fsx-ms VIRTUALCOL - DASH 8 SERIES X FSX P3D ?

[Aharon 606]

Shalom and greetings all my pals,

Is payware VIRTUALCOL - DASH 8 SERIES X FSX P3D for 20 bucks really good or crappy?? I am interested in beautiful exterior appearances of the plane for sake of beauty of screenshots!!!

I do not mind unimpressive cockpit panel as long as it flies REALISTIC and has GREAT exterior appearance.

Why am I showing interest in VIRTUALCOL - DASH 8 SERIES X FSX P3D? Because I cannot find AMAZING HIGH QUALITY freeware Q100s and Q200s in Caribbean themed liveries and in Alaskan themed liveries.

Thanks,

Aharon

[airernie 263]

I recently bought it and have been enjoying it on several shorter flights. 

 

I would guess that it's not Majestic quality, and it was designed to be fps friendly, so the exteriors, while nice are Carenado quality.

 

As for flying realistic, I can't say.  However, it flies fairly easily so I'm guessing that it's a step up from FSX default, but not A2A accurate.

 

One thing I especially like is that it has tons of repaints.

 

BTW, it does have some strange quirks.  For instance, start with too much throttle and it will dance around like a trick pony.  With a little practice you can overcome the issue.

 

I wasn't looking for a $50 aircraft when I purchased it and have not felt cheated for having spent $20.   My understanding is that it sometimes goes on sale, so you can always wait to try to get it for less.

[mdata 46]

Hi

 

I would agree to Ernie. Get it during a sale. While the exterior is nice everything else is average whilst still very usable in P3D (and FSX of course).

 

Cheers

Frank

[Gartro 18]

As I have commented elsewhere, it is a pity that the quality of the internals of Virtualcol aircraft products don't appear to match that of the externals.

 

Virtualcol products have in the past four weeks or so been selling at significant price reductions at various retails outlets.

 

Have a look at Flight Sim Store in Australia and see if you can work out whether it a "special" there. The banner on the home page says that all Virtualcol products are 45% off but those products are not listed in the Specials list and their price of AUD $28.90 for this Dash seems to me to be the usual price.

 

Gary

[airernie 263]

I would guess that it's not Majestic quality, and it was designed to be fps friendly, so the exteriors, while nice are Carenado quality.

 

Sorry.. missed the 'not' in there.  It should have read "while nice, so the exteriors, while nice are not Carenado quality".

 

However, the are more than sufficient quality for me.

[scianoir 610]

I would agree - the Virtual Col Dash 8 series is very good value for money particularly considering you get a number of models and loads of different colour schemes (if that interests you!). The external models are good and accurate in terms of shape but lack the fine detail of products from developers like Carenado, Real Air, PMDG or Majestic although they are still very nice. Internally, Virtual Col have improved the appearance of their VCs with each new product and the Dash 8 isn't bad although has not quite got the 'almost real' appearance that you get with some products. The VC however is functional and, although I have not tested the FMS, you can experience a reasonably immersive flight in it. 

 

I already have the Majestic Dash 8-400 which is amazing (appearance inside and outside, sounds, flight dynamics and systems modelling) and I fly it a lot but I bought the Virtual Col product to have the 100 and 300 series models in my hanger. I have not been disappointed in them and I think you will enjoy flying the Virtual Col version, providing you are not an in depth systems fanatic!

 

Bill

[Aharon 606]

Thanks all for kind explanations.  Like I said, I do not mind unimpressive cockpit panel as long as it flies REALISTIC and has GREAT exterior appearance.

 

However, I heard from some people that it has bad exterior appearance which can affect quality of beauty of screenshots that I like to take and publish. 

 

I am going to give a try to freeware Dreamwings Dash -100/-200 series plane to see if it looks good.

 

All I want is Dash 100/200 in Era (Ravn) livery, Tobago Express livery, and Air Jamaica Express livery. 

 

Regards,

 

Aharon

[scianoir 610]

 

 

However, I heard from some people that it has bad exterior appearance which can affect quality of beauty of screenshots that I like to take and publish. 

 

Oh I would disagree and there is no way I would describe the exterior appearance as bad! Far from it, I think the exterior appearance is very good but, as I said in my previous post, lacks the very fine detail that would make me describe it as excellent.

 

Bill

[Aharon 606]

Scianoir,

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Okay here is the story. I decided to try freeware Dreamwings Dash Q100/Q200 series and it is EXCELLENT. However unfortunately, there is no high quality and extremely crisp sharp airline font Tobago Express livery, Air Jamaica Express livery, and RAVN (Era) liveries. Know anybody who can paint excellent quality liveries with ultra sharp airline fonts for freeware Dreamwings Dash Q100/Q200 series?

[airernie 263]

The VC however is functional and, although I have not tested the FMS, you can experience a reasonably immersive flight in it. 

 

Bill

 

Sadly, the FMC seems to be little more than a front end for the GPS.  Fortunately, the GPS is included because I find myself using it almost exclusively.

 

It would have been nice had Virtualcol included the ability access Navigraph data, so that current intersections, etc. could be inserted as waypoints, but that's not the case. 

 

It is not an aircraft that you want to be asked by a VATSIM controller to make an approach change for. 

 

Ernie

[VSP4264 5]

Sadly VCOL unhave a AIRAC database, and sadly unhave a good paintkit (low resolution and no layered). Also all planes have the "elevator lock" fault.