Landing without control surfaces

[uwespeed]

In 2003 a DHL Airbus 300 was hit by a missile after departure at Baghdad airport. All 3 hydraulic systems, and thus the elevator, aileron and rudder failed. Nevertheless, the pilots managed to control and land the plane only by applying asymetric thrust.

A different disaster was Japan Airlines flight 123, also with failing hydraulics similar to the DHL flight. Unfortunately in the Japan Airlines flight, only 4 out of 524 people survived.

As I don't have a (virtual) A300 and don't claim being able to do such things with an A300, I tried this with the default Beech Baron of X-Plane - admittedly not in Baghdad, but in Santorini (a runway is a runway though, independant where it is located).
In the first attempt, I crashed about 150 m before the runway, in the second attempt I crashed 2-3 meters near the runway, in the third attempt I crashed on the runway and finally in the fourth attempt ... but see for yourself - watch the yoke and the pedals, they don't move, only the engine levers.

Who would like to try this oneself?   It's fun, which I don't want to have in reality, only in the sim ...

 

 

P.S. Due to video driver issues the water reflections look a bit weird and I had 2 slight stutters

[Goran_M]

It would be far more impressive if you did it in FSX.

(tongue firmly planted in cheek!)

[momix2000]

Great job! :-)... Love the vid!:-)

[lizz]

Hi Uwespeed,<br />I tried it with the Carenado Baron and it's remarkable how much control you have with the throttles only. I could fly the approach but the landing itself was not exactly a walk away.<br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[uwespeed]

My first attempts also weren't exactly a walk away . The easy part is to pilot left/right, the (much) more difficult part is to control - and reduce - the descent rate to a decent value (but again not too much), especially close to landing.

 

Yesterday evening I did some more flying, this time not only an approach, but more or less the simulation of the DHL A300 incident (still with the Baron). I started and during climb at 1500 ft, I released all controls - it will be fairly visible. After the 3rd attempt, I stopped due to lack of time.

 

Video should be available in about 45 minutes.

 

[jdgier]

What about propsync? On or off?

Jan