A frantic first day with may aircraft in the air all at once. At the Club's desks, we on staff were kept busy compiling the reports from our observers in the field. We had several incidents that need some attention. Perhaps this may not be as easy as I had hoped…
Up the circular staircase, climbing heavily as I clutched a manila folder full of telegrams. They didn't shoot the messenger from Marathon, did they?
I knocked, entered, and gingerly handed Miss Nellie the bundle of problems. She looked at her watch, sighed, and commenced to read the first case.
After a while, she motioned for me to sit down.
1. First, the straightforward falcon409 crash on landing at Rome's LIRA. (EGUN-LIRA) This was apparently due to a scenery anomaly. While expressing our sympathies, there is little that the staff can do to change the result.
Ruling. The first crash-on-landing is a simple 15 minute penalty.
2. Willy had the dreaded "Duenna forgets to pick up the baton" experience. (LFPB-LFML) According to the pilot's testimony, the "Autoarm" button was ticked but the program did not do as expected. A glitch of course, but then it is the responsibility of the pilot to get the Duenna running properly. Happily, in this instance the pilot remembered to take a screenshot of his "Flight Analysis Screen" which can, in some circumstances, serve as a substitute for the Duenna. The young man is lucky on this instance as everything indicates that all was well with the flight. Be he should not believe that he can continue repeating this mistake.
(It should be noted that we have one pilot who cannot make the Duenna work on his machine. We are allowing him to substitute the Flight Analysis Screen for the Duenna simply because his computer will not cooperate. His special circumstance is distinct from the normal pilot who forgets to engage the Duenna or has a Duenna malfunction.)
Ruling. We shall accept the Screen Analysis screenshot in this instance. The leg stands.
3. Ron Attwood had two problems. (YMEN-YBCV) The first was an Out of Memory error (OOM) as he departed Essendon while using the Orbx scenery. This experience led to the NOTAM recommending that pilots using the full-fat Orbx Australia be sure to turn down their scenery settings when departing from or arriving at Essendon. Being a computer-only problem, the pilot simply reported the incident and restarted the leg. A non-event.
The second problem is a computer-controller glitch en route. At one moment, when the pilot was shifting from the internal view to the external view (using a programmed button on his controller), the aircraft surprising refilled the tanks with fuel. Those on the scene attest to the pilot's shock and puzzlement. A close examination of the Duenna confirms the report. The accidental refueling, in this case, did not have an impact on the nature of the leg, which was much shorter than the aircraft's full-fuel range. Seeing no possible competitive advantage, and accepting the testimony of the witnesses, we rule that this was one of those computer glitches that do not present any difficulty. Note, however, that this glitch cannot continue to plague the run. The pilot should make an effort to understand why the "view shift" button produced a refueling with this particular aircraft. He should effect a remedy.
Ruling. The leg stands as filed.
4. Spartan pilot spokes2112 reported a crash-on-landing on his arrival at Athens LGTT. (EGUN-LGTT) (He is using the Jaap van Hees vintage MacRobertson scenery.) Verbal testimony at the time, using vigorous language, indicated that the pilot had hit a building in the darkness. The Duenna record shows the pilot in the process of landing at the field, some 40 feet above the runway. The leg had been completed and the pilot was in the final circuit. This is a crash-on-landing.
Note that this "final circuit" or a "short finals" are distinct from a descent or "distant" approach, say several miles out, in which a pilot might hit a mountainside. This second situation is a "mid-air" incident rather than a "crash-on-landing" and carries a more consequential penalty (1 hour penalty plus the need to re-fly the leg).
Ruling. The first crash-on-landing is a simple 15 minute penalty.
5. Beech Boy 2 jt_dub experienced a computer failure but was able to persist. While en route, flying on multiplayer, he was cut from the server. Both FSX and the Duenna froze. Eventually, FSX restarted as though it were normal. The Duenna asked if the pilot would like to continue offline and he replied in the affirmative. The leg continued and was ended successfully with the Duenna tracking the event throughout. The Duenna record does show when the real time weather ended and when it restarted.
The evidence is entirely consistent with the pilot's report. The pilot will have lost a few minutes' time when his FSX was frozen. But the implied invalid leg is entirely explained by the events.
Ruling. The pilot has the option of re-flying the leg or accepting the slightly less optimal leg as it stands. (The pilot has indicated that he will accept the finished leg.) The pilot should not worry about it.
6. Pilot falcon409 has shifted aircraft from the Flying Stations Mew Gull to the Spartan Executive. This is fine. He should inform the staff as to which Spartan Executive he has chosen. (The Milton Shupe FS9 version ported to FSX or the FSNW (authorized) translation of the Shupe Spartan into native-FSX format? Note that the two aircraft have slightly different Handicap Allowances.
Ruling. The pilot may switch aircraft. The only consequence is that the entry is not eligible to win a prize. The pilot understands this.
Miss Nellie firmly pushed the report across the desktop toward my seat. I lifted it and slowly returned to cable the decisions to the racing community. This is going to be a learning experience, I optimistically thought.
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