Hi all,

I just bought the Dash 8 and am trying to do the tutorial flight (The Delivery Tutorial one).

It is very detailled, but also a bit vague once in a while.

I haven't read all the procedure manuals, so it may just be a question of RTFM

 

 

I just failed my first flight here, as I crashed into the ground shortly before Newark. Problem was that I it did not capture the approach, and then I took it out of autopilot to do that myself. The second I took it out of AP mode it just put its nose towards the ground and fell. It did not feel realistic at all, 1 sec the nose pointed at the horizon, the next it pointed at the ground... Anyone know what happened here?

 

Anyway, here are a few questions about the tutorial:

 

- I must have forgotten a step when taking off as the warning panel displayed 2 antiskid warnings (forgot the exact names). What step is it I missed?

 

- On page 49, the tutorial tells to enter 7000 at CRANK into the flight plan "much like we did with the descent into HNK"...

  I assume that mean setting 7000 as altitude in FPL, but does it also mean doing the VNAV step where one sets the TO field, awaits TOD etc etc?

 

 - On page 53, the tutorial asks me to descend and main 3000 ft 10 miles prior to TEB by doing the VNAV step.

 It says that "the middle field opens up (hightlighted white in the ppic to the right) type "-10"."

 However, the middle field does not open up, so I cannot enter the -10. Any ideas what I am doing wrong here?

 

-  On page 54, it says "Switch our NAV SOURCE to blue needles"... I assume this means switching to NAV1 mode?

 

- Then right after it says "Arm the APPR mode". Is this done by pressing the APPR button on the glareshield, or by choosing ARM on the NAV page of the FMS? 

 

- In my case the plane never turned towards the runway, What did I miss? (Nav frequency was set).

 

Hope someone can help with these questions, I am used to 737 and Airbus, and this is much different

 

Helge

 

You can get the full FMS manual from here: http://www.igs.net/~kiddbatt/DOCS/unsbs/FMS_Operators_manual.pdf

 

 

- I must have forgotten a step when taking off as the warning panel displayed 2 antiskid warnings (forgot the exact names). What step is it I missed?

The antiskid switch is located on the front of the glareshield panel, on the F/O side.

 

 

 

- On page 49, the tutorial tells to enter 7000 at CRANK into the flight plan "much like we did with the descent into HNK"...

  I assume that mean setting 7000 as altitude in FPL, but does it also mean doing the VNAV step where one sets the TO field, awaits TOD etc etc?

You enter this on the VNAV page. The vertical profile must be separately configured.

 

 

 

- On page 53, the tutorial asks me to descend and main 3000 ft 10 miles prior to TEB by doing the VNAV step.

 It says that "the middle field opens up (hightlighted white in the ppic to the right) type "-10"."

 However, the middle field does not open up, so I cannot enter the -10. Any ideas what I am doing wrong here?

You must select this waypoint on the VNAV page, then as you press enter, the cursor will move across the field located in the center of the page (initially ---). Entert 10 here; it will automatically be MINUS.

 

 

 

-  On page 54, it says "Switch our NAV SOURCE to blue needles"... I assume this means switching to NAV1 mode?

Yes. The nav sources are color coded. Magneta = FMS, Blue = VOR1, GREEN = VOR2, WHITE = ADF, YELLOW = both nav source selectors set to the SAME source (Captain side should generally be set to FMS1/NAV1, and the F/O side should generally be set to FMS2/NAV2).

 

 

 

- Then right after it says "Arm the APPR mode". Is this done by pressing the APPR button on the glareshield, or by choosing ARM on the NAV page of the FMS?

APPR on the glareshield. It is APPROACH mode of the autopilot, so it can intercept the ILS automatically if AP is engaged, or allow the FD bars to provide steering cues if hand flying.

 

 

 

- In my case the plane never turned towards the runway, What did I miss? (Nav frequency was set).

You didn't press APPR to arm the LOC/GS modes.

 

 

 

The second I took it out of AP mode it just put its nose towards the ground and fell. It did not feel realistic at all, 1 sec the nose pointed at the horizon, the next it pointed at the ground... Anyone know what happened here?

Check your controls and trim. It's possible that they were, for some reason, commanding a hard nose down when you disengaged the AP.

 

Best regards,

Robin.

Thanks for the answers.

You are probably right that it was the trim that was way off when I took over manually. Guess I will have to keep an eye on how the trim is.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but how the trim can be in the wrong position?

 

I mean it's supposed to be set in the correct position by the AP and once you disengage 'him' it stays there.  How can the hardware affect this if you don't move it?

 

I find it more probable that the yoke or joystick was somehow set in the wrong position and commanded the steep dive.

If you fly faster at constant altitude under autopilot control, then the autopilot trims down to hold the altitude. Conversely, if I fly slow, then the autopilot will trim up to hold the altitude. 

 

At least that is what I think happened. I have seen the trim being moved by the autopilot to way outside the white area.

It could be a rare oddity that the trim snaps from a trimmed condition to something else at AP disconnect. I had it once early on in testing but couldn't replicate, and not seen it since.

 

If you see it often however, I'd look at your flight controls. Maybe they are sending inputs so when the AP disconnects, it reacts to it.

 

Best regards,

Robin.