Hi all. I’m not a pilot so excuse me if the answer to this question is obvious.
I was flying the Cessna Grand Caravan into some mountain airport in Nepal located 10,000 ft above sea level. On the approach, there was crosswind of up to 30 knots with quite a bit of gust. My plane kept bouncing and almost did a 180 flip. My IAS kept bouncing from 150 kts to 70 kts and back, I even stalled a few times but recovered. It was rough. But during the final, the plane felt like it had no power even though my nose was down and I had full throttle… so I stalled and crashed just short of the runway.
Is this normal-ish flight behaviour and to be expected when flying in the valleys of Nepal during high winds? Anything else I could have done?
[edit] With all that aside, it was a very exciting experience in VR.
I headed to Nepal in MSFS a few weeks ago. As I do, I learn about the region and read about the three famous airports: Kathmandu, Lukla, and Paro (which is very well represented in MSFS). Lukla flights are delayed often because of visibility and wind, and are seasonal. Usually the flights depart early in the morning, because that provides the “safest” window.
As far as your ride into the mountains…that could be very possible in that region that boasts the tallest mountains in the world - easily deflecting winds aloft that are hurricane force at those mid-20s into the valleys. Just think of a stong river flowing over a uneven bedrock and stones - causes white rapids. You can visualize it that way.
Interesting. So there is some level of realism in mountains but not in TCUs? It is hard from the description to say how realistic it is but that you had that kind of trouble sounds ok to me though there is no way any light aircraft I can fly can handle a 30 knot crosswind, especially if gusty. My real plane could do around 15 knot crosswinds before I ran out of rudder authority.
Flying in a bad storm can do similar, it sure does add excitement.
I had a flight in X-Plane where I knowing flew into a storm. I was at 7,000 feet I think it was. In 30 seconds I was inverted screaming towards ground feeling like I was in a washing machine. I pulled out at 200 feed above the water and my alt varied from ~200 feet to 3,000 feet very quickly with intermittent stalls as I tried to claw back some height. From memory I was doing that for 7 to 10 minutes before I got away from that storm cell. I’ve never worked so hard or had such an amazing experience. To think some pilots have experienced it even if they didn’t survive it.
I really wish storm weather (and when turbulence is valid) in MSFS was realistic!
For me the same situation with the TBM on final at Lukla airport. But my landing attempt it has gone very bad. The turbulence destroyed some aircraft surfaces. Everibody dies… Very difficult airport.