I had an almost successful flight tonight, (DAL 2048), and thought it might be an interesting object lesson, or at least vaguely entertaining. I was flying KLAX to KSEA, and the trip up until approach phase went reasonably well. I was pleased to see that the plan I downloaded from Simbrief included all the waypoints of the SID I had been assigned, and assumed the same would be true for the Star. In retrospect, I should have realized it wouldn't.
My problems started when I somehow ended up going 400+ kts over the ground, when I should have been at 250 or below. I have no idea what happened with my program's airspeed control, the indicated airspeed was reading correctly, but it didn't really seem to be slowing down.
I reached the point when my waypoints ran out, and I was trying to figure out how to fly the approach manually. I didn't succeed, and ended up being vectored out for an ILS approach. If this were the real world I probably would have been required to talk to somebody from the FAA at that point.
The final frustration came when I tried to intercept a localizer which didn't exist in my default scenery. As a blind pilot, scenery is generally the last thing I worry about in any case, and it didn't occur to me that I might want an update for it. I flew through the localizer twice before asking ATC if I had the wrong frequency. I finally ended up disconnecting when I felt as though the whole situation were about out of my control, and I was almost out of fuel.
In retrospect, I need to figure out a couple things, firstly what happened with my airspeed, and what I can do about stars. I have access to an alternative autopilot program, FSXPilot, which claims to be able to fly SIDS and Stars automatically. I have yet to try it online.
I very much want to get back in the air again, maybe even successfully carry out this flight. I'm left feeling a little upset, mostly at myself, because I felt like I could have handled things a little better somehow. I guess I should either just get updated scenery for big airports I want to fly through, or just remember to tell the controller I'm using default now I know it's a potential issue.
The SID/Star question is a difficult one. Maybe I should try FSX Pilot online one day and see if it works as I'd expect. Conventional wisdom among blind pilots is that they're difficult to impossible for us to fly, but I see no reason why that has to be the case.
Thanks for putting up with this rambling
The audio archives will immortalize this particular Delta flight for posterity. Hoping I can get up in the air again soon.