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Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 31 Dec 2015, 03:53
by rosariomanzo
This morning, after a hot cup of coffee, I decided to take a short FS Economy flight from YBTH to YMDG, on IVAO network (the Pac-Man sound at the end of the video is the disconnection!)
A very pleasant flight all around.
While in traffic pattern to land at YMDG, I experienced a left aileron failure.
I managed to roughly line up and land using right aileron and rudder.
On ground, the mechanic was a bit upset, he told me to properly check the aircraft before flight!

Lesson learned.

P.S. the quality of this simulation is so high that I nearly started to sweat as I discovered the failure! :lol:

P.P.S. happy new year all!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tawqLHs6cO4[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tawqLHs6cO4

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg

Posted: 31 Dec 2015, 08:08
by Lewis - A2A
Great video, thanks for sharing and good job for getting her down ok :)

Is that liveATC.com in the background?

cheers and Happy New Year,
Lewis

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg

Posted: 31 Dec 2015, 08:50
by rosariomanzo
Yes it is, ymml center. Ciao!

Inviato dal mio GT-I9195I utilizzando Tapatalk

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg

Posted: 31 Dec 2015, 09:04
by Scott - A2A
Rosario,

Great to see you managed to capture this on video. Accu-Sim GA airplanes are filled with these kinds of unexpected, realistic experiences just like their real world counterparts. The goal has always been to give that same impact you would have in the real world, as this is a true test of a pilot's (person's) ability to think clearly in this kind of situation.

There is always a period of denial when something like this happens, and how long that period is comes down to training and thinking clearly under pressure. Once you, as the pilot have determined the issue, you can then compensate and hopefully have a successful result. An aileron failure, fortunately, is one of the more gentle kinds of emergencies to experience, however there are several kinds of aileron failures - a jam, a break, or total failure. You experienced not the worst (a jam in the turn), but not the easiest either (a single break), but a jam that allows for level flight.

To analyze your response, first, you landed safely (and made a rather nice landing at that), which is commendable. It's hard to be critical, but if you were to nit pick, it would have been ideal to extend down your base more but this is really not a criticism and speaks to the first part I mentioned, and that is your quickness of thinking, which was quite quick. Sometimes failures trigger panic too, which the results can be tragic. However, you were unable to square off your base leg due to the failure, and at some point, you made a choice to go for the runway. This was a good choice, however, it would have been worse if you misjudged your distance and over-shot the runway, but as the video shows, you didn't.

If you were in the Comanche, you probably would have overshot due to the more slippery airframe and flaps, but as a Skylane pilot, perhaps you were aware of the higher drag and steeper approach you could have made, as you did so.

A great video and a commendable job as pilot in command.

NOTE: I'm going to global post this for a bit to show that while both real and Accu-Sim airplanes are mostly reliable, you captured a small taste of what potentially awaits every GA Accu-Sim pilot. So don't take a properly running airplane for granted.

Also, to note, failures like this are persistent, so, it's possible that you made previous flights with this condition that could have been caught with the preflight exam before any of those flights. This may have been a failure just waiting to happen.

Scott.

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 31 Dec 2015, 09:33
by rosariomanzo
Scott, thank you for your reply and great advices too! I'll take even more care on next flight.
Thank you again for bringing so great addons.
Have a great new year.


Inviato dal mio GT-I9195I utilizzando Tapatalk

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 31 Dec 2015, 15:15
by CodyValkyrie
Where's the video?

Nevermind, found it by quoting the OP. Maybe because I'm on my phone it isn't showing?

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 01 Jan 2016, 10:07
by n421nj
Great video. These are the type of videos that I love watching. The only comment I would make is that it is hard to see when exactly the failure occurs. It would have been great if there was an audio commentary to the video explaining when the failure occurred, what was going through your mind, what you were doing to compensate, etc.

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 01 Jan 2016, 12:05
by rosariomanzo
Thanks Andrew!
I'll try to put some text on the video to show when the failure occurs.

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 02 Jan 2016, 11:32
by Piper_EEWL
That's what we all love about Accusim right? Really nice. I love that the simulation throws failures like that at you. Especially in that situation (on approach close to the ground) it was a very critical failure. Very good flying there!

Thanks for sharing the video!

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 04 Jan 2016, 08:12
by nojwod
Had exactly the same fault today into YSCB. Found it easy enough to compensate with rudder.

Note to the OP... have you thought about EZCA and TrrackIR to add the extra level of realism?

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 05 Jan 2016, 02:04
by rosariomanzo
Yes, many times! I only have to convince wifey! [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH AND TIGHTLY-CLOSED EYES]

Inviato dal mio GT-I9195I utilizzando Tapatalk

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg

Posted: 08 Jan 2016, 02:46
by tantonovich
Scott - A2A wrote:Rosario,

Great to see you managed to capture this on video. Accu-Sim GA airplanes are filled with these kinds of unexpected, realistic experiences just like their real world counterparts. The goal has always been to give that same impact you would have in the real world, as this is a true test of a pilot's (person's) ability to think clearly in this kind of situation.

There is always a period of denial when something like this happens, and how long that period is comes down to training and thinking clearly under pressure. Once you, as the pilot have determined the issue, you can then compensate and hopefully have a successful result. An aileron failure, fortunately, is one of the more gentle kinds of emergencies to experience, however there are several kinds of aileron failures - a jam, a break, or total failure. You experienced not the worst (a jam in the turn), but not the easiest either (a single break), but a jam that allows for level flight.

To analyze your response, first, you landed safely (and made a rather nice landing at that), which is commendable. It's hard to be critical, but if you were to nit pick, it would have been ideal to extend down your base more but this is really not a criticism and speaks to the first part I mentioned, and that is your quickness of thinking, which was quite quick. Sometimes failures trigger panic too, which the results can be tragic. However, you were unable to square off your base leg due to the failure, and at some point, you made a choice to go for the runway. This was a good choice, however, it would have been worse if you misjudged your distance and over-shot the runway, but as the video shows, you didn't.

If you were in the Comanche, you probably would have overshot due to the more slippery airframe and flaps, but as a Skylane pilot, perhaps you were aware of the higher drag and steeper approach you could have made, as you did so.

A great video and a commendable job as pilot in command.

NOTE: I'm going to global post this for a bit to show that while both real and Accu-Sim airplanes are mostly reliable, you captured a small taste of what potentially awaits every GA Accu-Sim pilot. So don't take a properly running airplane for granted.

Also, to note, failures like this are persistent, so, it's possible that you made previous flights with this condition that could have been caught with the preflight exam before any of those flights. This may have been a failure just waiting to happen.

Scott.
I really like the levels of detail and immersion that this brings up, specifically that this could have been caught on the preflight! What I wonder though, is what action would we take on the preflight to repair the issue if we happen to spot it?

Will it be obvious how we repair it if we do spot it?

I can understand that for reasons of maintaining the realism of the sim, you wouldn't want to give away spoilers, but I would like some confirmation that we can actually DO something about a problem if we spot it. One reason why I have doubts to this on the preflight procedure is that there appear to be buttons that don't do anything. For instance, I have a button that shows the engine cylinders when viewing the front of the engine, but I click and it does nothing. I would think it would zoom in and show the fins of the cylinders to inspect for clogs? Another example is the static port - same thing. Click the button - no action. Is this normal behavior or a bug in my installation? My Comanche, Cherokee and C172 (all P3Dv2 do this) do this.

In case it's not making sense what I'm getting at, here's a scenario: I am doing preflight in the sim and see that an aileron counterweight fell off. How would I "repair" this in my simulator?

Thanks guys, and awesome product!

TA

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 08 Jan 2016, 07:09
by Oracle427
If you observe a problem, the buttons that do nothing now will fix it then. This are things like tape over a static port, or a rag in the cowling. For the rest of the issues you need to visit the maintenance hangar. By conditioning you to look at it each time and do nothing you are potentially being conditioned to gloss over the details just as in real life. You need to keep carefully hunting for any changes and then click the button to fix it. You can click every button every time, but as you said nothing will happen, most of the time.

There are some exceptions to this such as checking the pitot heat, trim tab, flaps and fuel sumps.

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg

Posted: 19 Jan 2016, 01:22
by sax003
Scott - A2A wrote:Rosario,

Great to see you managed to capture this on video. Accu-Sim GA airplanes are filled with these kinds of unexpected, realistic experiences just like their real world counterparts. The goal has always been to give that same impact you would have in the real world, as this is a true test of a pilot's (person's) ability to think clearly in this kind of situation.

There is always a period of denial when something like this happens, and how long that period is comes down to training and thinking clearly under pressure.
Scott,

I was in denial just watching the video! My X52 controller is old, and the connector to the stick is pretty worn out, so at times it'll lose power and reset real quick. If I'm in a turn when it does this reset, the center point of the calibration will become whatever position I have the stick in when it turns back on. That's what I thought happened when his malfunction started. I saw his yoke go rapidly to the left, but not as easily to the right, which is characteristic of my malfunctions, so I wound up yelling at him in my head, "reset your controller! Just reset it!" It's good to see that you guys put so much attention into those small details. This makes every flight different, and I thank you for that! I guess one of the many things I've learned because of this video is replace your stuff when it wears out... Unless you're cheap, like me; then just tolerate the malfunctions and hammer it like old Russian equipment. Stick flies you, comrade :D

-Larry

Re: Left aileron failure on base leg [caught live on video]

Posted: 29 May 2016, 21:21
by a2aflyer84
amazing, i too today had a failure with my trainer. the left flap was broken and caused some control issues. amazing what technology can do to replicate these real life scenarios.