left and right tank.

Maybe the mixture was too rich for the altitude, or I was flying too fast (but I think this can't be, because on the trip to Sydney I was really slowly, to save fuel; only on the trip yesterday I was flying about 160, because I had enough fuel).

Or X-Plane is simply creating too much failures.

[Steven Winslow]

Check your mean time before failures setting. If you leave it set to 10,000, the default setting, you will have failures on almost every flight. I think realistic settings start at around 60,000 hours. I actually have mine set to 97,500. I don't want to turn failures off completely, but I don't want to have failures on every single flight, either.

[AADX]

I agree. I don't know what the v10 default failure time is. long ago there was some snafu when austin lowered it so that it would go off more often and be a more noticeable feature. hey may have done that again. ooh cool... look how failures randomly happen. as Steve says. check that failures page for what the time for them is, and just up it. I suppose one could vary that depending on the vintage of things they fly in xplane. fly old rickety stained beaters, lower it. hahaha.

[mariodonick]

Check your mean time before failures setting. If you leave it set to 10,000, the default setting, you will have failures on almost every flight. I think realistic settings start at around 60,000 hours. I actually have mine set to 97,500. I don't want to turn failures off completely, but I don't want to have failures on every single flight, either.

Thanks! It was set to 10.000, I changed it to 90.000 now. We'll see how the plane behaves during the next flight to Ayers Rock!

[AADX]

looks like you're having a great time Mario, i'm so very glad to see it.

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[mariodonick]

Yes, flying the Cirrus is fun ) (As are most of your aircrafts I've tried).

The miniature wonderland video you posted is nice. Not only because it's in Germany but it also makes me think that people who like simulations are somehow like people who like miniature things, like model railroads, etc. Rebuilding reality, and investing lots of time into it.

[AADX]

[kiofka]

Oh Hell no!