Flightgear Plane Download : 787-8

  I downloaded the 787-8 manually from work and after some difficulty, installed it on my computer at home with a USB drive. Loaded up for a test flight, in its Boeing Dreamliner livery, what a beauty.

  First "test" is to pushback, taxi out into an empty spot, and look through all the cockpit systems, test out the flaps, spoilers, thrust reverse, engine, aileron and rudder. Looks great. Position it on the runway, check flaps, brakes on, throttle up, release brakes, roll down the runway. Awesome. The animations are very nice, the nosewheels turn, on rotation the rear wheels angle upwards.

  Unlike the FG 777, the FG 787 is doesn't jump off the runway with ease, and seems to require a little bit longer runway than the Triple Seven. However, it does get off into the air nicely, and once in the air flies smooth and easy.

  A short round trip in the air and got back in for a landing. I set the autobrakes setting to "2", and lined up nicely with the runway with surprising ease, checked the speed and it's about 140knots. Seemed like my best approache so far, every is right. HOWEVER, upon touch down (a little long, thanks to my flare that kept it in the air for a little bit longer) about a few feet from the runway numbers I activated the thrust reverse, spoilers, added some power, waited for a bit and......

  Wait.... it's not stopping. OK, add more thrust. Brakes. Slowing, but still not stopping.. brake, brake, end of runway is fast approaching... in that panic I activated the parking brakes... but the plane went off the end of the runway.

  So imagine, the 787-8, with the nose poking into scenery just off the runway, and the tail still within airport boundary, slightly nose down position (runway elevation is slightly higher). How embarrassing.

  To save from the situation I thrust reversed out back onto the runway, which must've looked real funny to any bystanders.

  It seems to fly very although obviously I have never flown a 787 IRL (or any aircraft in real life, for that matter), but I'm may have screwed up the approach. Perhaps I let the speed increase during the approach, resulting in my overshoot.

 Comparisons: From what I could see, the 787 has the advanced stuff (such as Electronic Flightbags, Fly-by-Wire, etc.), and a great failure management system but then again I have to get familiar with the plane more to provided a better summary.

Download it here

AWESOME Approach

Check this video out.

In just under 4 minutes, the pilots of this Dornier went from cruise to taxiing on the ground. They even beat the skydivers to the ground. The moment the last skydiver jumped out the pilots put the plane into an inverted dive straight downwards, flew just above treetop level, and did a really FAST APPROACH, SWEEPING TURN at nearly 90degree and set the plane down onto the runway without missing a beat (or overshoot, or crashing).

THAT IS AMAZING. And also, very dangerous. BUT AMAZING.

They dove straight after the last skydiver jumped but I found it scary that it looked like they were diving straight into those sky divers.



Another angle:

A Scenic Flight Ends with Overrun

I was practicing my flying in FlightGear last night and just circling the airport and it was getting late - so, instead of exiting the flightsim I do what any hardcore simhead would do; turn back to the airport, and land.

Land I did. In my hurry to land and go back to sleep, I made multiple mistakes - approaching the airport too high, and as a result I had to basically dive the plane into approach; this came in way too fast to the airport, and made a series of careless turns to align with the runway.

The end result? I went onto the runway with idle engines, but the airspeed still going at 170-180 kias, floated above the runway for a while while the speed bled off, hit the runway unevenly past the midway point, and realizing the brakes were not doing the job I used the parking brakes - and I still went off the runway for quite a distance before I stopped.

Needless to say the CitationX I was flying got stuck in the ground. That was when I exited FlightGear.

If this were real life I would've not only gone off the runway, but hit various obstacles like trees people and buildings. Not good.

Lesson? Don't rush the landings. It would be OK in sims but certainly not OK in real life.