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vc10man

Importing FPLs into Dash-8

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Is there any way to import a flight plan into the Majestic Q8-400 Dash?

I asked in their Forum and got a reply that I have to more or less suit there, spend more than half an hour just inputting every waypoint into the FPL on the FMS, never mind time spent on the other FMS parameters required. . What? What a bind. Every other developer makes it easy to impost flight plans, e.g. from PFPX, Rout Finder, etc.

So, any tips,hints, guides how the Q8-400 owners do it?

Thanks.

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You can import flight plans to the Dash 8 by using SimBrief.com.  Either directly from the website or their handy tool.

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You ace, Robert.

Thank you. Fastest response and on-the-mark too compared to vague 'input-it-like-real-Dash-8-pilots-do-manually-in-the-FMS' from the 'other's Forum, considering how many waypoints there are on a short 690m flight from LOWI to EGCC.

One more question, Robert. How is that SimBrief flightplan then imported into the Dash-8's FMS? Thanks.

EDIT: Ignore question. Sorted it myself.

Edited by vc10man
SOLVED:

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One further question, Robert, if you can assist, please.

How does one get the nose-wheel to make turns more than the slight deviation, despite me selecting Aileron Axis, and making sure that the Steering switch is on?

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Dear Rick,

On a slightly different note. You have been a very active member of the AVSIM community (much more than I have ever been or will be), and I couldn't help but notice that many of your more recent posts carry substantial negative sentiment (e.g. your numerous posts on the simmarket fiasco). I was also following your original post in the majestic forum and while I agree that the devs' response was sub-optimal (to say the least), I think that some positivity and taking things easier will make this whole community a more pleasant environment. This will most likely also get you faster and better support in many cases. Again, just a remark. Thanks for posting the question as it helped me as well figure out how to use simbrief to ex/import flight plans  for the Dash.

Best,

Alejandro

Edited by chironale
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6 hours ago, vc10man said:

spend more than half an hour just inputting every waypoint into the FPL on the FMS

I presume this is an exaggeration as feeding a route into the Q400 is frankly quite easy. A few mouse clicks and you're there.

Type in the departure airport (SID, if you're using/been assigned one). From there on it's a simple case of clicking on 'List', then 'Airways' and selecting the appropriate airway/endpoint until you're ready to type in your destination field. Even if you push the endurance of the aircraft to its maximum, you can still finish inputting the entire route in under 5 minutes.

Surely you haven't been typing each and every waypoint (without considering you could feed in airways) and that's why it's taking you so long?

Similarly, if you go through the product manual, you'll see that the Majestic Q400 simulates the tiller axis separately from the rudder axis so you'd have to use the tiller controls on the captain's side to turn the airplane on the ground (assuming you've already flipped the switch for nosewheel steering correctly after pushback). FSUIPC could assist you in assigning the tiller to a function on your hardware or if you only have access to a single rotating axis (used for rudder usually), you could edit the 'mjc84.ini' file found in 'Prepar3D v4\SimObjects\Airplanes\mjc8q400\ini' folder.

The variable you're looking for is 'PEDALS_STEERING_EFFECTIVENESS='. Adjusting that to anywhere between 4 and 6 will allow you to control the steering on the ground with relative ease. Do keep in mind that you need to have the 'STEERING CONTROL MODE' found in the MJC8 Q400 Control Panel app set to 'Ailerons+Mouse'.

From there on, the rudder axis on your joystick will control ground steering as well and if you're still running short of control authority, you could use the aileron axis on your joystick to get a pronounced response from the nosewheel.

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9 hours ago, vc10man said:

You ace, Robert.

Thank you. Fastest response and on-the-mark too compared to vague 'input-it-like-real-Dash-8-pilots-do-manually-in-the-FMS' from the 'other's Forum, considering how many waypoints there are on a short 690m flight from LOWI to EGCC.

One more question, Robert. How is that SimBrief flightplan then imported into the Dash-8's FMS? Thanks.

EDIT: Ignore question. Sorted it myself.

Thank you Rick.

If you notice when you download, install and open the SimBrief Downloader, that if you look at the far right side of the line for "Majestic Dash8 Q400", it will show a tooltip showing just where to place your flight plan files. Each aircraft will show instructions on the far right of exactly what to do using that tooltip.

Your new flight plan will not be available until you hit "Generate OFP"

When you set up the file and download the flightplan to the proper folder, go to the FLTPLN button on the Dash8 FMC and click on it, then at the right side you will see an option to load existing flight plans.  When you push that button you will go to a page with all of your saved flight plans.

I believe that those who say that the only realistic way of setting up a flight plan is to punch each waypoint in manually are wrong.  Real line pilots just upload their flight plans from the company ACARS system.

It's definitely good to know how to build a flight plan manually in the FMS, but it's not realistic to do it that way every time.

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Thanks to you, krazyk, and Robert for both your very informative responses.

Once I nail that tiller steering via that Spoiler Axis---and I am led to believe, since the advent of P3Dv4, this has changed as compared to previous FSX fixes---I will be on the road to nirvana.

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Hi krazyk

Spot-on. Your fix did it. At long last I got the nose-wheel to steer where I wanted.

Thanks.

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On 11/30/2018 at 4:06 PM, vc10man said:

Is there any way to import a flight plan into the Majestic Q8-400 Dash?

 

Since some years I use the old version 1.1.13.1 of FPRConverter by Bern Laass and it works fine so I never bothered to search for an update.

 


Jürgen Martens, DK7HN

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1 hour ago, Yogipriester said:

Since some years I use the old version 1.1.13.1 of FPRConverter by Bern Laass and it works fine so I never bothered to search for an update.

 

That was the first thing I looked at. Did not work for me as it could not find a flight plan in *.txt format to convert

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At last, beginning to enjoy short flights, but still haven't got the hang of sending W+B to the sim as it just goes into a Pause mode and un-Pausng there is no CP data regarding W+B showing up in the FMS.

Any help, Robert or krazyk?

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4 hours ago, vc10man said:

That was the first thing I looked at. Did not work for me as it could not find a flight plan in *.txt format to convert

I just copy and paste the result of my flightplan searches or from my FSC into the FPRConverter and then convert it. It works fine.


Jürgen Martens, DK7HN

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Had FSC 9.2 for FSX, but as I long ditched FSX, a decrepit 32-bit system in today's 64-bit P3D, and it has not been updated, not much use in FPConverter

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11 hours ago, vc10man said:

, not much use in FPConverter

Sorry but I disagree. Just copy and paste the FSC flightplan displayed in the FP-window into the FPRConverter and then convert. Thats it.


Jürgen Martens, DK7HN

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