Did I just black out in the C172 ? Screen went black

[Styggron]

Hi everyone,

Ok I was flying around Mt Cook in New Zealand and took off from Mt Cook airport, there is no ILS or tower or anything there. Anyway, I needed to fly for a while to get above the mountains, after 40 minutes of climbing I got to 5300 or so feet. (The actual location with the airport has Cessna 185's there so they can climb a lot faster than my poor C172 I bet)

Anyway everything was fine when POW, the screen inside the cockpit darkened, almost black but I could just make out controls behind the blackness, controls were non responsive, I went to FSX outside view and saw I was in a partial spin, I thought.....oh dear.....

I checked and the Ceiling for a C172 is around 10,000 - 13,000 feet and you don't need oxygen at that level. 5300 was the height I was it when all hell broke loose. People are fine generally up to 8,000 feet so it is not oxygen.

Anyway as I was plummeting down, when it got to around 3000 feet the screen inside the aircraft was normal again and all controls were responsive.

So what was happening at the time of this ? I was flying level flight that's it. No idea what happened.
Was it too cold in the cabin maybe ? I had heater on 10% it was -9c outside. I don't think there is anything to say how warm it is inside.

Thoughts anyone ?

[Oliver Branaschky]

Are you sure you were at 5,300 ft MSL rather than 15,300 ft? Because Mt Cook airport is at roughly 2,200 ft, and given your time to cruise altitude of 40 minutes, you were doing around 80 fpm, which even for a C172 is a tad bit on the low side

Mt Cook, by the way, is roughly 12,000 ft high...


Viele Grüße/Best regards
Oliver

Oliver Branaschky

[Styggron]

See this is what I don't get.
The flight analysis said "5337 ft" at the highest point and I was flying OVER mt Cook. (This is after the flight I looked at the flight analysis) As I said it took Aggggggeeeessss to climb.

Mt Cook is indeed over 12,000 ft high

The real planes there are Cessnas 185. They are not pressurised are they ? They fly over Mt Cook to as do the Helicopter rides there. I guess there must be oxygen on board those and partly pressurised ?


[STOP the press]
I realise what I did now. Ooopps The flight analysis was in metres but the gauge sadly is not.
Oh dear, 17,000 ft then. What a dummy I am.

[Lewis - A2A]

Yes, you blacked out. An aircraft doesn't have to be pressurized to go high btw you can get portable oxygen systems in the the aircraft but we dont have one of these modelled for any of our current line up.

thanks,
Lewis

[Styggron]

Yes, you blacked out. An aircraft doesn't have to be pressurized to go high btw you can get portable oxygen systems in the the aircraft but we dont have one of these modelled for any of our current line up.

thanks,
Lewis

Understood. Gotcha so you don't need to be pressurised but you DO need additional oxygen in the cabin to make up for the thin air outside or you black out. This is what the real planes at Mt Cook have (C185s) I guess.

The only oxygen modelled in accu-sim would be the Spitfire then.

I was flying the C172 way too high anyway so it was my fault really.
Thank you Lewis.

[Lewis - A2A]

Yes, the Spitfire and our other high performance non GA aircraft all have oxygen systems modelled in which you must don the mask or black out.

thanks,
Lewis