My next flight took me over the Appalachian Mountains to another one of Doherty's Difficult and Dangerous approaches, one that definately deserves the title. I took off and climbed to 2000 feet. The first three quarters of the flight passed uneventfully. A ridge was coming up fast, and I was clearly too low. As I tried to pull up, the controls felt numb. I had accidentally engaged the autopilot, which at the time I hadn't thought to disengage. Not realizing this, I crashed into the Appalachian Mountains. The game then returned me to Lanseair Farms. Not wanting to repeat the two hours of flight I had already completed, I used the map to move me to the approximate location of where I was before the crash. This time I successfully climbed over the mountains, and continued on towards Balcony Downs. Ready to get this flight behind me, I entered the base leg for Runway 35, a 1200 foot grass strip. Landing on a small grass strip isn't easy, and compounded with my skill level at the time, probably wasn't a great idea to attempt at night. After several go-arounds this seemed to be the case. After coming in too high, I decided I'd put the plane on the ground no matter what. Putting the plan in a near nose dive, I missed the runway completely and crashed into the surrounding clearing. It was time to stop for the night.
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| MD97-VA43 |
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