11 hours ago, 777200lrf said:

Not only the radios. the anti ice panel is multiple options instead of just on/off. the 5 buttons you have to turn on before takeoff then off after. and for landing it's 4. the change of prop speed. the lack of an auto throttle on top of all this. it is a large workload and everything is in different parts of the cockpit. the vnav descent is not intuitive. I like hand flying as much as possible, and single pilot the workload is a lot. I fly under atc directions from liveatc feeds and I am tired after a single leg. Maybe I need people as co pilots.

Unfortunately for some, you have to a actually fly this aircraft..

Hello all!

So about the Dash.  For those who aren't aware, I've been a senior beta tester for Majestic pretty much from the start (about 7 years ago), I ran one of the test teams for the Dash, and we were the primary shared cockpit test team as well.  We flew the Dash at least 5 times per week (usually three times that, not including short launches into the aircraft for specific item testing).  All of this allowed me to rack up about 6000 hours in the aircraft, with much of that in Shared Cockpit.  The only other aircraft that I come close to flying as much was the Maddog (about 5500 hours), and by now most of you should be aware that experienced flight simmers pretty much agree that the Dash 8 and Maddog are the two best aircraft ever developed for desktop flight simulation. It's difficult (if not impossible) to put one ahead of the other given that that are two entirely different types of aircraft, which is why I'm always careful to say they are the two best aircraft ever developed for us.

The reason I'm mentioning this to you is because I would have thought that with as many hours in the aircraft I would have became bored or ready for something new.  Well, sure, I fly other aircraft especially because I'm beta testing them, but I still love flying the Dash 8.

As I'm sure is true with all of you, some days can wear on me mentally, and when that happens I'll usually select an aircraft that is easy to fly and I don't have to think too much - I basically just want to get up, enjoy the scenery and the flight.  When I'm feeling like that I'll choose the Aerosoft Airbus (the new/upcoming version is presently in late Beta for P3DV4, P3DV3 and FSX and she's terrific!), one of the Boeing aircraft such as the 737NG, 777 or 747.  For me, the Maddog fits between the regional jets and Dash 8 insofar as workload and of course she is always a pleasure to fly as well.

the Dash 8 Q400 is every bit as complex as compared to larger aircraft - ad it needs to be given that the aircraft is used to fly  from large to smaller airfields tucked into challenging terrain, and do so even in challenging weather year round - and  the Dash can handle it!

But if it's been an easy day and I'm looking to be busy on the flight deck then I"ll head straight for the Dash 8. The Dash 8 is obviously a fully digital flight deck and if you ever get a chance to study the avionics (flight management system, communications system, GPWS, etc.) you'll find the Dash 8 Q400 is every bit as complex as compared to larger aircraft - ad it needs to be given that the aircraft is used to fly from large to smaller airfields tucked into challenging terrain, and do so even in challenging weather year round - and the Dash can handle it!

aircraft including an accurately depicted and fully functional Heads Up Display (HUD), Terrain Mapping, Terrain Radar, Anti-Ice systems, etc.  Moreover, the Majestic Dash 8 has visual depictions of ice (windscreen, wipers, wings, propeller hub) and based on temperature and dew point you'll have to manage the fans and temp  control on the flight deck otherwise the flight deck windows will fog up on you - no cheesy effects either, the icing and fog effects are excellent and the fog effect isn't one of those no effect or full effect, it's variable so the windows will fog more and more if you don't take action.

Both on the ground and in flight you'll have to pay attention not only to indicated airspeed but engine management as well. This is all a little more challenging in a desktop flight simulator than a real aircraft because of course we lack the feel of flying the aircraft (before someone else says it, sure, what we see and feel in a real aircraft can be misleading which is why we fly by instruments).  Even with as many sim hours as I have I have to remind myself to pay attention to my indicated airspeed!

"you'll find yourself smack in between amazed and elated  to  fly this truly wonderful example of flight sim excellence"

But here's the point - at first it might seem a bit overwhelming, but once you have made a few flights it will all become second nature and you'll find yourself smack in between amazed and elated to fly this truly wonderful example of flight sim excellence and this is what it should be because the Dash was created to be a high-level study simulator and that's exactly what she is. In fact this goes beyond how the systems function as the Dash 8 Q400 is still the only FSX/P3D aircraft that utilizes an external flight dynamics engine (one only has to look at the aircraft.cfg and AIR file to check for themselves, but to satisfy a few people I actually spoke to with authors of other aircraft that people want to believe use an External FDE and it's simply not true), thus she is the only aircraft in FSX/P3D that handles like a real aircraft (especially with the rudder at slow/approach speeds). Without going into too much detail (none really), the FDE for ESP (FSX/P3D) is nice, but if we were to compare it to the FDE used for the Majestic Dash 8 Q400 we could say that the NASA created FDE being at 100% then the ESP FDE would be at about 20% or less. But this isn't an article on ESP/NASA Flight Dynamics (that would be a 16 week course at a minimum) so we'll leave it there.

The Dash 8 Q400 Professional version has Shared Cockpit, and there is no better way to learn the aircraft than by jumping in with an experienced pilot - plus Shared Cockpit is a tremendous amount of fun!

Cruising YouTube I've seen many excellent videos on flying the Dash, and my friend Ben Weston at Airline2Sim has done a terrific job on the Dash 8 videos that he and Josh created.  Give them a look!

My best wishes toi everyone - 2018 is going to be an amazing year for flight sim!

 

On 1/11/2018 at 9:27 AM, Bobsk8 said:

Unfortunately for some, you have to a actually fly this aircraft..

Going around to different panels pressing buttons for different phases of flight is not flying the aircraft. And it is not realistic since it is not a single pilot airplane.

Majestic Q400 Pro Edition (you can do pilot edition first), Pro gets HUD and few other neat toys (you can upgrade to it anytime...just make sure you buy it from the same seller where you buy Pilot edition).  Absolutely Fantastic Aircraft

37 minutes ago, 777200lrf said:

Going around to different panels pressing buttons for different phases of flight is not flying the aircraft. And it is not realistic since it is not a single pilot airplane.

how  else is  one  to  change  things  in the cockpit,   besides  most aircraft  require  2  pilots. why  not  stick with ga  aircraft  than  if  you  find  it  not  realistic,  or  you  can get  fs2crew  or  mce    for  your  second  pilot

On 10/01/2018 at 10:36 PM, DaveCT2003 said:

 

I've uploaded the Dash 8 Flight Plan video to my Dropbox.  You can download it HERE.

Best wishes.

 

Thank you ! very well done ! I think I will buy the pilot edition and upgrade to the pro edition when it goes on sale!

1 hour ago, pete_auau said:

how  else is  one  to  change  things  in the cockpit,   besides  most aircraft  require  2  pilots. why  not  stick with ga  aircraft  than  if  you  find  it  not  realistic,  or  you  can get  fs2crew  or  mce    for  your  second  pilot

It is not about realism, it is about workload and the horrible design Bombardier did of the airplane.

30 minutes ago, 777200lrf said:

It is not about realism, it is about workload and the horrible design Bombardier did of the airplane.

You admitted IMO?

44 minutes ago, Adrian123 said:

You admitted IMO?

what?

2 hours ago, 777200lrf said:

It is not about realism, it is about workload and the horrible design Bombardier did of the airplane.

So  give  them  an  email  and  say  you  can  design it  better

54 minutes ago, pete_auau said:

So  give  them  an  email  and  say  you  can  design it  better

I bet they understand, the layout of the C-series they changed everything

I'm not sure exactly who was complaining about the Dash 8 FLIGHT DECK (can we please get away from using the term "cockpit" with airliners?  Please?), but it is this way because the Dash 8 flight deck is very small compared to regional turbojets and they needed to put in all of the ssame system types because of where the aircraft is flown.

Bottom line though is that you don't like it then of course the solution would be not to fly it. For my part, I absolutely love it!

Best wishes.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, DaveCT2003 said:

I'm not sure exactly who was complaining about the Dash 8 FLIGHT DECK (can we please get away from using the term "cockpit" with airliners?  Please?), but it is this way because the Dash 8 flight deck is very small compared to regional turbojets and they needed to put in all of the ssame system types because of where the aircraft is flown.

Bottom line though is that you don't like it then of course the solution would be not to fly it. For my part, I absolutely love it!

Best wishes.

 

 

 

I gave my opinion that the workload of single pilot operations in the Q400 is large and might get tiring flying this as I did after some months, just an opinion I have. I did not say others should not fly it. I have never heard someone not liking cockpit it has been used for decades.

The only thing I regret is the fact that even the Majestic dash 8 pro version (one of the best aircraft simulations ever) has just one engine simulated. The second engine is just a perfect copy of the first one. Kills the immersion quite a bit. 

Jos

4 hours ago, beep747 said:

The only thing I regret is the fact that even the Majestic dash 8 pro version (one of the best aircraft simulations ever) has just one engine simulated. The second engine is just a perfect copy of the first one. Kills the immersion quite a bit. 

Jos

Never heard that before could you enlighten us on that please.