Appreciate there is a Majestic  forum, but I am at work on my break and cant remember my password for that, and Avsim is burned into my brain.

 

 

 

I love this plane since purchasing at the Flight Sim show at Cosford ,(even more now I've got it working in Air hauler!) but I am  still a real novice, and most of the time  hand flying it with a bit of help from the Autopilot.

 

 

 

Any way quick question, I keep having problems descending which can be a problem when landing!,  Despite pushing my yoke fully forward it just doesn’t want to descend unless I back the power right off.

 

 

 

I have noticed "pitch hold" lit up on the display and am assuming this is the reason, and that some how tinkering with the autopilot settings has turned this on , but struggling like mad to turn it off, any tips?   I am gradually reading the manual but its a steep learning curve for me!

 

 

 

 

 

Another problem I have , is if I start at night in an airport with the cockpit all dark, I I cannot see the switch to light up the cockpit, my saitek panel switch doesn’t work. is there a keyboard shortcut to turn the lights on?  Shift L / or any combination of L doesn’t seem to work for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A tip I have picked up that may help others, is after exiting a flight mine was always crashing fsx.  Its a sound driver issue, shut the place down to a cold and dark state so no engine or electrical sounds being output, and no more crashes !( well for me anyway)

 

 

 

This plane is in my top 2 now, and Majestic are right up there with their customer support .

 

Thanks all

 

 

 

Steve

 

I keep having problems descending which can be a problem when landing!,  Despite pushing my yoke fully forward it just doesn’t want to descend unless I back the power right off... I have noticed "pitch hold" lit up on the display and am assuming this is the reason, and that some how tinkering with the autopilot settings has turned this on , but struggling like mad to turn it off, any tips?

Pitch hold is the default vertical mode for the flight director/autopilot, to remove it you must select another vertical mode to replace it (such as IAS, VS, ALT, GA or GS). However, pitch hold has no impact on how the aircraft behaves if the autopilot is disengaged (it should be if you're hand flying but you can double check there is no green AP annunciation near the top right of the attitude indicator).

 

You will find that power settings make a big difference to descent rates, because the propwash over the wing generates a significant amount of lift. It is also important the Q400 is well trimmed, particularly during approach (so much so there is an automatic pitch trim input when the flaps move from 15 to 35)

 

You will find that Flap 35 landings require a significant nose down attitude during approach, which is why many operators choose to land at Flap 15 where possible as the Q400 is more forgiving in this configuration. I would recommend you try Flap 15 landings and see if this helps.

Yeah, seems like you are fighting the still engaged autopilot on that descent problem. If it happens again, just check the glareshield buttons or use the key commands from FSX to disable the AP. Or leave it on and command a vertical speed or an airspeed to hold. If you then reduce the power and have a lower altitude target set, she will descend. Make sure to prime the new altitude using the ALT SEL key (a while ALT SEL message will come up) to avoid descending too far though.

 

As for the lights, good point actually. I always managed to see a little bit and sort of recalled where that button is, so after only two hours of searching in the dark cockpit.. Nah, I think you can use the freeware LINDA to assign some panel light features to your hardware. By this, you could use this function for example and map it to a prominent button, maybe even a lit one. ^_^

 

 

Since LINDA supports a lot of planes and just needs a FSUIPC basis, you may benefit some more when it comes to making use of your hardware buttons. Just saying, I love it. :smile:

 

Here's the latest Q400 module. http://forum.avsim.net/topic/406320-majestic-dash-8-q-400/

Thanks all.  regarding the lights Linda looks like it would solve but I dont pick things up as fast as I used to now, so until I can spend some time looking at that  found a quick workaround- Change fsx to day time,  switch the lights on , and then back to night time, cheating I know,  but I'll pretend thats me using a pocket torch  ;-)

Hoping it helps a bit.

 

Well you could also cheat with using a saved panel state. So if you place the Q400 at an airport of your choice and set the panel to have the lights on, then save it, you can reload that situation (lights are on) and just pick another location and time where she will show up as saved. If you have a home base, you could save it there and always reload that flight instead of going through the 'free flight' screen.

 

For as long as defined panel states via the FMC aren't available, that's the way of saving the status as per user preferences. Currently, she always comes up in that default state the devs have set. The own saved flight works around that issue.

 

If you like to fiddle with files, you can also alter the saved flight files with a freeware editor, allowing for changes to certain values. I haven't tried it myself, but I think the P3D folks use a tool of that kind to work around the missing startup screen of theirs. This would allow you to start right where and when you wanted.