I find the cockpit texture quality not up there with the PMDG 777 or NG, and as I fly the later most of the time (777), the Q400 doesn't provide the immersion I'm accustomed to. That's about all I can fault it with.

. Any plane flying like that would have been banned by aviation authorities long since.

I have flown small planes in real world and A320 and MD-80 in official airline simulator and all have one thing in common; they basically fly by themselves if you let go.

That's accurate, they call it the Crash 8 for a reason! She needs a lot of rudder input to counteract prop wash and you have to relearn how to land because changes in power vary lift a lot.

Even taking into account the fact that this plane is a "thin-wing" and therefore landing pitch has to be controlled  with engine power contrary to  many other planes (see first thread of this forum), this  aircraft is VERY difficult to hand-fly and especially to land, because it feels very unstable. Not having flown a real one, I can't say whether this is realistic or not, but I doubt it. The fact that there is no operations manual does not help either, and is unacceptable for an aircraft of this complexity.

 

Henri

have you checked in the documentation section there a system doc that's 129 pages long with all ther description on how it works

I find the cockpit texture quality not up there with the PMDG 777 or NG, and as I fly the later most of the time (777), the Q400 doesn't provide the immersion I'm accustomed to. That's about all I can fault it with.

 

 

Very mysterious. The cockpit textures are superb for me. And I own the NGX and 777. I prefer them to the NGX.

First flight put behind.

 

I´m quite puzzled. I expected interesting FDE, but it was plain horrible. Any plane flying like that would have been banned by aviation authorities long since.

I have flown small planes in real world and A320 and MD-80 in official airline simulator and all have one thing in common; they basically fly by themselves if you let go. This was like a Wright Flyer to be polite.

 

So, I guess I don´t understand what this is all about.

 

Switch off Prop wash in the ini file, you will like it much better then. The Dash in real life has a less than effective yaw damper, not a problem so much if you use a yoke and rudder pedal's, but for those of us with a joystick it's a nuisance.

 

In real life, Dash pilots have to adjust rudder trim frequently.

 

If you aren't sure how to find the ini file let us know.

 

 

Even taking into account the fact that this plane is a "thin-wing" and therefore landing pitch has to be controlled  with engine power contrary to  many other planes (see first thread of this forum), this  aircraft is VERY difficult to hand-fly and especially to land, because it feels very unstable. Not having flown a real one, I can't say whether this is realistic or not, but I doubt it. The fact that there is no operations manual does not help either, and is unacceptable for an aircraft of this complexity.

 

Henri

Landing the Dash is easy. One of the easiest out there to land in the sim.

 

The trick though is to KEEP POWER ON, or nudge it back just a tad. Do not reduce power in the flare prior to landing.

 

This is how they land the Dash in the real world. If you bring the power levers back to idle, the huge amount of drag from those massive prop discs will make you sink like a stone.

I myself am a B737 fan from the beginning, especially when the Ngx came out. But what the guys at Majestic created is just a Wonder In the FSX world. Finally there is a plane that doesn't feel like flying on rails like all the other planes in the FSX world. It looks amazing and the sounds are bang on. The plane is much less automated then all the other airliners witch makes it much less boring to fly. I just can't get enough of this amazing experience and I can't wait for the pro version witch will make it even more complex then any aircraft PMDG has ever created. This with shared cockpit feature and HGS system. Don't get me wrong here, I love the work of PMDG, they are one of the best out there but what Majestic did is make something as good and in the future even better then PMDG. And the best thing, you loose not more hen 2 frames per second extra then most of the default planes! Keep the great work coming Majestic!

 

 

Kind regards,

Jorik

this  aircraft is VERY difficult to hand-fly and especially to land, because it feels very unstable.

 

Not really, once you learn the proper technique it's not that hard.

 

Planes aren't meant to "fly by rails" anyway like too many FSX aircraft tend to do, in real life you can usually see more corrections and control input during landing than you need to do in FSX.

 

 

I´m quite puzzled. I expected interesting FDE, but it was plain horrible. Any plane flying like that would have been banned by aviation authorities long since.

 

 

 

Nah, the FDE is just realistic. Dash 8 isn't your average plane, it's a turboprop that cruises with speeds almost as high as jetliners do, way faster than ATR's do. Obviously it's not going to behave like your average plane.

Pete, the manual you mention is the system manual, it says what the systems do, but does not say much about how to use them, especially in combination like landing by hand. There is no operations manual. The real Q400 has one, but it is not available on the web, and Bombardier has not allowed Majestic to copy it or parts of it for distribution.

 

Henri

but does not say much about how to use them, especially in combination like landing by hand.

As I said, switch off Prop Wash in the ini file, and make sure you do not reduce power during the flare.

 

You will find it's a delight if you do the above.

On my first flight this weekend, I found it a pleasure to control manually. And it looks so good ...

And speed means more stability as the aerodynamical forces increase. If you have to work to control a modern aircraft something is wrong. Flying in rails is actually what the designers try to achieve. Only aircraft that are designed to be unstable are fighters and aerobatic planes, and even the fighters have fly-by-wire that gives the pilot an artificial feel of a stable aircraft.

 

Closest aircraft I can compare the Dash in sim world is the Flight1's ATR72 which felt to me a lot more plausible than this.

 

Well, I continue test flights. Otherwise the good reputation as a sim addon seems to be well earned.

Did you do what I said and switch off prop wash???

 

I guarantee you will feel much better about it.

 

All the instability you complain about will be gone.

 

As for desighners aiming for flying on rails, that may be so, but its actually an impossibility as we are flying through an unstable medium.

Yes I turned off prop wash, and the Q400 is still a bit unstable. By unstable I mean that I have to continually make smallcorrections to roll and yaw, and I find it difficult to keep lined up. I know that airliners don't go on rails, but I have watched many movies of real aircraft landing and they don't move around as above when there is no wind.

 

After many hours of practicing landings in the Q400, I have seen that the main problem seems to be that pitch is controlled by the engines as previously discussed, but because this is a turboprop, there is a lag between the throttle command and the engine response, which requires a measure of "advance" planning to avoid an unstable feedback loop with increasing oscillations. I am a bit surprised that the plane was designed this way, but maybe it was a tradeoff for performance at high speeds.

 

Henri

Very mysterious. The cockpit textures are superb for me. And I own the NGX and 777. I prefer them to the NGX.

 

 

Switch off Prop wash in the ini file, you will like it much better then. The Dash in real life has a less than effective yaw damper, not a problem so much if you use a yoke and rudder pedal's, but for those of us with a joystick it's a nuisance.

 

In real life, Dash pilots have to adjust rudder trim frequently.

 

If you aren't sure how to find the ini file let us know.

 

 

 

Landing the Dash is easy. One of the easiest out there to land in the sim.

 

The trick though is to KEEP POWER ON, or nudge it back just a tad. Do not reduce power in the flare prior to landing.

 

This is how they land the Dash in the real world. If you bring the power levers back to idle, the huge amount of drag from those massive prop discs will make you sink like a stone.

 

Thanks, I'll look into why my textures look so subpar. I find PMDG textures are photos adapted to the virtual cockpit whereas what I'm seeing with the Q400 is something not sourced from a photo, it has totally removed the immersion.

I guess it's down to taste. But for me, I love the dash VC, it's sharper, cleaner than PMDG.

 

You haven't switched off high quality VC in FSX settings have you, in order to increase NGX frame rate? If so, not required with the Dash, as the frame rate is very high.

 

To be honest, this is the first time I've heard someone say they dislike the VC.

For those who dislike the prop wash effect, and complain about instability.

 

Just go to FSX, Simobjects  Airplanes  mjc8q400  ini ...

 

 

Look for YAW_DUE_TO PROPWASH = 1.0

 

Change it to 0.0 and save.

 

It could well be that majestic have overdone the prop wash a tad, who knows, only a real world dash pilot can tell you, but for those of us not happy, the above will fix the issue.