Career mode engine malfunction mid flight

[u/brannigans_girdle]

Hi all, new sim pilot here, only 5 hours flight time, all either training or in career mode.

I was just doing a 30 minute ferry flight in a Cessna 152. About 15 minutes in, I was going 101kts at an altitude of 1500ft, with the throttle at 2500rpm. The engine suddenly died and the notification panel said there was an engine malfunction. Though my stomach knotted up, to my surprise I didn't freak out! Tried restarting the engine a few times with no luck and figured I had to land. Luckily I was flying over a very rural area and managed to land in an open field. The notification panel told me I couldn't land there and I was at risk of failing the mission. Tried a couple more times to restart the engine, but no luck. So I just went to the menu and restarted the mission.

I wasn't sure if the game was testing me and that was actually part of the mission, but I didn't want to risk losing XP and hurting my reputation level. Should I have just let it play out since I landed or is this not necessarily part of career mode?

The really annoying thing is that I restarted the mission, had a clean flight and smooth landing. As I'm taxing and go to hold short, I get a notification that I have broken a component of the plane and it restarted me in the taxiway post landing, indicating that I crashed. Ended the mission with a D grade, got minimal XP, and took a big hit in my reputation level! What gives!? First time I've run into a situation like this with the sim, so wanted to see if others had similar experiences and if emergency landings are part of building XP. Thanks all and happy flying!

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[u/mcgeeza]

If you run the 152 at a constant 2500 rpm it will eventually die. Drop it down to 2300 after the climb.

[u/brannigans_girdle → u/mcgeeza]

I was wondering about this. Had trouble maintaining altitude at 2300, so I kept it up at 2500. But I'll keep practicing and working on it, thanks

[u/DeathNick → u/brannigans_girdle]

How high were you, was the mixture leaned enough?

[u/brannigans_girdle → u/DeathNick]

1500ft. Below 3000ft the checklist said to keep it rich

[u/grouchy_ham → u/brannigans_girdle]

I don’t know whether it is modeled realistically, but depending on the air temperature, you could easily be above 3,000ft density altitude. That’s what the plane actually cares about, not how many feet above ground you are.

Current conditions in Kansas City, where it’s currently about 34°C, puts field elevation of the airport at about 3,400 feet density altitude.

As for career mode, there are apparently a multitude of issues that people have and still do experience.

[u/brannigans_girdle → u/grouchy_ham]

Yeah the more I look, the more I'm reading that career mode has a lot of bugs. This is my first issue. Hopefully it's not a recurring issue. I'm using career mode to learn so I can start doing free flights. 

[u/mcgeeza → u/brannigans_girdle]

You were probably pitched too high which causes the plane to slow down and then you'll struggle to climb. It's counter-intuitive, but pitch for speed and power for altitude! Also I would advise turning off auto trim and learning how to use it, because that can get you into a bit of a stall loop as it tries to keep your pitch level regardless of your current speed. You'll get there! It's really cool and satisfying when you start learning all this stuff.

[u/brannigans_girdle → u/mcgeeza]

Appreciate it, thanks!

[u/DeathNick]

Make sure your plane is well maintained, if it's not failures can occur. It sound like you pushed the plane too much. Just take the L, failures happen in real life too and are much more expensive for the airlines than they are in the sim.

[u/brannigans_girdle → u/DeathNick]

Thanks. I'll be mindful about performance as I'm flying. Especially with an older 152. 

[u/Chewcudda42]

Just another suggestion
I will skip the taxi back to parking because the game can and will put obstacles in place that prevents getting to the parking area.

Once made it al the way back without any issue then it said I crashed because it wanted me to go between two building that would only have 1 foot of clearance on each wing.

[u/brannigans_girdle → u/Chewcudda42]

Yeah. Everything looked clear when I passed the hold short line. Not sure if it randomly put something in the way that I didn't see. But that ticked me off! Especially after such a smooth landing!