ChrisCooper
Established Member
I've recently got hold of X-Plane, and have been doing a bit of flying with it. This evening I decided to do a short hop from Norwich to Cardiff with a Saab 2000 I'd just downloaded. I loaded the flight into the FMC, pushed back, started the engines, and on getting clearance taxied to the runway. Once there I lined up and got clearance for takeoff. After a quick check I advanced the throttles, released the brake and was off. At about 130 knots I rotated and BANG flew straight into a flock of birds. The plane banked to the right, and a quick glance showed the right hand engine had failed. I was loosing height, despite full throttle and fighting to keep it in a straight line (i suspected more than the engine was out, but later checks showed this not to be the case), just a few hundered feet from the ground. I decided there was no chance of getting it back to the airport so I brought it down in a field just north of the airport. Hate to think the damage and loss of life had it been real. Just shows the risk from bird strikes, particularly at critical stages of flight like take-off and landing, aswell as the realism of the sim. Also, nice to have a crash that isn't due to my poor flying (although maybe someone better could have recovered, but I really can't think what I could have done differently in the few seconds I had).
