An ehhm, ..., interesting evening, to say the least
It all started with a bit of a delay due to all of us having Flight Logger issues discussed in another thread. After solving them, we (Peter, David, and myself) took off at around 2030Z. At that time, Gian came to join us from his flight from Atlanta to Bermuda, so we were with 4 already. Having to catch up, he used some accelerated time to Concorde his way to join the herd.
Climbing out, there were some patches of ground fog, but no significant weather.
En route, approaching GA, still climbing to avoid the terrain.
Upon approaching Cape Gloucester, some clouds appeared, with a cloud base initially at some 3000 ft. Later, near our destination, the ceiling dropped to 1100 ft. Or at least in my (XP10) environment. In XP10, runways are more difficult to discern than in FS9/FSX, and flying low does not help then! Luckily, Trevor had by then found his way to CPG / CGC, so his flashing beacon lights could serve as an initial guidance
Creating my own dust storm at the dirt strip of Cape Gloucester
As you can see, there are some differences in scenery between the sims.
After filing my PIREP, I tried to join the rest of the crew for a group picture moment. As they were all sitting in (or actually "over") the sea in my scenery, I had to go very close to the edge of the water. And, of course, I fell inn (lost my #1 prop in doing so).
Amazing how much buoyancy a DC-3 has, in X-Plane
Floating off into the sunset.
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At around half-way the trip, I lost both engines. Probably I overloaded them trying to catch up with Peter and David, at high altitude. Not a fuel issue, this time. Temperatures appeared to remain in the green, until the engines stopped.By then CHT gauges indicated 0. Either the gauges broke down, or some electrical failure had occurred, or the cylinder heads were actually really cold. Cannot determine that any more. But flying in mountainous terrain, without propulsion, that's not a preferred situation. AYGA was the nearest field, so I tried an emergency landing there. I did not have the gliding range, though (I kept her pretty neatly at best glide speed). But, lucky for me, the terrain in the vicinity of the airport was relatively flattened. A last minute gear-down, and full flaps to bleed off all possible speed, I gently touched down in a grass patty some 3 nm short of the airfield. Flightlogger found that I had landed (not at destination), not crashed, so I must have done it right.
After some quick repairs, I was soon ready to depart again. I would take the direct rout to CGC, deviating only to avoid the mountains. I ended up just ahead of Peter and David, while Gian had already Concorded past me to land as #1.
So, with the FL issues, the emergency landing, and the excursion on to the water, all in all quite an adventure. And that on a regular Monday evening ...
