Aerosoft Twin Otter

[MarkH]

Some people will know I have been building a sort-of-cockpit around the Aerosoft Twin Otter Extended. I am still getting familiar with the aircraft but I thought I would share a bit of recent coolness. I was tooling around Orbx-land yesterday, trying to get to grips with VoxATC and setting up on the approach to Skagit Regional. I was also using real weather with Active Sky Next. Just as I was about to turn final, another aircraft (a Mooney, I think) whizzed by in front of me. Presumably I hadn't been paying enough attention to the Unicom. Shortly after that I lost control and the aircraft entered a spin. I recovered and went on to land. I don't recall doing anything too wrong with the aircraft and checking the ASN documentation I am pretty convinced that this was a wake turbulence effect! But what's really cool, I had also had the Twin Otter's Flight Data Recorder turned on and I loaded the track into Google Earth. You can see the encounter in the following two snaps.

This is an overview of the pattern entry, near miss and subsequent landing.


And this is a closeup of the catastrophic bit. I guess the near-miss was in that dip in the inner track, as I was descending and just about to turn final.



So there it is. I don't know which is cooler, the Twin Otter FDR or ASN simulating wake turbulence from AI traffic! If you want to see my cockpit, check out the video below. There's also a playlist if you want to see some stuff about the build.