I picked up the Majestic Q400 late last night (Pacific Time in the USA), and I have been really enjoying it so far.  The Q400 is quite similar to the PMDG J41 in a lot of ways, but still rather unique in a number of others.  I have not had a chance to read through all the documentation yet, but I did complete the tutorial today.  For the most part, I didn't think the tutorial was too bad, but it is written in such a way that it is probably more intuitive if you have had prior experience with turboprops, such as the J41.  If you are new to the realm of flying a turboprop, you will probably be a bit lost in the beginning.  It would be nice if the tutorial did a better job of explaining certain things.

 

Took me three tries to complete a successful proving flight from KPDX-KSEA today - using the Alaska/Horizon livery, of course.  The first time, I made the mistake of attempting a flaps 35 landing, and the plane went into an unrecoverable spin when my airspeed dipped a bit too low.  The second time, I stuck with flaps 15, but again, my airspeed dipped a little too low when I was focusing my attention on something else.  (Common with me when I am learning a new plane...sigh.)  The third time, I kept my airspeed on final descent right around 140-150 KIAS, and glided into a pretty easy landing on 34L at KSEA.  Don't count on an easy go of recovering the plane if you stall - I'm not sure if this is how the real Q400 is, but it was pretty much game over for me whenever I stalled it in the sim.

 

I have not quite mastered VNAV descents yet, though.  I wish that were explained a little better in the tutorial.  For my third (and successful) attempt at landing at KSEA today, I just armed my new lower altitude using ALT SEL, then selected IAS mode, and descended at around 220-240 KIAS.  Worked reasonably well for me, although I have no idea if this is how real world Q400 pilots do it.

 

I have noticed a few very minor glitches, but nothing that really got me very worked up.  The main one for me was trying to figure out how to set on TCAS mode to TA/RA.  Once I realized that the usual FSX shortcuts to set altimeter or transponder squawk code don't really work here, it was not a big deal to maintain those settings on my own.  Just adds to the realism, I know.

 

Kudos to the Majestic Software crew on job very well done on this one.  I know I will be enjoying the Q400 for quite some time to come.  I sure do hope McPhat or somebody does a really great livery pack expansion for this - I would love to see the Frontier animals (even though they don't use the Q400 anymore) and all the various Alaska/Horizon special liveries, including the college teams and the green machine livery.

Agreed about the Horizon repaints, very beautiful. It's too bad there isn't good quality payware PDX and SEA airport scenery, so I'm sticking to Europe. A lot of great routes flown by Flybe, Luxair, Air Berlin, etc.

Agreed about the Horizon repaints, very beautiful. It's too bad there isn't good quality payware PDX and SEA airport scenery, so I'm sticking to Europe. A lot of great routes flown by Flybe, Luxair, Air Berlin, etc.

 

Can you put the real routes for Europe of these companys? With Flight Plans?

I don't have any flight plans, there are some saved that come with the aircraft though. For Europe I just use

 

http://www.vatroute.net/

 

And I just find routes on Flightaware or Flightstats (Better EU coverage)

I think operating throttles without looking at those are tricky and confusing.

Maybe in future service pack developer can add some small feature same as Caravelle for FS9 had.

Somewhere in convenient place small digital representation of throttle position can be added.

For example "0" will be for "Disc" position.

When u move throttle forward digital indication will show increased numbers, for reverse numbers will be shown with minus values.

In this way it will be easy to control throttles and levers position without moving ur eye from looking forward.

Worth of considering ?

 

On the ground, when you choose disc I'm sure that the ground propeller range is showing digits.

You can hear it also..

 

For the people asking about tcas

 

Press and hold the select key at the arcdu at atc for 2 secs and you are good. If you want to switch tcas modes press at atc and press 'exp'

For more refer to the systems manual page 16.5.1

Do you run Unlimited or locked framerates?

Locked

On equick question - seems as my Saitek Radio Panel doesn't work with the Dsh (SPAD drivers) - works with all deafult planes and also all addons (including the NGX). Maybe this can be adressed in an SP.

 

Thanks for this outstanding piece of art!

 

chris

Goto the ARCDU transponder page via exp and hold the lsk 8 for more then 2 seconds ;-)

Thanks for that Andre. I got there eventually some pointers here.

Guys, I'm sure it's been discussed already, but I can't find it: how to set C & D flight deck after the plane is loaded? Thanks.

 

[EDIT] From an YouTube tutorial video (German) I understand that all switches have to be manually put to off. Maybe Majestic guys to consider loading C&D from the FMS as other add-on planes do. It's very easy and useful.

My problem with is wonderfull airvraft is as follows:

 

If I use the ConfigManager (FSX in the background), and select apply to the aircraft, the aircraft doesn´t react anymore,. No switch is moving, almost freezing situation. Sim is running but nothing to initiate at the aircraft...

 

Best

 

Steffen

My problem with is wonderfull airvraft is as follows:

 

If I use the ConfigManager (FSX in the background), and select apply to the aircraft, the aircraft doesn´t react anymore,. No switch is moving, almost freezing situation. Sim is running but nothing to initiate at the aircraft...

 

Best

 

Steffen

P =)

After changing anything, i have to exit and restart FSX. If i reload the aircraft it will freeze. Not a big problem, but apparently it shouldn't happen.

I know my FSX pauses whenever I apply changes through the Config program. I just switch back to FSX and unpause.

I know my FSX pauses whenever I apply changes through the Config program. I just switch back to FSX and unpause.

Do you have "Pause on task switch" enabled in FSX settings ?

Does anyone have any takeoff/landing analysis charts for the Q400, especially with regards to TODR/ASDR and derates? I thought Majestic would include them due to the typical field lengths of the airports which are served by this aircraft.