Flight Sim X: Landing With A Rudder Failure In Boeing 737-800 Part I

I decided I needed a challenge so I took off on the Boeing 737-800 in Flight Simulator X and levelled off at a few thousand feet. Then I made the rudder fail - FSX simulated the rudder being jammed while deflected in the full right position. Pretty soon I started to lose directional control of the plane.


All of a sudden I realised that the plane’s nose was pointed at roughly a 45 degree offset to the direction of travel! I suppose I could have tried to use the trim to control the plane but too bad I didn't know the shortcut key for that, and I had another idea anyway.

Yep you're right - I began to use the throttles to control the direction of the plane by manipulating each one independently. I was in the virtual cockpit view, and I had one hand on the joystick, and another hand on the mouse trying to change the power settings by dragging on the "throttle handles".


After doing this for a while, I did actually manage to land it without crashing, albeit not on a runway. The angle I landed at was so ridiculous it would probably not have been possible in real life.

In Part II of this post I’m going to post up a video of another attempt at landing without the rudder.