Frolov's Dash-8 feedback!

[DMullert 216]

Hello Gang!I have had the pleasure of test driving Frolov's wonderful Dash-8 and I have to say that he has created one of the most wonderful freeware addons to date in the Flight Simulator series. Yes, the airplane at the moment has no liveries and looks like it just came out of the factory, but the flight model, the sounds, the handling, and the panel, are second to none. I have e-mailed Mr. Frolov with some of my initial observations in hopes that it helps him fine tune this beauty and make it the most awesome addon. Below are my observations for those that would like to concur and perhaps add.1. The sounds are magnificent. One problem is that the sounds come up as soon as you select the airplane from the aircraft menu, rather than coming up when the simulation starts. The same problem happens when you end a flight - the sound still goes on in the FS2002 menu until you select another aircraft.2. Reverse sounds are almost not existent. The Dash-8 has pretty loud reverse sounds. I don't know if there is anything you can do to enhance this. The same applies to flaps when being applied, especially on the ground - you cannot hear the flaps coming down.3. When the airplane is idle, it still moves forward on the ground.4. The throttle quadrant does not show propeller lever movement.5. I cannot get the airbrakes to auto deploy. Any ideas?6. The panel is very hard to read, even at 1024 X 768 resolution and because the buttons have no labels, it is very difficult to focus and get around the controls.7. Is there a way of getting the aircraft to start with the engines off rather than on when selecting?These are my observations at the moment. I will continue to test the beauty and report. I hope the painters get the brushes ready.Thanks a million to Mr. Frolov for this wonderful contribution to our hobby.Sincerely,Dennis D. Mullert

[Guest]

Dennis, In response to:1) This is a problem with most complex panels that are coded or have gauges that are coded to play sounds. When the sim loads the aircraft, it loads the panel, and those sounds are loaded and played, in turn.3) This was always a problem with turboprops in FS2002. There are numerous attempted fixes for this problem posted at http://www.fsgateway.com/tips.asp , the FS Vets Club Archive.4) The throttle quadrant actually does show movement of the propeller pitch levers. Until you start the engines, you cannot move the levers past that first notch. Afterwards, you should see some animation if you use the Ctrl+[F1-F4] keyboard shortcuts.5) Dash-8s don't have airbrakes, and this add-on only has some limited support for spoilerons.6) Mr. Frolov must have quite a large monitor to be able to read his own text! I find that by increasing the size of the panel windows, you can read the text more easily, at the loss of some screen 'real-estate,' however. Don't resize the throttle quadrant, however, as its impossible to find where the resize cursor appears on the sides.7) It doesn't look like it. This is the way the panel was designed, for a cold start, regardless of the flight you load. It's a bit of a pain for anyone who isn't a realism junkie. However, if you look on the bright side of things, it forces you to read the manual, and see what this amazing package has to offer!

[Guest]

The clearity of the panels seems to be in relation to monitor and video card. There is alot of detail in this model and it shows. I have two monitors and my 19" shows the detail alot better then my 15". Also my 19" has a much, much better video card. When I switched the cards to see what would happen the 15" did come in clearer but not great. The quality of this panel just shows in my opinion what flight simming is looking at in the future of where your system will have to be.http://members.shaw.ca/dan_cyxc/sigcard.jpg

[Guest]

I whole-heartedly agree that this is one of the most wonderful freeware packages ever to be released to date! I have longed for a Dash 8 package to be done with all the bells and whistles. And finally it is here. At last, someone has captured the authentic sounds of the Dash 8!! :-jumpy My biggest and only gripe with it is the fact that you need the Hubble telescope in order to read anything on the panel! ;-) I guess my pathetic 17" monitor just doesn't cut it for these high resolution panels? Sad really. I spent most of my time last night glued to the screen...literally! Not one word of a lie, I was maybe 4 or 5mm away from the screen while analyzing what looked like the panel ;-)In any case, this plane is simply awesome. Just gonna require some playing around with the panel until I learn where everything is. I really hope the author is able to lower the res for us folks with smaller monitors.Gord NoseworthyNewfoundland, Canada (CYYT)

[Guest A32X]

I agree, this package is wonderful! Only thing I would suggest for the next version is bigger panel bitmaps. I find it quite hard to read on my monitor, but thats it! This dash-8 is really super!

[Guest]

Hiya, Minimum Res for the panel is 1280X1024. That should fix ur problems! Sounds are great, and yes they do come with reverser sounds. Regards,Moses