Disaster in the sky!
 

I'm 44 years old, and I fly simulations since 1987 when subLogic released Flight Simulator II for Amiga. What happened today, has never ever happened to me before.

I just have finished to renovate by flat from A to Z. It lasted almost 4 weeks. In March I got a new PC, installed almost all stuff I have, but have not flown the installed FS9, which I run heavily modded. Before March, I have not flown FS9 for many months.

Today I decided that it was time to dig myself into the finetuning and options-squeezing again, and finally, after a long time, did a flightplan from FS Commander for EDDG to EGLL, with my old and trustworthy Level-D Boeing 767 (in Lufthansa livery :D ).

So far, so good, I had to read back in the manual on two occasions, to get the IRS aligning and figure out what "%MAC" was meaning, that called the AES staff to prepare my position for takeoff. I rolled, I waoited for some sleepy Cessna to land, and was admiring my beloved old sim running with superfluid frames and details and traffic managed via Traffic 2005 maxed out. Finally I took off on 25. I climbed to FL120, then FL220, and managed to switch through all those many air control stations. So much I had forgotten meanwhile, but seeing it all returning to my mind piece by piece, and letting me run not superfluent but at least flawless operations and procedures so far.

And then.

I just had passed VOR REK and just had reached FL300, when suddenly the TCAS went crazy, I looked on the display and saw several dots around me, but two of them close together, turning from white to yellow and approachign fast directly from my 12 - directly heading for me, straight on. I gazed out through the windshield, and saw them ahead of me, and after some seconds was sure that while they both would directly hit my position, they nevertheless would do that at a slightly higher altitude. Nevertheless I had to make decisions, and I sent the AP into a dive to lose some altitude, then I decided different, hit the disengage button and manually dived for safety. The planes, two transports, passed directly over me, maybe 300-400 feet higher.

And then I got hit from the left, a direct slamming, nonforgiving, totally lethal full impact into the frontal third of my aircraft, crashing right into me and sealed my doom by making me spiraling down in smoke and fire...

What I had not seen on the TCAS screen with my attention all focussed on those contacts approaching from the front, that obviously a THIRD airliner at my altitude also was precisely aiming at my position, and hit me with with full speed.

I will never ever believe again that the sky up there is almost empty, and that it is a free space impossible to get overcrowded. Today I had four jets at 30000 all at travelling speeds of 300 knots, all meeting at the same second in the same couple of qubic meters of empty air. If I wouldn'T have evaded, I would have collided with TWO planes from my front, and while I evaded them, I nevertheless collided with another.

20+ years of simulated flying did not prepare me for this and did not save me! Sometimes, you just can do what yiou want - you're just screwed.

Watched the event in replay afterwards, from the outside. It looked as if a SAM all of a sudden slammed into me.

Good job it's only a sim :doh:


Announcement - Your captain today is Skybird... :smug:


Passengers - Aaaaaaargh! :o

You can't win
You can't break even
You can't get out of the game

:haha:

I'm lucky not to have had any mid-air collisions in FS, mostly because I either stick around at low altitudes, or if I have the SR-71 I'm at stupid altitudes. Had my fair share of landing problems though... :hmmm:

I can't imagine you doing anything but Diveing. Maybe banking Left or Right while diveing and slowing Dive. Which you don't want.


Until Saitek comes up with a FF Yoke I, won't be Flying the Big Boys. .:haha:

haha, only time that's ever happened to me has been in multiplayer being flown at by my mates in P51s :D