Dash-8 and FSX. Any complete success?

[Guest Agrajag]

I just installed FSX and it's running better than I thought it would. However, I am now very much missing my Dash-8. It's really the only plane I like. I also own the ATR72-500 but I find it way too complicated and a huge drag on resources.I installed the Dash-8 and made some minor changes and have it loaded in FSX but it's a bit of a mess. The overhead panel cannot be brought up without hitting SHIFT-7 and, worse, nothing on it works.I realize how old this plane is and have read the FAQ where PSS says they're not going to help with this. I saw posts from others saying that got it going back that was back in March. I suspect the service pack messed things up again.As it is, I now have a sim that looks interesting but no planes I want to fly in it.I don't like flying any of the complicated or heavy jets. The turbo props have been a good trade-off. I also own the PMDG 1900C and 1900D but they don't have any kind of FMC so that's one short of being really fun for me.

[Berlopez 33]

Realizing the model is a FS 2002-2004. I jsat attempted to nstall in FSX \Gold\Accel. with unsatisfactory results I'm afraid to say. Firstly the models prop are solid black.I have no idea how to fix this? Secondly the autopilot is very erratic and doesn't fallow simple commands like alt and heading???Thirdly but no a problems the thumbnails have to be made for each livery. Keeping these few minor details in mind, I wonder how other sytems would work? Like the FMC???In the end I uninstalled it...Until some solutions come out...

[Berlopez 33]

Is there any way of fixing these two details I mention above,to make the Dash flyable in FSX?ie: How can one change the textrs. for the props to be transparent. I know they're supposed to be .dds in FSX\SP2?Regarding the a/p erratic behaviur I suppose a tweaking of the a/p in the air.cfg file would be nessesary, Butwhere to beggin?Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Houghton11 12]

This is from a post I made wwaaaayyyy back in 2006

Posted 14 October 2006 - 02:36 PMJust thought i'd let you know about some tinkering ive done since I purchased FSX last week. I've had pretty good success with importing the Dash 8 into FSX: - I installed normally (pointed to FSX directory) with the PSS installer...aircraft.cfgs seem to have built sucessfully- Now the PSS installer places the aircraft in the FSX/Aircraft folder...not the new SimObjects/Airplanes folder...in order to avoid problems, i added the original aircraft folder to the FSX.cfg under the SimObjects lines... So upon the starting of FSX...I found two entries, the 300 and the -Q300... The -300 loads and starts up normally. An error initially appears when loading the DASH8.gau, asking if you want to trust this 'software'...select yes and no more messages after that... Unfourtunately, I had little luck with the Q300...after showing the same error above and selecting yes...a memory exception error pops up that ultimatley crashes FSX...this only happens once you have selected the A/C and FS begins loading the panel files...the model and textures display correctly in the preview window...hopefully this is something either the PSS team or someone with experience can tinker with the cfgs or .gau file and solve relativley easily. The fact that the normal 300 loads allright I hope means it is an easy fix...I miss my Honeywells! Flying wise...the -300 flies fine...if not on autopilot...the FMC and guages work correctly... Now to the autopilot. The autopilot quickly developes violent oscilations in lateral modes and appears to not work in the vertical modes...Now I believe this can actually be attributed to the vintage 3.xx version of FSUPIC i am using in FSX (a version 4 has not been released yet)...The FSUIPC forums talk of it feeding rather crazy and erroneous values to FSUIPC logs...so hopefully with an updated FSUPIC...the autopilot will be able to correctly interpret the data...

Here's a link to the original thread - http://forum.avsim.n...-compatibility/ I did have some success with the original FSUIPC 4 version back in the day. This important thing is adding the old flight sim aircraft directory to the [simobjects] heading in the FSX.cfg. (ie: FSX uses FSX root/simobjects/airplanes directory for it's aircraft...FS2004/2002 used MSFS root/aircraft).

[Berlopez 33]

"This important thing is adding the old flight sim aircraft directory to the [simobjects] heading in the FSX.cfg. (ie: FSX uses FSX root/simobjects/airplanes directory for it's aircraft...FS2004/2002 used MSFS root/aircraft)". Now I'm lost,Lost. I'll keep using my PAD Dash 8 model for FSX...It's preatty good.Thanks Patrick Again is there a way to fix the prop textures so that they are not solid black? A simple way???

[deeknow 10]

Have you taken a look at the Majestic Dash8 for FSX? Is a better model than the PSS and has varying levels of complexity depending on how much you want to pay. I too missed the pas when I switched to FSX but am now a happy camper running the Majestic modelBtw there are plenty of tutorials out there for fixing the prop color, do a google search, or search these forums, basically involves an alpha mask and making the prop color almost opaqueSearch for prop_fix.zip at flightsim.com by David Marshall

[Berlopez 33]

Thanks deeknow, I'll have a look at it and see if it's worth my while to reinstall the PSS dash,again. i uninstalled because I already have a good fleet of addons... And as yu can see in my prof. My machine isn't very big.

[Berlopez 33]

No it isn't tried all systems too many failures a/p doesn't responde to any commands, the only thing that is nice about it SP2 is the landing lights,which sometimes are a problem with some addons, like Legacy,CitationX...generally wilco products.I've uninstalled using control panel, and deleted the netry form the FSX.cfg file with the .GAU. And continue to use the PAD model instead. Looked in to the textures folder to see if I could locate the propdisc texture to attempt to fix it with my DXTbmp but unable to locate?Don't want to hastle more with it.