Gear Pins (Q400)!!

[ryanbatc]

I'm embarking on my first online flight in the majestic q400, and the gear pins haven't been an issue yet.  To my surprise the gear won't raise on departure.  Screw it.. we're making the flight anyway GRRRRRR

Since I'm such a newb can someone confirm its in the services page and I can only remove them on the ground?

[BobP]

Yes. Under Services ground operation only. 

Bob

[ryanbatc]

Alright... for some reason I've been able to fly all my offline flights without any issue (in fact I think the pins were installed during those test flights).  But the gear would raise anyway.  Now suddenly I login to PE and the pins are function lol

[jason99vmi]

Funny i just did the same thing.  Usually when i load in C&D the pins are already pulled.  You can do it through services or click the bag behind the F/O seat.  Will show the tags hanging out when they are pulled.  Also you usually have to have the main cabin door open in order to pull them

I circled and landed.  pulled the throttles back to idle.  threw on parking brake and opened cabin door.  I pulled them luckily didn't have to shut down completely.   Unfortunately when i took off again.  I forgot the ACARS showed i landed and stopped recording.  Ugh if its not one thing its another.  

[ryanbatc]

Thanks for sharing hehe.  This was my first online flight and this bird is incredible.  I had been eyeing this addon for years!  Finally got it on sale.

I know there are checklists etc but can someone give me a quick post landing and shutdown overview?

What I do is land, upon slowing down I enable NWS, turn off runway, turn off approach lights etc, and then start the apu on taxi.  I taxi to parking spot or gate, set brake, and get the external gpu, turn that on, and turn off apu.  Then I turn off unneeded lighting.  For engine shutdown do I just pull the condition levers to shutoff because that's what I've been doing hehe.  Once that happens I let the itt drop cool off etc.  Then I turn everything off with the batter switches last right to left.  Sound ok or am I missing anything critical?

[DaveCT2003]

For the record, I argued against the gear pins during development, but lost that one.  I don't enjoy having them there either, but I do check for them on every flight (only takes once or twice for the checklist to sync in!  LOL).

 

Best wishes.

 

[warbirds]

I just use the MCE flows and procedures and the copilot does that all for me. 

[Boeing or not going]

engines just have to be off to remove, you could try that in flight :D

[ryanbatc]

11 minutes ago, 777200lrf said:

engines just have to be off to remove, you could try that in flight :D

Did you see my post in the unofficial q400 forum?  For some reason the load config app loaded 1.5 % ish fuel per engine.  I departed and lost both engines... (hey autofeather worked!!)  I "landed" on a road and maybe survived.

[Porthos]

37 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

Thanks for sharing hehe.  This was my first online flight and this bird is incredible.  I had been eyeing this addon for years!  Finally got it on sale.

I know there are checklists etc but can someone give me a quick post landing and shutdown overview?

What I do is land, upon slowing down I enable NWS, turn off runway, turn off approach lights etc, and then start the apu on taxi.  I taxi to parking spot or gate, set brake, and get the external gpu, turn that on, and turn off apu.  Then I turn off unneeded lighting.  For engine shutdown do I just pull the condition levers to shutoff because that's what I've been doing hehe.  Once that happens I let the itt drop cool off etc.  Then I turn everything off with the batter switches last right to left.  Sound ok or am I missing anything critical?

Hi Ryan. Great choice - great bird!. I flew it in FSX and P3D then had to wait for the P3d v4 version and I am once again a happy camper!

Re checklists:

print out the ones in the docs directory - they work very well and cover all essential items.eg

NWS is switched on after start and left on until shut down. Its a bit late turning it on once you have touched down.

Engines shutdown: the condition levers need to come to start feather for at least 30secs before fuel shutoff.

This is why I would suggest you print the Majestic checklists and use them.

Hope this helps

[ryanbatc]

Thanks Rob... yeah checklists help 

Makes sense on the NWS...  I was thinking... how do I steer on rollout?  Does anyone have nice formatted checklists I could put in a small plastic checklist binder?  They are basically the same as the real world little plastic three ring sheets.

[snapshot21]

If I recall correctly, they modelled the gear pins such that it is installed when you start the flight with sim time in early morning or thereabouts. Apparently it is to simulate that this is the first flight of the day so the gear pins are installed. Notice that if you load with sim time set to middle or later on in the day, the gear pins are not installed.
It is the small and obsessive attention to detail like this that makes the majestic dash 8 a great plane

[aeronauta]

If you start your flight with the cold and dark , you can edit the ccColdAndDark.mgs script to remove the pins if they are there ,make a backup copy of the ccColdAndDark.mgs  (in folder \Q400\SimObjects\Airplanes\mjc8q400\scriptLib) and place this after the ;Center Pedestal entries ...

;Flight Controls

           GOTO PINS_ON #FlightControls_->gearPinsInstalled  ==  1     ;if pins installed > remove them
PINS_ON     COPY #FlightControls_->gearPinsInstalled    0   

 save and start the Q400 in cold and Dark .

 

Jorge

[HUSSAR]

2 hours ago, jason99vmi said:

Funny i just did the same thing.  Usually when i load in C&D the pins are already pulled.  You can do it through services or click the bag behind the F/O seat.  Will show the tags hanging out when they are pulled.  Also you usually have to have the main cabin door open in order to pull them

I circled and landed.  pulled the throttles back to idle.  threw on parking brake and opened cabin door.  I pulled them luckily didn't have to shut down completely.   Unfortunately when i took off again.  I forgot the ACARS showed i landed and stopped recording.  Ugh if its not one thing its another.  

RW pilots have it so easy. ;)

 

[Ebs]

I totally feel your pain on this one Ryan! 

I'm also not a fan of having to manually remove the gear pins. From what I've read, the pilots remove them even before getting on board so basically with the cold and dark start starting with the doors closed, we're simulating two of the most forgetful pilots ever! :D 

Although, if what @snapshot21 says is true then I can really appreciate that attention to detail. I simply thought the gear pins are straight up random as to whether they're stowed or not.

The only other thing that annoys me a little is not being able to simply enter a ZFW in the load manager, I'm not a fan of having to work out which passengers go where. I've had to work around it by having a fixed payload in the load manager and simply adding the ZFW to PFPX when planning a flight. 

Apart from these two things, I love the Q400. Flying it more than anything else right now.