a fault). Octeville was now in view, and I had to think how to get Mike Lima down in one piece!
The aircraft was slipping considerably, although I had managed to straighten her up and point in roughly the right direction. Declaring a virtual emergency, I considered my options for landing. Although the wind was only 7 or 8kts, I decided a wing low forward slip on the crosswind runway was the only option, although I was very worried about ground looping when the nosewheel touched down.
Practice makes perfect, so I tried a dummy circuit (left hand of course!) at 1000' to see what sort of drift I would get in the slip. With the speed low enough, it looked as though she would crab in just fine, and the grass runway was wide enough to allow for errors. I turned onto the downwind leg and dropped the first stage of flap. I was just managing 80kts at nearly full throttle due to the slip. Not far past the threshold at 500' I dropped the rest of the flaps and commenced a 180 onto very short finals. I touched down well to the right of the centreline, at roughly 45kts - a go around was not an option - and with the yoke fully back I held the nosewheel off the ground for as long as possible. When it finally settled the speed had bled off to about 20kts, and she gently veered to the left of the runway before coming to a stop.
Boy was I glad to be on the ground. I checked the connections for my pedals and soon realised that the USB hub port they were plugged into was faulty - certainly relieved it wasn't the pedals. It just goes to show that even in a simulator a potentially disasterous fault can occur, and I certainly didn't want to bend Mike Lima at this stage of the journey!
