Hand-landing the Q400

[henri5 16]

How exactly is one supposed to hand-land the Q400. Here is the situation - I am using FS Instant Approach to practice landing. This is a nice program that allows one to practice landings.

 

I can easily land using the autopilot. As a matter of fact, despite that the Q400 does not have autoland, I can autoland it with the autopilot, except that at CYQB ir tends to hit the ground just before the start of the runway (possibly die to the fact that the runway altitude is at 250 feet and I have not programmed ANYTHING into the FMC except that the starting and ending airports are at CYQB. Of course I can easily  hand-land it by turning off the autopilot just before landing as is the normal way.

 

Anyway, but if I do the whole  landing by hand, I find that I have to press the joystick very strongly forward to follow the glideslope, otherwise I am too high and will tend to overfly the runway or have to pitch  steeply  to compensate with the attendant problems (and I speak not of flight attendants...).

 

So what am I doing wrong? Should I use the pitch wheel to control descent rate when landing by hand? Or what? I am sure that I am missing something...

 

Henri

[ckyliu 1,749]

Excessive nose down attitude during approach would suggest you are flying too fast for your configuration. Also, make sure the aircraft is well trimmed and remember most operators land using Flaps 15, because Flaps 35 necessitates a nose down approach pitch that passengers find uncomfortable.

[bjratchf 80]

ha! I learned to love Flaps 35 landings in Q400 as they meant I didn't have to rush off the runway after I missed the first high speed!

[ckyliu 1,749]

I should add that if landing Flaps 15, do not cut power during the flare as this causes rapid decay of airspeed and subsequent heavy touchdown, because of a reduction in propeller wash over the wing.

 

They don't call it the Crash 8 for nothing!

[henri5 16]

Well-trimmed? There is no trim wheel, so how do I trim the elevators?

[crosswind 825]

Henri,

 

You are correct, there isn't a trim wheel as in the DAsh 8 100/200/300 series...however, the electric trim is located on the yoke, which you can assign via FSX's button or keyboard assignments.  The same applies for the rudder and aileron trim

[hopskip 253]

I havn't used the 3d cockpit/mouse wheel to adjust trim on any aircraft in FSX ever. It's something you should be adjusting constantly.

Have you reduced speed by 5 knots? trim!

have you started descending? Trim!

Have you levelled off? Trim!

Have you deployed flap? Trim!
Gear down? Trim!

Doing a 180 degree turn at 30 degree bank? Trim!

Are you pulling back or pushing forward on the yoke? Trim!

 

The default keys for trim are numpad 1 and 7.

I Assign these to buttons on my yoke/stick. The 2 buttons closest to your thumb. One assigned to numpad 1, the other to numpad 7. Press them lots (in short bursts).

 

I hadn't assigned Rudder trim buttons to my stick till I got this Q400 though. This thing really needs lots of rudder trim action!