Best not to let that happen again!

While i was flying from KSTL to KHOU, in a DC-9. The earlier test  flight seemed like things were going wrong and I couldn't get an altitude hold and speed hold and my gear would not go up.  Took off again and same thing happened. It turned out it was my hydraulic pump that I had turned off or I had forgotten to turn on. The throttles also we're not controlled probably and were pushing the aircraft way to the right. Later in the day I start another flight and doing the same leg and was able to change the throttle to allow it to control itself, and to be syncronysed but I still not able to get an altitude hold or a speed hold. So I flew half the flight with my hands and keyboard.  I flew on VatSim and had a few controllers online.

 They were OK with me altering my altitude during the flight multiple times since I cannot hold the altitude. The landing was interesting as there was no flaps working at the time It was slower than normal speed for landing as you know we have to be at 150 knots or closer, if we go way under 150kts the aircraft decends rapidly and you coukd crash. I turned off the runway and taxied into the gate. I am happily glad to be alive after that!  That made me think of a series I could create on this blog. Maybe I start doing stories of harrowing pilot skills and talk about interesting moments while I was flying that are out of the blue. I think a lot of us virtual pilots forget about those moments that we wonder what the plane is doing and always forget to have things setup correctly and we have to use a different protocol or a different way to get it on the ground.  Virtual pilors dont usually share this information but I think it's a bit of a moment to look at how every different virtual pilot flies. I rarely have events like this happen because i usually know what's going on and I know what to do when things happen. 

  I rarely get these  moment so I thought I'd pass this along and tell the  story of what occurred.  Some times when these events happen I think is the outgoing results that the TV channel would take if they're reporting on Each issue would be interesting to think through. Kind of like watching  May day or aircraft crash information Shows on TV. Think of the the ways that they could report  The incident. Kind of makes you think. 

 Anyways until next time 
Darren Elliott   Singer/songwriter