Vatsim story, woe's of technology

Steve Asp and I did flight 2411, Den-Slc, last night. I started off late; of course...and Steve was rushing me to get my fp sent in and clearance. We had Denver Tower up, and Denver Center. I was gearin up the A318; Steve was in our company Lear. It's been awhile since I flew this baby scarebus....lets see, fuel loading, baggage....bagging, FO "smith" going over checklist, me....where the hell is the thermous? Doors all open, nav lights on, aerilons "drooped" (hmmm, shift-f, wingfold command). Steve had his clearance was was taxiing to rw 8. Tower gave me PB/SU and call for taxi. So, after the fuel line was disconnected, main cabin doors shut, 2ndary doors shut, becon on, luggage doors shut; the baggage carts left....tug hooked up. Man, looks like Im ready for pushback! Once in position, I cranked up the CFM engines, all looks good, one notch of flaps, called for taxi. "SPA niner, clearned to taxi rw08, follow company traffic". "Roger tower, taxi rw08, following company traffic, SPA niner". Taxi lights on and here we go! After a nice 5 minute taxi, watching Steve depart and go to Center; I held short rw08; just as a 767 (Canada Air) pulled up behind me. "Tower, SPA niner holding short rw 08". Tower gave me the winds, departure direction and cleared me for takeoff. Ok, here we go, taxi lights off, landing on, strobes on, trim set, lets roll....hmm, seems like Im forgeting something....doors all closed, flaps, trim....oh well, its now or nothing. So, I goose the trottles.....90, 110, 120, 140, rotate.....ROTATE....OH CRAP ROOOOTAAAATEEEE....no go, I go off the end of the runway, sparks a flying. "Denver Tower, SPA niner experienceing takeoff problems, aborting takeoff, will slew back to gate".....then I PM steve, he asks what happened. I get back to the gate, do an outslide look....what the? The aerilons are drooping....OH CRAP, FORGOT TO SHIFT+F to undroop....I guess this really has an affect on the dynamics of the bird! So, I "undroop", re-taxi, take off, no more issues....at this time Steve is 100 + miles ahead....and there's no catching up to the sleek lear. We cross into SLC space, no center, but SLC Approach is online. Did I mention, at Denver, Steve and I could see each other...visually and on FSNAV. About 150 miles out, I decide to switch to SLC app to listen in on Steve's approach....did a great job! About 60 miles out on the Spane4 arrival, I contact approach and we get all set up. 40 miles out, aircraft start poping up on my FSnav...lets see, a JetBlue bird, and a Delta bird....hey, where's Steve? I PM him...."are you still online"...he says "yea, are you?" lol....yea I am, 20 miles out and landing. LONG story longer....for some reason, we couldn't see each other, but could see the other aircraft....oh brother! Well, he logs off, I land, taxi to Alpha terminal and just as Im logging off, another SPA bird appears.....Chris, I think it was you!.

So, thats my story, Im stickin to it. All the controllers that night were pretty damn good....next flight? Who knows, but I'm sure it will be an event to remember!

Sounds like a great flight, once you got off the ground.

I remember doing an online flight in the A318 just with SPA boys and I only had one engine running..Very ugly

Eric, actually all the Vatsim Servers are linked....meaning, if I lived in Asia I use the asian server....it doesn't matter where you fly, you should be able to see all pilots. At least thats how it was explained to me....could have changed...but hey; what do I know.