Aerosoft Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558 Posted February 23, 2011 Aerosoft Share Posted February 23, 2011 Now that is a strange image right? Let me explain, it's funny. Long long ago me and some friends used to organize something we called Interstate races. Those were large events were teams of flight simmers would compete for a trophy. This slowly evolved into what is the flightsim weekend in Lelystad right now, still the biggest event around flightsim (think our record was 6600 visitors). The image is from an interstate that was flown in a hotel in Germany. As many other Interstates this was a 24 hour race and the teams had to have at least 2 three men crews to fly the race. Now after an exiting start and a lot of hassle with networks and hardware, things normally settled down late in the evening. To make it possible to get some rest we always planned long legs during the night. It always was a very nice and relaxed time, with people walking around, chatting and just socializing. Visitors were welcome but at night we only had the occasional guest. During this Interstate race however we planned something special. We made sure that all aircraft were roughly at the same location and tried to get them as relaxed as possible. Around 03:00 things slowly started to unfold. All people in the Interstate team seemed to be around and one of us was with each team. Nobody noticed but we all had a small carton box with us. We chatted with the crew, asked them where they were, if all was going well. We even brought them something to drink. Then, without any warning, we all started to scream, "EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION, EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION, EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION EXPLOSIVE DECOMPRESSION". In the background other organizers were making sounds that were intended be be passengers that were choking. In fact they were actually choking, from laughter. The organizers behind the flight crews were still trying to confuse them as much as possible. Still shouting, playing cabin crew that tried to get information etc. They also held up the carton box above the crew and let the content drop out. Three small oxygen masks (we could not get 20 of the real big things) fall out. Now some crews (mainly those that were actual professional pilots) were already at work, but some (we still remember the complete freezing of a French team) were just to surprised to actually start solving the problem. They just sat there with big eyes and soft drink dripping into their shirts. When a crew did not put the 'oxygen masks' masks on we started to explain to them that they were about to pass out. Now the funniest thing happened. We saw several teams trying to communicate with each other. The pilot was pointing to the altimeter and said "Mwghhrghhh!!!" Think he intended to say something like "Let's get the hell down to FL100" but it sounded like "Mwghhrghhh!!!". The rest of the crew was making similar noises while pointing to other gauges. Very funny. As all the teams were down to safe altitudes and enroute to the nearest airport we sat down and discussed which team handled it best. They got bonus points. There was only one team that handled it all as we thought it should be done: Get the masks on (pilot in command might delay as he needs to start the descent)Start a fast descent to FL1000 (throttle back, max vertical speed, speed brakes when needed)Turn 45 degrees left or right (they were on air routes with possible traffic below them on the same course)PIC talks to cabin, PNF talks to air traffic control We had fun, when you like i can share some more war stories like that. Btw see the guy who use the mouse? He was a pilot in training at that time. Now he is captain on 747's. I said it was a long time ago! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerosoft Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558 Posted February 23, 2011 Author Aerosoft Share Posted February 23, 2011 One of the other organizers just reminded me that we planned to use fireworks and medium sized smoke generators for this. But we were a bit afraid the hotel would not have liked that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_Smith 1116 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Sounds like a damn good laugh. You could have simulated an attempted hijacking. Roll a couple of thunder flashes towards the teams, though I suspect this also wouldnt go down too well with the hotel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MyEmpire Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 fantastic story more storys like that please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaspis29 29 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Yeah this was for the laugh, I wonder does he still says mwrgggghhh during a decent, and for sure I would like to hear more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deputy Sheriffs Eric Bakker 736 Posted February 23, 2011 Deputy Sheriffs Share Posted February 23, 2011 We had fun, when you like i can share some more war stories like that. Btw see the guy who use the mouse? He was a pilot in training at that time. Now he is captain on 747's. I said it was a long time ago! We had a lot of fun indeed, back in 1996! But the guy with the mouse (a.k.a. as my team mate Jaap) was First Officer at B747's at the time, and is captain of A330's now. Eric Bakker, Captain of the GODS-team at Interstate 8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerosoft Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558 Posted February 23, 2011 Author Aerosoft Share Posted February 23, 2011 We had a lot of fun indeed, back in 1996! But the guy with the mouse (a.k.a. as my team mate Jaap) was First Officer at B747's at the time, and is captain of A330's now. Eric Bakker, Captain of the GODS-team at Interstate 8. I stand corrected. Jaap did not even shave at that time however. And before anybody comments, yes there was about 15 kg less of me at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limp 29 Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Funny story I hope they descended to FL100 and not FL1000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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